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THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.

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THE

Sabbaths of Our Lord

BY THE
Rt. Rev. WILLIAM BACON STEVENS, D.D., LL,D.
Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA
J. M. ST/ODDAR.T & CO.
733 SANSOM STREET
1873

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
WILLIAM BACON STEVENS,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at. Washington.

GPnS

Mp*63 $±4

Westcott & Thomson, Henry B. Ashmead,
StereolyPers and EUctrotypers, Philada. Printer, Philada,

CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE  n
INTRODUCTION  17
CHAPTER I.
The First Sabbath at Nazareth  39
CHAPTER II.
The First Sabbath at Nazareth {Continued)  54
CHAPTER III.
The First Sabbath at Nazareth ( Continued)  65
CHAPTER IV.
The First Sabbath in Capernaum  82
CHAPTER V.
The First Sabbath in Capernaum {Continued)  100
1 * 5

6 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI. PAGE
The First Sabbath in Capernaum ( Continued)  117
CHAPTER VII.
The Sabbath at the Pool of Bethesda  134
CHAPTER VIII.
The Sabbath in the Corn-Fields  159
CHAPTER IX.
The Healing the Withered Hand on the Sabbath  .7.. 182
CHAPTER X.
The Second Sabbath in Nazareth  199
CHAPTER XI.
The Healing of the Blind Man on the Sabbath  218
CHAPTER XII.
The Healing of the Blind Man on the Sabbath {Continued) 238
CHAPTER XIII.
The Healing of the Woman who had a Spirit of Infirm
ity, on the Sabbath  257
CHAPTER XIV.
Dining with One of the Chief Pharisees on the Sabbath... 275

CONTENTS. 7
CHAPTER XV. PAGE
The Sabbath at Bethany  294

CHAPTER XVI.
Our Lord's Sabbath in the Sepulchre  313
CHAPTER XVII.
The First Lord's Day. I. — The Morning Hours  331
CHAPTER XVIII.
The First- Lord's Day. II. — The Evening Hours  347
CHAPTER XIX.
The Change of Day from the Seventh to the First  , 366

PREFACE.

JHE following work has two designs.
First, to give* an expository account
of our Lord's words and works on
the Jewish Sabbath, while he tabernacled in the
flesh. By grouping together the sketches of his
Sabbaths, as recorded by the several Evangel
ists, and separating them from other material,
we bring into clearer light, and undistracted
observation, the sayings and the doings of the
Lord of the Sabbath, and thus learn more
clearly what is his mind and will, in reference to
the divine command, " Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy."
Secondly, to make a small contribution to
the literature of the Sabbath question.

IO PREFACE.
This question has a wide compass, and a full
discussion of all the points involved in it would
fill volumes. Hundreds of books, more or less
elaborate, written by the most thoughtful and
educated men, have been published on all the
branches of this important subject, so that it
is doubtful if there is any one phase of it which
has not already been fully discussed. The
controversies of past generations, however, are
being revived in this. .The discussions which
at different times, raged with such fierceness
around the fourth commandment, are reap
pearing now, though in new forms and dress,
corresponding to the modern aspects of thought
and action.
So important a place does a Sabbath, or holy
rest-day, hold in every Christian country, and
in the Christian Church, that its sacred observ
ance will ever call out the bitter opposition of
the prince of darkness and his human allies.
It needs but a slight knowledge of the "signs
of the times " to see what inroads are already-
being made in desecrating the Lord's day, and

PREFACE. II
what efforts are put forth to-weaken the tone of
the public conscience on this point, and to make
us relax our hold upon it as a divine and oblig
atory institution.'
We cannot be blind to the fact, that in various
parts of this land, open attempts are now made
to turn this rest-day into a continental Sunday,
and make it the weekly gala-day of society
through all its grades. We shall soon be called
upon to meet these questions face to face. They
¦ rise up in our literature, in politics, in social life,
and we cannot shrink from them. The keeping
holy of the Lord's day, is essential to the very
existence and perpetuity of our nation, and it be
comes all Christian men, and especially all minis
ters of Christ, to stand upon their watch-towers
and give the needed note of warning as the
danger of wresting it from us approaches, that
the people may take heed to the incoming evil
and learn the true nature, the real value, and
the divine sanction, of this holy day. For it is
a day essential to the well-being of the indi
vidual, the family, the Church, the nation and the

12 PREFACE.
w6rld ; to the best interests of man in this life,
and to the higher interests of his soul in the
life which is to come.
These biblical sketches of "The Sabbaths of
our Lord" may perchance throw new light into
some minds on these important matters. They
may also serve a profitable purpose for family
reading on the Lord's day. They can be used
perhaps with wider interest by the many lay-
readers in the Church, who may find in these
pages instruction, guidance and pleasure. They
might be useful to Sunday-school teachers, and
furnish a whole winter's course of instruction to
many Bible classes. Thus they may be the
humble means of fixing in the minds of the
young and the old, the fundamental principles
which underlie the Lord's day, and on which
we base its origin, its. obligation, its perpetuity
and its unspeakable blessings.
The late John Quincy Adams, President of
the United States, in closing an address before
the delegates of the National Lord's Day Con
vention, used the following significant words :

PREFACE. 13
" It was the remark of one of the ablest and
purest of those foreigners who came to our aid
in the days of revolutionary peril, and who
made his home, and recently his grave, among
us — the late venerable Peter Duponceau of
Philadelphia — that of all we claimed as charac
teristic, our observance of the Sabbath is the
only one truly national and American, and for
this cause, if for no other, he trusted it would
never loose its hold on our affections and patri
otism. It was a noble thought, and may well
mingle with higher and nobler motives to stim
ulate our efforts and encourage our hopes.
And while it is the glory, so eagerly coveted by
other nations, that they may be pre-eminent in
conquests and extended rule, let us gladly ac
cept it as our distinction, and wear it as the
fairest of all that grace our escutcheon, that we
pre-eminently honor the Sabbath, and the Sab
bath's" Lord." W. B. S.
Philadelphia, November, 1872.

'Sundays observe; think when the bells do chime
'Tis angels' music, therefore come not late :
God then deals blessings 
Let vain or busy thoughts there have no part,
Bring not thy plough, thy plot, thy pleasures thither;
Christ purged his temple, so must thou thy heart.
George Herbert.

JERUSALEM.

INTRODUCTION.

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH.

jE 'have in the four Gospels the record
of quite a number of our Lord's Sab
baths. They show us where he was,
what he said, and what he did, on this day of
rest. They bring before us a great variety of
facts, places, scenes, and a series of holy teach
ings uttered by our Lord in various cities'and
villages of Judea. We shall thus be hearing
from week to week the words of Him who
" spake as never man spake," the holiest of
preachers, on the holiest of days.
It is interesting to know how He " who made
all things," and who, as the Creator of heaven
and of earth, " rested on the seventh day from
2* B n

1 8 INTR OD UCTION.
all his work which he had made," and who, in
consequence, " blessed the seventh day and hal
lowed it," would do when he came to the earth
which he had made, to save the men whom he
had created.
It is interesting to see how He, who gave
Moses the law of the Sabbath, would act under
his own law when he tabernacled in the flesh.
It is interesting to mark how " the Lord of *
the Sabbath" would conduct himself in refer
ence to those many and onerous glosses and
traditions, with which the Scribes and Pharisees
had encumbered the fourth commandment,
whether he would tacitly acknowledge their
authority or sweep them away, by his word and
example, as so many human incrustations on the
divine law.
These points' will be illustrated as we pro
ceed, and we shall gain new and interesting
facts concerning our Saviour's personal history
by attentively studying the records of his Sab
baths after his public entrance upon his ministry
as detailed by the several Evangelists.
Before we enter upon these separate Sabbath *
sketches, let us turn back to the old Hebrew
Sabbath, and look at its origin, history and de-

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 19
-sign. As to its origin, it was instituted at the
end of the six days' work of creation by God
himself, and was designed to commemorate his
rest on the seventh day ," from all his work
which he had made." Hence "he blessed the
Sabbath day and sanctified it."
By "blessing the Sabbath day" we are to un
derstand that he designed it to be fountain and
source of blessing, for only thus can time, which
has no personality or consciousness, be blessed.
He therefore constituted this day as one fraught
with special blessings.
By "sanctifying" the seventh day we under
stand, in accordance with the use of Old-Testa
ment language, the hallowing or setting it apart
from other days by specific acts and consecrat
ing it for an holy purpose.
Thus on the first page of Revelation we find
these three great facts, that God, having com
pleted the works of creation, " rested the sev
enth day from all his work that he had made" —
that a seventh day's rest, ,or Sabbath, was in
consequence thereof designated for all the fu
ture as a day of blessing, or a "blessed" day—
that this seventh portion of time was hence
forth, by divine ordering, to be set apart as

20 INTRODUCTION.
"sanctified" time, and kept apart from all secu
lar uses and pursuits.
These are the trinal roots of that great insti
tution which, ordained by God himself and ex-
ampled forth to us in his own holy rest from
creative work, was by him specially charged
with blessing, and by him specially separated
and sanctified for his service and man's welfare.
The name Sabbath given to this day comes
from the Hebrew Shabath, which signifies to
rest, whence Shabbdth, the day of rest. The
root of these words is Sheba, or seven, a num
ber which, not in the Hebrew tongue alone, but
in the language of most of the Eastern nations,
signifies fullness, completeness or perfection.
Hence we find in those nations, as the biblical
and classical scholar well knows, septenary di
visions of time, consisting of cycles of seven
days, or seven months, or seven years, which
can be accounted for only by referring them
back to the seventh-day rest after creation, the
traditions of which spread themselves over, and
rooted themselves in, the languages of the
Eastern nations.
These things link the Sabbath with God as its
author, with the finished work, creation, as its

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 21
first day of observance, and with man as the
being to whom pertains the blessings of this
sanctified season. It thus has a divine basis, a
worldly basis, a human basis, and is as universal
in its obligation as the world in which it was
first proclaimed, and is as enduring in its perpe
tuity as the human race, for whose special bless
ing and sanctification it was ordained. While
in the succeeding patriarchal times we find no
formal mention of the Sabbath, yet we notice
numerous indications of it appearing here and
there, showing with conclusive force that the
institution was still preserved, though in the
lapse of centuries and in the wide dispersion of
the human race its obligations were less heeded
and its observance less marked and regarded.
Over two thousand years pass away before
we again meet with any formal notice of this
day. The time and the occasion of its reappear
ance were both interesting. The children of
Israel, to the number of nearly three millions,
and under the leadership of Moses, had escaped
from Egypt, had crossed the Red Sea, had gone
a month's march on their way to the promised
land, and were now encamped in the wilderness
between Elim, with its wells and its palm trees,

22 INTRODUCTION.
and Sinai, so soon to smoke at the presence of
God. The people had murmured for water and
for bread. God gave them manna from heaven.
Of this bread the people gathered an "omer"
(six pints) for each person, except that on the
sixth day they gathered " two omers for each
person." This Moses explained by saying, " This
is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is
the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord."
"Eat that to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath "unto
the Lord ; to-day ye shall not find it in the field ;
six days shall ye gather it, but on the seventh
day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be
none." This transaction took place one month
before the delivery of the Law on Mount Sinai,
and therefore was but the resuscitation or the
bringing forward again into prominent view the
old organic law of God in Paradise.
Again, therefore, did God determine to re-
institute his almost forgotten Sabbath, and -to
re-enact it under such circumstances as should
strike the beholder with awe and illustrate his
own majesty. Hence, on the top of Sinai, upon
which he had descended in fire, and up to which
he had called Moses, and amidst thunderings
and lightnings and earthquakes, he gave the ten

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 2$
commandments and wrote them with his own
finger upon two tables of stone, as if too jeal
ous of their sacredness and their accuracy to
permit Moses, or even Gabriel, to be an amanu
ensis on so solemn an occasion. Remarkable
indeed must those laws be, which God did not
trust Moses, his great prophet — no, nor yet
angels or archangels — to write out or even copy
from his mouth, but which he must write with
his own finger, and on tables, not of brass or
gold of man's make, but of stone of his own
handiwork, that man rnight have the exact and
literal transcript of his will, so that there should
be no possibility of mistake as to its words or
its meaning. The code of laws, or ten com
mandments, which God thus gave on Mount
Sinai is the moral law of the world, given at
that time in special charge to the Jews, because
to them were to be committed the oracles of
God, and deposited by Moses, at God's com
mand, in the ark of the covenant ; the only laws
thus secured, but designed, by their very tenor,
for the whole world, arid recognized as such by
our Lord and his apostles, and by the Church
of God wherever found.
The law of the Sabbath stands as the fourth

24 INTRODUCTION.
of these commands. It is graven on the same
stone tables with the other nine ; it was written
with the same finger which wrote the others ; it
was deposited under the mercy-seat in the ark
of the covenant, and between the outstretched
wings of the cherubim in the holy of holies
with the rest ; and if the other nine are moral
laws, the fourth is also ; if the fourth is not, the
other nine are not. If the nine are designed for
all men, so is the fourth ; if the fourth is not
designed for all, neither are the other nine.
They stand or fall together. The attempt made
by men who would relax the obligation of the
Sabbath to sever the fourth command from the
Decalogue, and designate it as ceremonial and
partial, is a rude dislocation of that command
from its true articulations and attachments that
destroys at once the majesty and symmetry of
that moral code, the ten laws of which seem
to be the ten fingers of the two hands of God,
whereby he upholds the moral government of
the world.
The majesty of this fourth commandment
comes out more clearly if we dwell a moment
on its peculiar construction. It was ushered in
by an emphatic word which marked no other —

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 2$
"Remember!" not only implying that they
should recall the original institution of their
patriarchal Sabbath, which tradition, perhaps,
had handed down, but also implying that they
should give this command in special charge to
their memory, that it might not be forgotten
throughout all their generations.
It is drawn up with a minuteness of specifica
tion which we find in no other command. It is
based, as none other is, on God's special exam
ple. It is the only one linked with his special
blessing and hallowing. It is the only one given
both negatively and positively. No command
was more frequently repeated, none more care
fully guarded ; and it is the only command of
which God said that it was a " sign" between him
and the children of Israel, throughout their gen
erations, for a perpetual covenant, and this pe
culiar language is repeated no less than four
times by Moses and Ezekiel.
To those, then, who calmly look at these
points, it becomes perfectly clear that the fourth
commandment is of perpetual moral obligation,
— that it is still binding with all its original force,
— that it demands of us the same obedience
which we pay to the first, the sixth or the tenth,

26 INTRODUCTION.
for it is as much the expression of God's will,
and as much the requirement of God's authority,
as any one in the Decalogue.
It is to be observed, in this connection, that
there are two phases under which the law of the
ten commandments is to be viewed: i. As a
code designed for the whole world ; 2. As a
code specially adapted to the Jews ; and these
two phases are discernible in the very structure
of the Decalogue, as a moment's contemplation
will show.
The germ, the root-principle, of each of the
ten commandments is invariably enunciated as a
distinct proposition, and in the briefest and most
emphatic language; e.g., the second command
ment, which in our Bibles is divided into three
verses, is all expressed in the original by three
or four words — Thou shalt not make to thyself
idols. The third commandment in four words —
Thou shalt not take up the name of the Lord
thy God in vanity. The fourth commandment
in five words — Remember the rest-day, to hal
low it. The fifth in four or five words- — Honor
thy father and thy mother. The sixth, the sev
enth, the eighth, the ninth, in two words each,
and the tenth, though occupying several lines, is

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SAB*BATH. 2"]
really contained in the two Hebrew words
translated Thou shalt not covet. So that the
entire ten commandments are comprised in the
original Hebrew in less than forty words, and
these few words embrace the principles of the
moral law as designed for the whole world.
To this day they form the basis of all moral
law and obligation, and the ethics and the laws
of the world are perfect and effective, just in
proportion as they accept and develop and guard
these foundation-principles of duty and justice
to God and man as laid down in the ten com
mandments. The fourth of these commandments reads,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. -
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant
<nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates, for in six' days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day,
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and
hallowed it." Ex. xx. 8-n. This was the for
mal proclamation of the Sabbatic law. It is

28 INTRODUCTION.
embedded in a divine code not one provision
of which has been abrogated or set aside.
It should be observed that in the very enact
ing of this law of the Sabbath the divine Law
giver traces it back to its origin in his own rest
on the seventh day, deduces from that the
reason for its perpetual and universal observ
ance, and is the only one of the ten command
ments for which an historic reason is assigned.
This law has never been abrogated ; the day
has been changed, but the obligation to set
apart a seventh portion of time as hallowed
time still holds, and will hold till the end of
time. Under the Jewish economy the law of the
Sabbath involved several points. In the twenty-
third chapter of the book of Leviticus we find
this law incorporated into the statutes of the
Jewish theocracy, with certain added prescrip
tions designed to show how it was to be kept
holy. There it stands at the head of that chap
ter wherein are officially declared by Moses,
acting by express command of God, what shall
be the " feasts of the Lord " and " the holy con
vocations" of his people Israel. "Six days
shall work be done, but the seventh day is the

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 29
Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation ; it is the
Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."
This is the ordinance of the Sabbath as found in
the Jewish statute-book, the book of Leviticus.
Like the law of Sinai, it enjoins six days of
labor and a seventh day of rest. In addition to
this positive command it requires two things —
that this Sabbath shall be "a holy convocation,"
and that it shall be kept " in all your dwellings."
From the Sinaitic law and the Levitical statute
we gather these elemental and obligatory points.
The Sabbath was to be a rest day ; it was to be
the seventh day ; it was to be a holy day ; it
was to be a day of holy convocation, or the as
sembling of people for holy purposes ; and it
was to be kept in every family and dwelling.
God distinctly declared (Ex. xxxi. 16, 17),
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the
Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their
generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign
between me and the children of Israel for ever."
The penalty of death was affixed to the break
ing of the Sabbath : " Every one that defileth it
shall surely be put to death, for whosoever doeth
any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from
among his people." These facts prove the

3*

30 INTRODUCTION.
truth. of the remark that "there was no rite nor
institution, not even circumcision, by which the
Jews were more conspicuously distinguished
from surrounding nations and marked off as the
worshipers of Jehovah, the Creator of the ends
of the earth. Their Sabbath-keeping was a
perpetual and visible token of the connection
in which they stood to God, and of the great
mission which under him they were set apart to
discharge." It was the sign between God and
his people — the sign of the covenant ; so that to
break the Sabbath was to break the covenant
with God.
Aside from these general regulations, there
were no specific directions as to how the Sab
bath should be spent. There was in the earlier
days of the Jewish Church no prescribed relig
ious observance for this day, except that the
daily sacrifices were to be doubled and the
loaves of shew-bread on the table in the holy
place were to be renewed by twelve fresh cakes.
It was a day of sacred festivity, of social
gathering, of religious instruction, of personal
freedom, of physical rest for man and beast.
As the nation grew in wealth and luxury, as
they imbibed by the very process of contact

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 3 1
evil habits and thoughts from the surrounding
heathen nations, as amidst their own tribal
rivalries and internecine wars laxity of morals
grew apace, so the law of the Sabbath, like the
other laws of God, became gradually neglected
and profaned. Work encroached little by little
on rest, secularity usurped the place of devo
tion ; and though one prophet after another was
raised up to warn the people,f yet the defection
went on until the captivity engulfed priest and
people and sacrifices and Sabbaths in one over
whelming sorrow and chastisement. They had
polluted his Sabbaths and broken his covenant,
and hence God gave them for a time into the
hands of their enemies. After their return un
der Nehemiah a stricter observance was en
forced. The lessons learned in the captivity
were severe but wholesome. The temporary
expatriation had brought with it great search-
ings of heart, and these had resulted in great
resolutions of amendment of life. As they sat
by the rivers of Babylon they looked back to
their once quiet Sabbaths and holy convocations
as to fading visions of delight.
As their harps hung silent upon the willows
they called to mind their joyous festivals and

32 INTRODUCTION.
seventh-day gladness ; and thus thrown in upon
themselves, and made to bend their minds upon
the inner blessings of the land and the cove
nant which they had to all appearance lost, they
saw the greatness of their loss, and mourned in
bitterness of spirit their expatriation from Judea
and the destruction of their holy temple. It
was after the captivity that the Schools of the
Rabbis were founded and the sect of the Phari
sees established. The laxity of former times
was now offset by extreme rigidity. - A spirit
of intense Judaism was fostered by the Scribes
and Pharisees. The law of Moses was overlaid
with the incrustations of rabbinic traditions.
The teachings of the elders were only instilling
into the minds of learners the punctilious ob
servance of human commandments engrafted
on the divine, until at last the parasitic com
mandments overshadowed the original law of
God, sucked out its real strength, and substi
tuted that which was human and illegal, for that
which was legal and divine.
This spirit finds its record in the Mishna and
the Gemmara, and in the Talmud, the common
and post-Christian repository of all the exac
tions, sayings, traditions, puerilities and extrava-

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 33
gances of the great Jewish schools and the doc
tors of the Jewish law. The pharisaic party, in
their zeal to tone up the long-relaxed popular
mind, and to reinstate the almost practically
abolished Sabbath, did that which degraded
rather than exalted it, and " made it the object
of an idolatrous regard, the central figure in a
religion wholly ceremonial." Its primary injunc
tion, "Thou shalt do no manner of work," was
falsely held as aimed at all kinds of work what
ever, no less than thirty-nine kinds or classes
of work being specified as involved in the pro
hibition. Thus it was stated that grass was not
to be trodden on on the Sabbath, for the bruis
ing of it was a species of harvest work. A
man might fill a trough with water for beasts to
come to, but might not carry water to them;
To eat an egg laid on the first day of the week
was interdicted because presumably it was
prepared in the order of nature on the sev
enth or Sabbath day. Shoes with nails were
not to be worn on that day, as that was the
carrying of a burden ; and according to one
school of teaching, it was not only not lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day, but it was wrong
even to minister to the sick. It was also laid

3.4 INTRODUCTION.
down in the Mishna that when the sun begins
to darken a tailor must not walk out with his
needle lest sunset should overtake him carrying
it. Nor( may a scribe walk out with his ink-.
horn and pen lest he forget and go with it in
his hand. After the Sabbath lamp is lighted
one must not begin to pick vermin from his
clothes, nor yet begin to read by its light, for
that would be servile work. These Sabbatic
laws, in all their burdensome minuteness and
frivolousness, were an essential part of Judaism.
It has been truly said, " They burden the con
science of the sincere and make the unscrupu
lous hypocrites." " For to keep the rabbinical ,
Sabbath aright it is necessary to be perfectly
acquainted with all the laws relating to it, which
are very many and very intricate, occupying
above one hundred and seventy folio pages."
Maknonides and Kimchi, fathers of the tra
ditions, in a gloss upon the words of Isaiah
(lviii. 13), "Thou shalt call the Sabbath a de
light," say, " It is forbidden to fast on the Sab
bath, but on the contrary men are bound to de
light themselves with meat and drink, for we
must live more delicately on the Sabbath than
other days, and he is highly to be commended

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 35
who provides the most delicious junkets against
that day. We must eat thrice on the Sabbath,
and all men are to be admonished of it; and
even the poor themselves, who live on alms, let
them eat thrice on the Sabbath, for he that
feasts thrice on the Sabbath shall be delivered
from the calamities of the Messiah, from the
judgment of hell and from the war of Gog and
Magog." This is an instance — and they might be indefi
nitely multiplied— where, starting from a true
principle that the Sabbath was to be a delight
and not a day of dull austerity, they run out
their interpretations into most ridiculous details,
the usual style of rabbinical theology stretching
the literal interpretation to the perversion, and
subversion often, of the true spirit and intent
of the law. " Under the shadow of the tradi
tions the most palpable illegalities could be with
impunity committed, and even, on occasions, the
literal meaning of one ordinance could be played
off against another so that both should be ren
dered futile."
Such are a specimen of the absurdities and
excesses which the pharisaic party ran into in
their attempt to throw guards and restrictions

36 INTRODUCTION.
around the fourth commandment. Missing to
a great extent its' inner spirit, they legislated for
its outward observance. Led on by a line of
false interpretation which made no allowance for
change of times and circumstances, and which
looked fixedly and solely to the letter of the
command, they were led by their inexorable
logic to the conclusions which we have stated.
They erected cheval -de - frise around that
law, bristling with a hundred points,, upon
any one of which the incautious and unwary
would impale himself. They made this law the
first and great commandment, the keeping of it
superior in its sanctity to all the others, and de
clared that he who kept the Sabbath holy — holy
in their sense — would merit salvation even if
he broke every other command in the Deca
logue. Thus they made the word of God of
none effect through their traditions, and they
taught for divine doctrine the commandments
of men.
" You remember and admire," says Coleridge,
" the saying of an old divine that ceremony
duly initiated is a chain of gold around the neck
of faith ; but if in the wish to make it co-essen-.
tial and consubstantial you draw it closer and

THE OLD-TESTAMENT SABBATH. 37
closer, it may strangle the faith it was made to
deck and designate." This is what the Scribes
and Pharisees did to the Sabbath. They stran
gled it with the chains of excessive exactions
and directions. Its true life, vigor, breadth,
glory, was gone in the tightening of those liga
tures which they fastened around its neck, de
signedly for its more comely adornment, but
resulting in the eventual destruction of the or
dinance in its true import as established by
God: It is important to bear these things' in mind
in studying, the acts of our Lord on the Sab
bath day. Much of the force of his teaching
and of his example is lost if we are ignorant of
the peculiar aspect of the Sabbath question in
his day.
We find him on no less than seven different
occasions working miracles of healing on that
day and justifying himself to the carping Phari
sees by saying, " My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work." We notice him eyery now and
then animadverting upon their glosses and tra
ditions as exalting the " letter of the law, which
killeth," above " its spirit, which giveth life."
Coming, as Jesus did, " not to destroy the law,

38 INTRODUCTION.
but to fulfill" it, it was necessary that he should
first recover the law from the manipulations of
its professed friends — that he should let it be
seen what it originally was, and what it was
meant for, and how it was to be kept. To this
end, he removed the additions which age after
age had been added to the divine statute until
at last, what men had enacted, covered up what
God had ordained.
Like everything else which he touched, Jesus
put this law in its true position and light. He
rescued it from the hands of the scribes and
Pharisees, and showed it as God would have us
esteem it, a day of holy rest, holy service and
merciful works. It was God the Son comment
ing by word and deed upon the law of God the
Father. And God the Holy Ghost has inspired
holy men of old to write out these teachings
and incidents : — and thus we have the threefold
testimony of the triune God to the true nature
and blessedness of the patriarchal, the Mosaic
and the Christian Sabbath.-

~„-.j8Sj>i»4

NAZARETH.

The Sabbaths of Our Lord.

CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH.
" And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and, as
his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and
stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of
the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the
place where it was written, The Sa 'rit of the Lord is upon me, be
cause he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap
tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty, them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed
the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And
the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in
your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this
Joseph's son ? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me
this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say
unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you
of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land ; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto
Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of
them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and
rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of
the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on
the Sabbath days." Luke iv. 16-31. 39

4° THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
JE shall speak of this Sabbath first, be
cause in his teachings on this day our
Lord opened before us his whole work
and mission as the Messiah. The Evangelist
says, "He came to Nazareth" implying that he
had been away, and so he had. When he became
thirty years old, the Levitical age at which only
a man could take upon himself the office of a
priest, he left Nazareth, and we find him visit
ing John the Baptist, who was preaching " the
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins "
on the banks of the river Jordan, and thus ful
filling his office as " the voice of one crying in
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the
Lord." Here, and by his own " Forerunner," he was
baptized, for thus "it became him to fulfill all
righteousness." Here, as he went up from the
river's brink, " he saw the heavens opened, and
the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
lighting upon him, and lo a voice from heaven
saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased."
From this baptismal scene he was "led up
of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil." In this wilderness (whether it be

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 41
the desert between the Mount of Olives and
Jericho, called Quarantania, as some suppose, or
the desert of Arabia, as is believed by others)
he fasted " forty days and forty nights." From
this wilderness, having first overcome the devil
in his threefold temptation by the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God, he departed
into Galilee and went to Nazareth, "where he
had been brought up." Were it not that every
thing connected with our Lord's birth and
earthly life is a marvel, and goes contrary to
man's preconceived opinions, we should wonder
that so obscure a place as Nazareth should be
selected as the place of his longest earthly so
journ. It is not once mentioned in the Old
Testament, nor by the Jewish historian Jose-
phus, nor do we find any record of its exist
ence until it is spoken of as the home of the
Virgin Mary. The name is derived from the
Hebrew word Netser or " branch," and means
the " city of branches," and the Holy Spirit
teaches us that by growing up at Nazareth, the
city of branches, He whose name is "The
Branch" thus fulfilled the spirit of the ancient
prophecies of Isaiah (xi. 1), Jeremiah (xxiii. 5)
and Zechariah (iii. 8), which St. Matthew has

4*

42 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
condensed into the phrase " he shall be called a
Nazarene." In the turbulent district of Lower Galilee,
and in the province given to the tribe of Zebu-
Ion, lies this now famous town. According to
the rate of travel in that country, it is a three
days' journey from Jerusalem, being about sixty-
five miles north of it.
After crossing the plain of Esdraelon, so cele
brated for centuries as the battlefield of many
of the most warlike nations of the world, from
the times of Deborah and Sisera down to the
last year of the last century, when Bonaparte .
obtained there a signal victory over the Turks,
you ascend the hills which constitute the south
ern ridges of the Lebanon range, and winding
among them in their picturesque beauty for a
little while, you then gradually descend into
Nazareth. It lies in a beautiful sequestered
nook in the midst of fertile slopes and valleys,
and its gardens abound with the olive, the fig
and the pomegranate trees, and altogether pre
sents a pleasing and thrifty appearance.
Here it was, more than eighteen centuries
ago, that the angel Gabriel came, when sent
from God, " to a virgin espoused to a man

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 43
whose name was Joseph of the house of Da
vid," to tell this " handmaid of the Lord," " Fear
• • not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God,
and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus." Here it was, when Joseph "was minded to
put her away privily" because "she was found
with child of the Holy Ghost," that the angel of
the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is con
ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost," Here it
was that Joseph and Mary were united in mar
riage by the striking forms of the Hebrew ritual
after this visit of the angel, having previously
and before the annunciation of Gabriel been pub
licly betrothed to each other, and from that be
trothal were in law, though not in fact, regarded
as " man and wife."
Here it was, after the birth of Christ and-
their temporary flight into Egypt to avoid the
cruelty of Herod, and the fear created in their
minds by the reign of his son Archelaus, that
the humble couple and the child Jesus took up
their abode in peace and seclusion.

44 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Here it was that Joseph toiled in daily labor
at the trade of a village carpenter, and Mary,
watching the growth of the infant Saviour, pon
dering all these things in her heart, did the du
ties of a housewife.
From this place it was that Joseph and Mary
and Jesus, when the latter was twelve years old,
went up to Jerusalem, because Jesus was now a
Hebrew catechumen, a "child of the law," or
" of the precept," as they were termed, and all
such, according to the usages of the Jewish
Church, were to be catechised by the elders and
scribes. To this place the parents and " child Jesus "
returned after this wonderful visit to Jerusalem,
when Jesus was found " in the temple sitting in
the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and
asking them questions," causing all to be " as
tonished at his understanding and answers."
Here it was, at a later period, that, in accord
ance with the requirements of Jewish law which
demanded that every male child should learn
some trade, Jesus learned his reputed father's
trade and wrought as a carpenter among the
townspeople of Nazareth. Here it was that he

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 45
"grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor
with God and man."
Thus, from the time that he was two years old
until he reached the age of thirty, Jesus dwelt
in Nazareth, passing more than five-sixths of
the time in which he tabernacled in the flesh in
this notedly despised town of Galilee, for that
Nazareth was looked down upon as a low and
immoral place is evident from the question
which that " Israelite indeed," Nathanael, asked,
when in reply to the words of Philip concerning
Jesus he said, " Can there any good thing come
out of Nazareth ?"
What in the history or character of the peo
ple of that town gave rise to that proverbial ex
pression of Nathanael we do not know. " By
the figure which they make in the Evangelist,"
says Doddridge, " they seem to have deserved
it;" and is it not another instance of the volun
tary humility of our Lord that instead of spend
ing his infancy and youth and early manhood in
a quiet, peaceful town, amid the gentler virtues
of a rural people, he tarried in turbulent Galilee
and found his longest home among the rude, ill-
mannered, vindictive and jealous Nazarethites ?
How much of interest thus clusters about

46 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Nazareth ! and how much scope does the imag
ination find in picturing out the childhood and
manhood, the home-life and the town-life, the
school days and the apprentice days of Jesus of
Nazareth ! It has a period of twenty-eight
years to revel in, and can roam over all the
changes and fluctuations of life, from the two-
year-old prattler at his mother's knee to the
matured man of thirty, just starting out on his
divine mission to be the Saviour of the world.
Our visit to Nazareth was one of singular inter
est. We entered it from the south, and skirting
the edge of the town, rode on to its end, where,
under the shade of a grove of olive trees and
close to a beautiful spring, we pitched our tents
and found refreshment after the hot and weary
ride across the plain of Esdraelon. This foun
tain is the. most voluminous in the town, and
from it the women take most of the water that
is drunk in it. It is called " The fountain of the
virgin," not only, and with great probability, be
cause the mother of Jesus often, like most of
the maidens of Nazareth, resorted thither to
draw waiter and bear it away in water-jars on
their heads or shoulders, as we saw hundreds
doing, but especially because, according to the

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 47
traditions of the Greek Church, it was while
Mary was at this spring that the angel Gabriel
met her and announced that she should be the
mother of the Messiah. Accordingly, to com
memorate this supposed event, the Greek Church
has built near by the " Convent of the Annun
ciation." The Latin Church, on the other hand,
says that the "annunciation" took place, not at
the spring, but in the house of Mary, and points
to the grottoes or chambers in the Franciscan
church of the chapel of the Annunciation as
part of her dwelling. The droning monks pre
tend to show you the window through which the
angel Gabriel flew, and the column which the
empress Helena placed to mark the spot where
Mary stood or knelt at the time of the angelic
visit. Nothing could more surely destroy the truth
fulness of the monks' story than the fact as
serted by Romish writers ; that about the thir
teenth century a band of angels took up bodily
the house of Mary in Nazareth, then threatened
withliEsecration, and bearing it through the air
across the Mediterranean and up the- Adriatic
gulf, set it down first at Rimini and then on a
hill called Loretto. There the so-called "Casa

48 , THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Santa" "the House of Our Lady of Loretto,"
now stands, an object of deepest veneration and
superstition to the devout of the Romish Church.
The walls of this house of " Our Lady" are ex
ternally covered with marble, a gorgeous tem
ple has been built up over it, a hundred priests
minister in it, a hundred and twenty-three
masses are daily said in its precincts. Jewels
and vessels of gold and silver, and -gorgeous
tapestry, and services of various kinds, enrich
the shrine, and the pavement around the house
is literally worn with the knees of peasants and
priests and prelates and princes, as they for cen
turies have crawled devoutly around jf. Here
also, in this marble-encased cabin, is shown the
window through which Gabriel came — here
also the spot where the Virgin heard the angelic
"Ave Maria;" and as if this did not sufficiently
tax the credulity of the faithful, you are also
shown, in this same " Casa Santa," the altar
where St. Peter first said mass after our Lord's
ascension, when the apostles met at Nazareth,
and turned this house into a church.
Leaving the Church which fosters these su
perstitions to reconcile their discrepancies, we
turn away from these lying wonders to the

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 49
lovely valley which stretches away to the east
and south of the town, to the numerous hills
which environ it like a girdle, to the babbling
stream which marks its way by its green bor
ders through the edge of the town, and picture
before us, as far as imagination permits, the
childhood, boyhood and early manhood of Jesus
as they were here displayed to the rustic Naza-
rethites. It was most thrilling to be there. Du Saulcy
says that " he wept as he stood in the chapel of
the Annunciation," and other travelers have re
corded their deep emotions as they heard therein
the pealing organ and the solemn chants of the
priests. These constitute no attraction for the
true Christian, but they are moved, moved to
tears and prayers, as they walk up and down
those hills, over those plains, down by the foun
tain and across the fields, studded with clumps
of olive and . fig trees, and tesselated with the
flowers of God's arranging, because every spot
seems full of the memories of Jesus. How
often had he walked over these fields ! how
often followed his mother to the fountain ! how
often climbed those hills! how often gone up
there for retirement and prayer ! how often, as

50 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
he stood upon their tops, had he looked north
ward to the snow-crowned head of Hermon,
eastward to the rounded top of Tabor, south
ward across the plain of Esdraelon to the
mountains of Qilboa and Benjamin, and west
ward to the promontory of Carmel, where Elijah
slew the prophets of Baal, as it jutted out into
the great sea !
The twenty-eight years' life of Jesus in this
spot have consecrated the town and its sur
rounding's and made it hallowed ground.
Yet the whole authentic record of these years
is contained in the verses (Luke ii. 40) : "And
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, -filled
with, wisdom, and the grace of God was upon
him ;" and after his return from -Jerusalem,
whither at twelve years of age he had gone to
the feast of the Passover, it is said (Luke ii. 51,
52), "And he went down with them and came
to Nazareth, and was subject unto them, and
Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and man." This is all the record
that we have of his long residence in Nazareth.
Marvelous silence ! The prying curiosity of
men would fain know how our Lord looked as
a babe,_how he played as a boy, how he mingled

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 5 I
with his companions, how he wrought as a car
penter, how he behaved as a young man in so
ciety, how the people of Nazareth regarded
him, with a hundred other questions about mat
ters where the Bible is silent.
. What should we say of human biographers
who should thus skip over four-fifths of the lives
of the subjects of their writings, who should tell
us nothing of the childhood, the appearance, the
habits of person or of mind, the education and
associations, of the one whose life they were
portraying ? It would be strange and unsatis
factory. But this silence of the Scripture in
reference to our Lord is deeply instructive, and
even with our finite minds we can see its wis
dom. We desire to know the infancy and child
hood of earthly heroes, in order that we may
mark the causes, and trace the development, of
those traits of mind and heart for which they
afterward became renowned, and thus observe
the mental and moral processes by which their
character was built up and compacted into his
toric greatness. But our Lord was beholden to
no such parental or domestic training, to no
such social or educational influences ; and hence
there was no necessity to tell the occurrences

52 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
of his early life as the clew or key to his subse
quent history, for it was not moulded by earthly
surroundings, nor did human teachers give
shape and direction to his mental or moral
powers. His childhood ever blossomed with
the beauty of holiness, his boyhood was ever
fragrant with the expanding flowers of grace,
and his manhood brought forth day by day the
ripened fruit of the Spirit, for it is emphatically
said, "The child grew and waxed strong in
spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
was upon him."
There is also something sublime in this silence
of Scripture, for instead of leading off our
thoughts to the early life of Jesus, and thus dif
fusing our interest over all the years that he
tabernacled in the flesh, the Holy Ghost now
concentrates all our looks and feelings on the
one work which it was the one object of his life
to accomplish. He thus rebukes a prurient cu
riosity, and rejects as useless what is not imme
diately connected with redemption. The sacred
writers are here dealing with the most marvel
ous deeds and the most astounding works of
grace, and they cannot stop to tell the doings
of years which had no immediate relation to his

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 53
work as Prophet, Priest and King; of years'
which were but the temporal links which con
nected the cross of Calvary with the manger of
Bethlehem, and the virgin-born Son of Mary
with the risen and ascended Lord of glory.
As we contemplate this reticence of Scripture,
how forcibly are we impressed with the sublime
truth, " It is the glory of God to conceal a thing" !
Infinite wisdom, checking the else rampant im
agination of man, has made a biographical blank
where men would have written minute histories,
but we know that the blank will be filled up by
and by, and we must be content to wait until we
see Jesus in heaven and "follow him whither
soever he goeth" to learn the real history of
his abode at Nazareth.
5 *

CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH.
(Continued.)
E said that we had no records of our
Lord's doings at Nazareth until he
appears on this Sabbath in the syna
gogue. This is true as to positive records, yet
we have in the passage which describes this
Sabbath four words — "as his custom was" —
which give us some insight into his previous
character, and by inference at least tells us what
his Sabbath habits were. The whole sentence
reads, " And as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for
to read." That word, "custom," carries us away
back to his childhood. We see him as a child,
-led by his mother's hand, walking to the syna
gogue week after week, taking his place as a
child, or as a catechumen, with the other " chil-
51

THE FIRST SABBATH AT. NAZARETH. 55
dren of the precept," reverently listening to the
reading of the law and the prophets.
We see him, as he arrives at man's estate,
still going every seventh day to the same syna
gogue and taking his part in its simple services.
This he doubtless did always.
He did not plead as a reason why he should
remain away, that that worship had become cor
rupt — that they had made the word of God " of
none effect through their traditions," their glosses
and their false interpretations.
Nor did he, in the conscious holiness of his
own soul, feeling that he needed not this human
instrumentality for his own perfection, neglect
it, and thus throw the force of his example
against it, by forsaking the assembling of him
self with others on that sacred day. This ha
bitual attendance of our Lbrd on divine worship
is a guide and model to us ; for if the holy Jesus
could tolerate all the imperfections of synagogue
worship in the degenerate days in which he
lived, conducted by the scribes and Pharisees,
who were so polluted and hypocritical as they
were in his day, then surely ought we to gather
ourselves within the courts of the Lord's house,
and not stay away because of personal antipa-

56 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
thies to minister or people, hypercritical objec
tions to pulpit teaching, hypocritical assumptions
of religious superiority, or alleged defects, or
excesses, in the mode of worship.
As we shall often have occasion to speak of
the synagogues, it may be well here to give a
general description of them, in order the better
to understand the allusions which will be so fre
quently made.
"Synagogue" is a Greek word employed in
the Septuagint as the translation of twenty-one
Hebrew words in which theidea of a gathering
is implied, and means literally, a meeting-house.
Though many Jewish writers claim for the
Synagogue a very remote antiquity, yet its real
origin does not date, probably, earlier than the
days of Ezra after the return of the, Jews from
Babylonish exile. Then we have distinct traces
of what has been called " the synagogue paro
chial system," both among the Jews in Palestine
and in other countries. According to the Tal-
mudists, wherever ten families lived, there a
Synagogue was to be erected, though generally
but one was built in each town. Their structure
was simple, and varied with the tastes and
wealth of the congregation. Usually they were

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. S7
erected on the highest ground in or near the
city, and were so arranged that as the worship
er entered and bowed, his fac'e was " toward
Jerusalem," where was the one only temple and
the one only sacrifice. In the prayer of conse
cration offered by King Solomon on the occasion
of dedicating the Temple which he had built to
the worship of almighty God, he again and
again speaks of "praying toward this house,"
of spreading forth his hands " toward this
house," of praying " toward this place, the city
which thou hast chosen and the house which I
have built for thy name," and thus indicates the
posture and direction which the Israelite would
take, in whatsoever land he abode, when he
sought to worship the God of his fathers. The
internal construction of the Synagogue was
symbolical of the temple. At the upper or
Jerusalem end, stood the ark, the chest which,
like the older and more sacred ark, contained
the book of the law. It gave to that end the
name and character of a sanctuary. This part
of the Synagogue was naturally the place of
honor. Here were the " chief seats," for which
Pharisees and scribes strove so eagerly, and to
which the wealthy and honored worshiper was

58 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
invited. Here too, in front of the ark, still re
producing the type of the tabernacle, was the
eight-branched lamp lighted only on the greater
festivals. Beside these there was one lamp
kept burning perpetually. A little farther to
ward the middle of the building was a raised
platform on, which several persons -could stand
at once, and in the middle of this rose a pulpit
in which the reader stood to read the lesson or
sat down to teach. The congregation was di
vided, the men on one side, the women on the
other, a low partition five or six feet high run
ning between them. The arrangement of mod
ern synagogues, for many centuries, has made
the separation more complete by placing the
women in low side galleries screened off by lat
tice-work. The officers of the Synagogue were, first, the
"ruler" or chief of the Synagogue, who exer
cised rectorial care over the building and the
people, then the "elders," or heads of the Syna
gogue, then the "reader," or legate,, who blended
the office of a reader, secretary and messenger,
then the " minister," or attendant, who opened
the doors, prepared the place for service, took
the sacred rolls from the ark and gave them to

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 59
the reader, and receiving them again, replaced
them in their sanctuary. The worship of the
synagogue was made up of fixed forms of
prayer (each chief ruler being authorized to
make such for his own synagogue), the reading
of the law and the prophets in such consecutive
order as that the whole should be read through
in a cycle of three years, and in an exposition
by some one of the worshipers of the portion
of Scripture previously read.
The Hebrew Church divided the "law," or
Pentateuch, into fifty-four sections (parashahs),
or proper lessons, which were read in the syna
gogues on the Sabbath. To these were added'
proper lessons (haphtarahs) taken out of the
prophets, and they were coupled together in a
calendar directing when they were to be read.
Thus the first section (parashah) of the Pen
tateuch began with the first chapter of Genesis
and extended to the eighth verse of the sixth
chapter, " But Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord." The corresponding prophetical les
son (haphtarah) is taken from Isaiah xlii. 5-21,
and we note at once the parallelism between
them, as both refer to the work of creation.
This is something like the first and second les-

60 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
sons in the calendar of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, only in this Church the second -lesson is
taken out of the "New Testament, so as to make
the two testaments or covenants, the Mosaic
and the Christian, reflect light on each other, for
there is no interpreter of Scripture so good
and so exact as Scripture itself, whereby we
may- compare "spiritual things with spiritual."
Several features 'of the Christian Church have
been evidently borrowed from the forms of the
Synagogue. This is not to be wondered at
when we consider > that the apostles were edu
cated in the usages of the Synagogue, and that it
was by means of the synagogues planted by the
Jewish colonies in various parts of the world
that the gospel was introduced to the Hebrew
and the Gentile nations, for into whatever coun
try the apostles went, they usually found there a
synagogue, and thither they resorted, and in it
first preached salvation through Jesus Christ.
Thus God had providentially prepared these
reading and preaching places, these depositories
of the law and the prophets, these houses of
Sabbatical worship and assembling, as so many
foci in which to gather the religious elements of
the age, and from which to shed forth the glo-

' .^ '_.!

fpv!':^;;y

"And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them."

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 6 1
rious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, "of
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did
write." In addition to religious uses, the synagogue
was also the common school of the village,
where the children were taught by the Rabbi
the elements of education, and who especially
grounded them in the knowledge of the law
and the more noted traditions of the elders. It
was doubtless in one of these synagogue schools
that our Lord learned the rudiments of Jewish
learning. Another function which the Synagogue ful
filled was that of a court of justice. It was the
town court. Its rulers were as justices of the
peace. Trials of minor cases were held there,
and the adjudged punishment of scourging was
often administered there, and our Lord distinctly
warns his disciples that among other ill treat
ment "they will scourge you in their syna
gogues." Thus learning, law, religion, clustered around
the Synagogue and made it the centre of the
most potent influences that can mould a com
munity. There was generally a desk on which the rolls

62 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
of parchment were placed, so that, as one' side
of the sacred Scriptures was unrolled, the: other
side could, be conveniently rolled up, for the
books of that day were not made into leaves
like ours, but were mostly of skins rolled into
convenient size and labeled on the outside and
secured by a leathern clasp or thong. In read
ing these rolls of the law and the prophets, the
reader always " stood up," imitating the position
of Ezra in his "pulpit of wood" in the streets
of Jerusalem, and the practice of the Jewish as
semblies from the rebuilding .of the temple.
Some have thought that the phrase, "As his
custom was," refers not to his habit of going
every Sabbath to the Synagogue, but to the
being frequently called upon to read out of the
holy rolls. It may be so, for sometimes the
reader was one of the assembly who was neither
an office-bearer, or a scribe or Pharisee, and
sometimes, also, the expounder of the law was
even a stranger, as in the case of the Synagogue
at Antioch, where, after the reading of the pro
phets, St. Luke says, "The rulers of the Syna
gogue sent unto Paul and his companions, say
ing, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word
of exhortation for the people, say on."

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 63
Being a general favorite with the people (for
it is said that " he grew in favor with God and
man"), and perhaps from his ability to read the
Scriptures with more truthfulness of expression
because he knew, as they did not, the deep
meaning of each word and sentence, Jesus was
probably often called upon to " stand up for to
read." Little did that simple folk imagine who
it was that read to them such weighty words.
They saw in him only a good young man of
spotless life and devout habits, a well-beloved
citizen and industrious mechanic ; in fine, an
Israelite in whom there was no guile.. They
did not know that there was standing in. their
midst the Seed of the woman who was " to bruise
the serpent's head," the "Prophet greater than
Moses," the "Messiah" of whom David so roy
ally sung, the "Prince of peace" of whom Isaiah
prophesied, the "Son of man" seen in the vis
ions of the holy Daniel, the "Lord" who, accord
ing to Malachi, was so suddenly to come to his
temple. The veil was upon their eyes and upon
their hearts ; their mental vision was as yet not
prepared for such an outburst of glory ; but the
long looked-for "day-star" was now to arise,
and the ears of that Sabbath assembly were to

64 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
be startled that morning by an announcement
that would fill them with excitement and wonder,
for as " he stood up for to read," " there^was de
livered unto him (by the one whose office it was
to fetch and carry back the rolls from the sanc
tuary) the book (or roll) of the prophet Esaias
(Isaiah), and when he had opened the book he
found the place where it was written — Isaiah
Ixi. i. — 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be
cause he hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised, to preach the ac
ceptable year of the Lord.' And he closed
the book and gave it again unto the minister
and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were
in the Synagogue were fastened on him, and he
began to say unto them, This day is this scrip
ture fulfilled in your ears."- A murmur of sur
prise rises from the assembly and glances of
wonder pass from eye to eye at this bold decla
ration, but soon they hush themselves into si
lence that they may listen more attentively to
the Carpenter who now for the first time preaches
in their Synagogue.

CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH.
(Continued.).
jlET us in imagination seat ourselves in
the Synagogue of Nazareth and listen
to "the gracious words" which pro
ceed out of the mouth of Jesus.
It is all the more interesting because it is the
record of the only time our Lord read in the
synagogue, and also of the first sermon which
he preached ; because by taking his text from
Isaiah he endorsed the inspiration of that evan
gelical prophet; and especially because in this
his first discourse among his neighbors and
kinsfolk, "where he had been brought up," he
expounds the character of the Messiah, and the
nature Of the kingdom which he was anointed
to establish.
On comparing the words of St. Luke with

6*

65

66 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
those of Isaiah we find some slight verbal differ
ences, owing, doubtless, to the fact that, while
our Lord read from and expounded the pure
Hebrew words as written by Isaiah, St. Luke,
who wrote his gospel for the Hellenist Jews,
quotes from the Septuagint version of that
prophet, as one with which they were more
familiar. The differences, however, are only
verbal, and of no exegetical value. The grand
thought is the same, and it is with the thought
itself, rather than with its drapery of words, that
we have now to do.
Of what our Lord said upon this passage of
Isaiah we have but one sentence preserved, viz. :
"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your
ears." In what manner he applied this prophecy
to himself, and how he unfolded its inner mean
ing, we know not. That it was done with an
unction and earnestness which they had never
before seen is evident from the statement of St.
Luke that all " wondered at the gracious words
which proceeded out of his lips." As their fel
low-townsman opened to them this Scripture,
fitting, to his own person and office the several
parts of this prophecy, bringing out of the
"sacred text a hidden' meaning which their wisest

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 67
scribes had never taught, and making clear as
the sunlight what had so long been obscured by
mists of traditions received from their fathers,
the people, we can imagine, sat in mute aston
ishment and awe. They gave him their undi
vided attention ; they let not a word fall to the
ground, but recognized to a certain extent their
grace and power.
To understand this the better, let us see what
this prophecy required for its fulfillment, and
then ascertain whether He who then spake, met
these conditions.
This prophecy of Isaiah was regarded by all
the Jews as referring to the advent of the Mes
siah. It demanded, first, that the person fulfill
ing it should be the Messiah or anointed one,
for the words, " Messiah " in Hebrew, "Christos "
in Greek, are equivalent to the English, Christ
or anointed. Anointing was one of the solemn
forms of setting apart prophets, priests and
kings. But the anointed one of the text was to ¦
be set apart, not with material oil, as were Elisha
and Aaron and David, but by the Spirit of the
Lord God — i.e., by the outpouring or descent
of the Holy Ghost ; and was not Jesus thus an
ointed when the Holy Ghost like a dove lighted

68 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
upon him at his baptism in Jordan ? It required,
secondly, that this "anointed one" should be a
Prophet preaching glad tidings, preaching the
gospel, preaching " the acceptable year of the
Lord." Did not Jesus go up and down Judea
preaching the word, and so speaking that not
only did he draw multitudes to his discourses,
but the very soldiers who were sent to appre
hend him returned, saying, " Never man spake
like this man"? He was, of a truth, "that
Prophet" greater than Moses which the Lord
God was to raise up to his people Israel.
It required, thirdly, that this "anointed one"
should be able to stay the effect of sin in what
soever form that sin manifested itself. Thus, as
the prophecy intimated, he was to "heal," or
" bind up," the broken-hearted, those whom sin
had crushed and made sad and trampled under
foot. He was to preach "deliverance to the
captives" — the captives of Satan, the victims of
his snares and arts. He was " to give sight to
the blind," those who were spiritually as well as
physically blind, and who could .not see the
things which pertained to their eternal peace.
He was to " set at liberty them that are bruised "—
bruised under the yoke and burden of sin, man-

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 69
acled and galled by the fetters of the prince of
darkness, whose bond-slaves they were. Did
not Jesus do all this both to the bodies and the
souls of men in the miracles of mercy which he
wrought, and in the effect of the doctrines which
he taught ? and is it not the special purpose of
his religion to achieve for the mind, for the heart,
for the bodies of men, for man individually and
men collectively, in families, states, churches,
nations, exactly those things which are here pre
dicted ? Thus he rolls back the effects of sin as
it causes woe and darkness and captivity and
oppression and every evil work.
It required, fourthly, that this "anointed one"
should restore to man the inheritance which he
had lost in Eden. The term "to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord " refers to that joy
ful day and year when, according to the direc
tions given in Leviticus, at the close of each
forty-ninth year, the priests, on the morning
which ushered in the fiftieth year, were to " blow
the silver trumpets of the jubilee and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land and unto all the
inhabitants thereof" — trumpet notes heard sel
dom more than once in a lifetime, but when
heard, they filled the heart of the nation with an

7° THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
exuberance of joy that found its outburst in all
manner of festive gladness and thanksgiving.
And why this gladness ? Because then, a year
of rest was proclaimed, and there was neither
ploughing nor sowing nor reaping, but the land
itself had a Sabbatical year. Because then,
every Israelite recovered his right and title to
the land originally allotted to his ancestors, and
the alienated inheritance was his again without
purchase. Because then, the bondmen went out
free from servitude and were restored to their
original franchise, and thus there was given
back to each Israelite his covenanted right and
portion in the land of promise given to him by
Jehovah. This year of jubilee, occurring after each
seven weeks of years, or forty-nine years, was
typical of the triumph of the Messiah when he
would restore to man his lost inheritance, when
he would set him free from the bondage under
which sin had enslaved him, when he would dis
pense to all "the rest," the jubilee rest, "which
remaineth for the people of God."
And is not this what Christ is now doing, and
will still further do, as the jubilee sound of the
gospel trumpet goes out into all lands and

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 7 1
wakes up notes of joy and salvation among all
the tribes and races of men ? The inheritance
which we lost through ' Adam in Eden, He, as
" the second Adam, the Lord from heaven," will
restore to us in fuller measure in the paradise
of God.
The bondage of sin wider which we "groaned,
being burdened," He will release us from by
breaking the yoke of the oppressor, and letting
the oppressed go free.
It must have seemed very strange to the
Nazarethites to hear this young man, whom
they had known in his obscurity of twenty-five
years, apply this grand Messianic prophecy to
himself. There must have arisen in their minds
a singular commingling of wonder and incre
dulity, blended perhaps with fear, lest he who
had all along been the good and gentle Jesus
had lost his mental balance and was going to set
up himself as the Messiah.
To understand the feelings they experienced,
place yourselves in their situation. What would
be your emotions if on some Lord's day, as you
sat in your usual seat in the Lord's house, a
man of good repute, yet humble parentage,
whom you had known from childhood, whom

72 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
you had seen as a child, as a growing boy, as a
working apprentice, as a common mechanic,
whose parents you knew, whose home you
knew, whom you had met in your daily walks,
and who for years had gone with you and sat
near you in the house of God, should suddenly,
after the lessons for the day had been read
which depicted in glowing language the office
and work of the Messiah, say, " This day is this
scripture fulfilled in your ears"? How such a
declaration from such a person would startle
you ! how almost indignant it would make you !
how you would be tempted to sneer and ridicule
such claims, or be overwhelmed with alarm at
such unrebuked blasphemy ! Like the men of
Nazareth, you would say, "Is not this the one
whom we have known, and whose parents we
know, and whose occupation we know ? Why,
then, speaks he thus ? Can he expect us to be
lieve his words ? Shall we not rather adjudge
him to be insane ?"
If you will look at the scene from this point
of view, you will more readily comprehend how
marvelously astounding this claim of Jesus must
have seemed to his fellow-townsmen.
They looked indeed for a Messiah. It was

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 73
the one great hope of their nation. It was the
burden of their prophecies, the substance of
their types, the foreshadowing of their Levitical
ritual, the theme of their national psalms, and
all their future triumph over their enemies and
their exaltation as a nation centred in this long
looked-for Messiah. To their blinded minds he
was to come in glory and reign with a splendor
surpassing that of Solomon. He was to be
surrounded with all the insignia of divine royalty.
For this " Carpenter," the reputed son of a car
penter, to appropriate to himself these pro
phetic epithets, and announce that in his person
these scriptures found their fulfillment, was in
deed too much to be borne, and no wonder,
therefore, that they said, "Is not this Joseph's
son?" Perceiving their unbelief and knowing what
was in their hearts, Jesus said unto them, " Ye
will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum do also here in thy country."
Though these were the words of Christ, yet he
spoke-them as being the sentiments of his hear
ers, whose thoughts he knew and expressed.
It was as if they had said, " We have heard that

74 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
you have done great works in Capernaum : do
them here also, that we may see and judge for
ourselves, and not have only the hearsay evi
dence of public rumor." It was an implied cen
sure on him for working miracles in that almost
Gentile town before he wrought any in Naza
reth. To these murmuring thoughts, and perhaps
expressions, Jesus replied,. " No prophet is ac
cepted in his own country," or, as St. Mark
records it, " A prophet is not without honor but
in his own country and among his own kin and
in his own house."
This proverbial expression finds its truth in
that deep-rooted principle of human nature not
to give full credit to that, with the gradual
growth and unfolding of which we are familiar,
and to prefer the foreign and the unknown, over
that which originates out of ourselves and is
home-born. Minute knowledge of a man's cha
racter, and of a man's surroundings, tends, in
the minds of those thus familiar, to detract from
his greatness. It is so much easier for the hu
man mind to detect flaws, than perceive great
ness, so much more ready to note the evil than
the good of our fellow-men, so much more in-

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 75
clined to cavil than to praise, that we see every
day the truth of the proverb and how peculiarly
fitted it was to express just the position in which
our Lord, as a Prophet, stood to the querulous
and unbelieving Nazarethites.
"But I tell you of a truth," he continues,
"many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, when great famine was through
out all the land, but unto none of them was
Elias sent save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow. And many
lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the
prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving
Naaman the Syrian." These instances are
quoted by our Lord in order to prove that they
who are nearest to the means of grace and op
portunities of conviction are often least inclined
to profit by them, on which account they are
justly granted to others of a more humble and
teachable disposition.
i It seems, however, greatly to have galled the
people, not only that our Lord wrought mira
cles . in Capernaum before he did in Nazareth,
but that he should defend his course of conduct
by two such anti-Jewish examples of God's

76 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
dealing with men, whereby a Zidonian woman
and a Syrian nobleman — Gentiles — received di
vine favors denied to the lepers of Judah or the
famine-stricken of Israel.
They had implied in their talk with him,
"Whatsoever we have heard done in Caper
naum do also here in thy country. You wrought
miracles there, why not here?" His replying
in the way he did was virtually saying to them,
" You are unworthy of it, as Israel of old was
unworthy of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who
therefore were sent to work miracles among
the Gentiles. Elijah was sent to a heathen(
woman, and a heathen man was sent to Elisha."
Thus, not only was their national pride rebuked,
but they learned, from these instances of bless
ings given by some of their greatest prophets
to persons outside the pale of Israel, the lesson
that the Gentiles were to be called in to partici
pate in the covenant blessing of the God of
Abraham. The people were quick to see and to apply
these striking words and facts, and "all they
in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust
him out of the city, and led him unto the brow

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 77
of the hill whereon their city was built, that
they might cast him down headlong." What a
sudden change ! Behold the excited throng !
The solemn services of the Synagogue are »
rudely interrupted ; the ruler waits not to give
the parting blessing ; the people tarry not for a
benediction, but, " filled with wrath," rise up with
tumult and thrust the meek and lowly Jesus out
of the house, push him along the narrow streets
with noise and insult and. violence, and lead him
to the steep sides of the mountain which over
looks their town, that from its brow " they might
cast him down headlong." Their murderous
design was, however, miraculously thwarted, for
our Lord, " passing through the midst of them,"
eluded their grasp, "went his way and came
down to Capernaum."
Several places are pointed out as this " brow
of the hill." 1'he city is not built on a plain,
nor yet on a mountain, but rather on the sides
of hills which partially surround it. Up these
slopes the town creeps by means of its wind
ing streets and perched houses, while one hill,
in particular, overlooks the town very much
as the brow does the human face. In our
walks around Nazareth we saw one -place which

78 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
remarkably well accords with the description in
the text, where, on a rocky wall rising forty or
fifty feet, is built the Maronite church, and
which the Greeks say is the real spot indicated
by St. Luke. This is just on the edge of the
city ; is on what might fitly be called the " brow
of the hill," and overhangs it with sufficient
height and perpendicularity to cause the death
of any one who should be cast headlong from
its top.
According to the Latin or Romish Church, the
" Mount of Precipitation " is two miles distant
on a peak which does not overlook the city, but
overhangs the northern edge of the plain of
Esdraelon. To meet the objections made against
this place as too remote from Nazareth, the
monks reply that old Nazareth once stood there,
and that the new Nazareth does not occupy the
ancient site. Yet in this so-called new Naza'-
reth (and which is indeed new in all its build
ings, not one being here now which was in ex
istence at the time St. Luke wrote) they pretend
to show the grotto of the Annunciation, the#
house of the Virgin, the workshop of Joseph !
Their stories, alas ! do not agree ; they are out
of joint, and hence we give them all to the winds

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 7$
as worthless fables, forged by the father of lies
to deceive a relic-worshiping world.
Passing from these scenes, let us briefly
gather up the lessons which this Sabbath of
Jesus at Nazareth teaches.
The first is, that the utmost purity of life and
wisdom of speech will not secure its possessor
from the assaults of the ungodly. The Naza-
rethites could not bring against Jesus a single
charge affecting his moral character, or a single
sound argument to gainsay his gracious words.
He was literally " holy, harmless, undefiled, sepa
rate from sinners, full of wisdom and of the
grace of God." Yet he was hustled out of the
Synagogue and thrust along the highway and
pressed upon and insulted by the crowd, and led
away with murderous purpose as if he had been
a thief or a murderer. So that all his pa-t spot
less life, his years of acknowledged goodness,
were ¦ outweighed by the momentary exaspera
tion of a people chafing under the power of
truth. The second lesson shows us the power of
prejudice to blind the eye, deafen the ear, shut
the heart and warp the judgment against the
highest excellence. The prejudice in the case

80 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
of these people arose from their long-continued
familiarity with Jesus. It was an illustration of
the old proverb, " Familiarity breeds contempt,"
and also of our Lord's own remark, " A prophet
is not without honor save in his own country."
Had they not known him from his youth, had he
come to them from afar, had they been unable
to say, " Whose father and mother we know, and
his brethren and sisters, are they not with us ?"
he would have met with a different reception.
They would not have had these prejudices to
hoodwink their eyes and thus prevent their see
ing the excellences which shone out from Him
against whom their rage was so aroused.
Itshows us lastly the unfaltering perseverance
of Satan in his attempts to break down Jesus.
He had instigated Herod the king to destroy
the infant Jesus, but had been thwarted by the
flight into Egypt. He had tried to overthrow
his moral and Messianic character and bringr
him into allegiance to himself by his three
temptations in the wilderness. Routed in this
conflict by " the sword of the Spirit " as wielded
by Jesus, he now employs new measures of as
sault, and stirs up the jealousy and prejudice of
his townspeople as a means of destroying him,

THE FIRST SABBATH AT NAZARETH. 8 1
making them the instruments of his hate. In
this our Lord is an example to all his followers,
who must expect and be prepared for all kinds
of temptations and assaults from the enemy of
their souls, for " the disciple is not above his mas
ter, nor the servant above his lord." It is, how
ever, comforting to know that as Christ over
came in every conflict, directly from Satan or
indirectly through his emissaries, so we are as
sured that we shall finally conquer through him,
"for in that he himself hath suffered, being
tempted, he is able to succor them that are
tempted." That succor, given in answer to
prayer, will enable us to come off more than
conquerors through Christ that loved us.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM.

HIS PREACHING.
" And they went into Capernaum ; and straightway on the Sabbath
day he entered into the Synagogue and taught. And they were aston
ished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and
not as the scribes. And there was in their Synagogue a man with an
unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone; what have we
to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked
him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the
unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out
of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned
among themselves, saying, What thing is this ? what new doctrine is
this ? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and
they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad through
out all the region round about Galilee." Mark i. 21-28.
" And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them
on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for
his word was with power. And in. the Synagogue there was a man
which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with a loud
voice, saying, Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus
of Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art,
the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy
peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in
the midst, he came out of him and hurt him not. And they were all
amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this ! for
with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they
come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of the
country round about. Luke iv. 31-37.
82

>*r

CAPERNAUM AND SEA OP GALILEE.

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 83
flROM St. Luke's narrative we are led
to infer that our Lord, after he was
driven from Nazareth, crossed the
plain of Galilee, and descending the western
slope of the sea of Tiberias, went to Caper
naum and there took up his temporary abode.
This place is often mentioned in connection with
the residence and teaching and miracles of
Jesus, though its exact position is nowhere given
in the New Testament. Biblical geographers
are still uncertain as to its location, some advo
cating Khan Minyeh as the site, though the
weight of evidence places it at Tel-Hum, on the
northern shore of the sea of Galilee, and not
far west of the entrance of the river Jordan into
that sea. It was in the land of Gennesaret,
which, according to Josephus, was the most
populous, busy and wealthy part of Palestine,
and was one of several cities which almost lined
the western and northern shores of that lake.
It was a sort of common mart for all that dis
trict, and hence gathered to its shops and ware
houses merchants and artisans from all the sur
rounding nations.
Nothing but a mass of crumbling ruins now
exists to mark a spot once the busiest in all

84- THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
northern Palestine. Its glory has departed, and
desolation occupies its site.
When our Lord came to Capernaum, he came
to a large and flourishing town, which, by its
ships and its caravans, had commercial relations
with all the region round about; and here he
came in contact with the upland farmers, the
city mechanics, the lake fishermen, the Gaulon-
ite traders, the merchants from Damascus, the
Roman soldiers from Tiberias, the hated publi
can, the courtly nobleman, the learned scribe,
the haughty Pharisee. Jew and Gentile, bond
and free, all were found here. It was just the
kind of centre, therefore, which Jesus would
choose for the better dissemination of his word
and works. It was a great distributing point of
thought and influence, and hence by putting
himself there- he was enabled to scatter more
widely the seed of the word, and to do more to
attract attention and mould the thought of Jew
and Gentile than if he had restricted himself to
Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the sacred city, the mu
nicipal guardian of the Temple, was under the
dominion of the Priests, the Pharisees and the
Herodians. Against Jesus, as a common enemy,
they all combined, and he could not, therefore,

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 85
with any prospect of success, have established
himself there. Their subsequent treatment of
him showed what spirit they were of. His aim
during his earthly ministry was to get a hearing.
His miracles were wrought to attract attention
to his words and to certify their divinity. He
wanted the people to see his works and hear
his words, and nowhere could this so well be
accomplished as by taking up a temporary abode
in this commercial town, which is accordingly
spoken of as " His own city."
St. Mark says, " Straightway on the Sabbath
day he entered into the Synagogue and taught."
St. Luke says that he came down to Capernaum
and " taught them on the Sabbath days " — i. e.,
on more Sabbaths than one. This was doubt
less our Lord's usual Sabbath duty. He had
-been anointed by the Holy Ghost to preach glad
tidings, and he availed himself of the Synagogue
to do so week after week while he dwelt in Ca
pernaum. Neither St. Mark nor St. Luke tells
us what was the subject-matter of his teaching,
but St. Matthew incidentally gives it when
(chap. iv. 13), after saying that Jesus, "leaving
Nazareth, came and dwelt in Capernaum," and
then telling us that this act was a fulfillment of

86 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the prophecy of Isaiah in the opening of his
ninth chapter, he goes on to state, " From that
time (z. e., from the time of his_ going to Caper
naum) Jesus began to preach and to say, Re
pent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
This accords with what St. Mark (i. 14, 15) tells
us was the general theme of his discourses in
Galilee ; viz., " preaching the kingdom of God
and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the
gospel." Thus John the Baptist began his ministry as
the voice crying in the wilderness, " Repent ye,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Thus
the apostles began their ministry on the day of
Pentecost by preaching the fulfillment of the old
prophecies in Jesus of Nazareth, and the neces
sity of repentance and faith to all who would
obtain salvation. The summary of the preach
ing of Jesus, as recorded by St. Mark, embraces
the whole gospel. In declaring that " the time
is fulfilled," he claimed that all the Messianic
prophecies had culminated in him. In sayinp-
that "the kingdom of God," or "of heaven,"
" is at hand," he plainly showed that his office
was that of an inaugurator of this "fifth, univer-

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 87
sal, heavenly and everlasting kingdom foretold
by Daniel (ii. 44; vii. 14, 27), which is to super
sede all kingdoms of the earth, and to destroy
all that resist it," and that he came to earth,
therefore, with the authority of God and the en
dorsement of Heaven. In calling men "to re
pent," he announced the initial act which all
must do before they can enter into that king
dom, and he clearly declared thereby that an
unrepenting and an unbelieving man — i. e., man
by nature — man unrenewed by the Holy Ghost
— had no place therein ; while in requiring all
who would become partakers of that heavenly
kingdom to "believe the gospel," or the glad
tidings which he proclaimed, he taught the abso
lute necessity of faith as a constant accompani
ment of repentance, and as that without which
" it is impossible to please God."
Looking at the gospel, as we look at it,
through the glass of revelation, and remember
ing that Jesus regarded it as he and his Apostles
have since taught us to regard it, the gospel is
but a concrete term for the incarnate Christ.
The gospel is "God manifest in the flesh." The
gospel is the personal God-man, in whom only
is found salvation and eternal life ; for Jesus is

88 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
at once the object of our faith, the fountain of
our salvation, the procurer of our pardon, the
embodiment of all truth, the one only way to
God, the giver of eternal life, the one in whom
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
To believe the gospel is, then, to believe in
Jesus — to believe in and accept him, in his per
son, as God manifest in the flesh ; in his office,
as the Saviour of the world, the anointed Mes
siah ; and in his work as the reconciler of man
to God, the destroyer of the works of the devil
and the author of eternal salvation.
In what a glorious attitude does this present
our dear Lord ! An incarnate God ! Every
gospel blessing, every gospel truth, every gos
pel grace, every gospel glory, meeting in and
dwelling permanently in him, even as all light,
all heat, all the elements of beauty, all the con
stituents of bodily life, dwell in and flow from
the central sun. Jesus, in his conscious divinity,
knew this, and hence he required all his disci
ples to believe in him, to honor him, to drink of
him as out of a living well-spring, to feed on
him as a living bread sent down from heaven,
to abide in him as the branch abideth on the
vine, and to grow up into him as head over all

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 89
things to the Church which is his body." Had
Plato or Socrates, or any of the great teachers
of ancient philosophy, thus spoken, how would
they have been derided and come to naught !
They told men to believe in certain dogmas
elaborated in certain schools, but never did they
say to their disciples in the porch, the grove or
the academy, Believe in me, " I am the way,
the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me." This separates Jesus from
all other teachers, and this lifts up his truth
above all human doctrines, and gives to the
humble Preacher in the Synagogue of Caper
naum a power and a glory, before which the
proudest names of human philosophy fade away
as do the stars before the light of a noonday
sun. . With reference to the effect of Christ's teach
ing on the Sabbath in Capernaum two facts are
stated. First, it is said " that they were astonished at
his doctrine." This might mean either that the
people were astonished that one in such humble
life should be able to speak so well and fluently,
or else indicates their surprise at the new truths
which he proclaimed.
8*

90 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Either of these would constitute a good
ground of astonishment to the Capernaumites,
for, to all outward appearance, he was but an
ordinary workman from despised Nazareth, who
neither by birth, social standing nor education
had any special claim to their- regard.
But much as they were surprised at the force
and authority with which he spoke, there is no
doubt that the real ground of their astonish
ment was the astounding truths which he ut
tered. These, as we have just seen, though only
hinted at by the Evangelist, were yet the great
themes of Hebrew prophecy and Hebrew hope
for thousands of years, and therefore all true
Jewish hearts must have been stirred up by
their new proclamation. But then the way in
which these Messianic prophecies were fulfilled,
and the manner in which the kingdom of the
long looked-for Messiah was to be entered and
enjoyed, was something entirely different from
all their preconceived notions, and offended
their pride and all the instincts of the natural
heart. Our Lord, in his several discourses in Caper
naum, doubtless went into most interesting un-

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 9 1
foldings of type and prophecy and ritual of the
Old Testament, and of the Jewish economy.
He explained to them the hitherto obscure pas
sages of the Scriptures ; he applied to himself
their words as they taught the doctrine of the
Messiah and his holy and universal reign.
And then, too, he urged them to repentance,
to faith or belief in the gospel. He did not
urge more frequent attendance at the Syna
gogue, more frequent sacrifices at the altar,
more fastings, more tithings, more pilgrimages
to the holy city. He did not flatter their na
tional pride as Jews or foster their false hopes
of salvation because they were the children of
Abraham. On the contrary, passing by all those
things in which the Jews most prided themselves,
and by which he might gain for himself personal
popularity, he, like John the Baptist, lays the
axe at the root of the tree, and declares that
entrance into the kingdom of God is not ob
tained by being a Jew simply, by the sacrifices
of the law, by accepting the traditions of their
fathers, by any of the works which they do " to
be seen of men," by the most rigid Phariseeism
or by the most scrupulous Judaism, but only by
repentance and faith — a " repentance " which is

92 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the result of conscious sin and guilt in the sight
of God, which brings to one moral level Jew and
Gentile, which respects not words, but the in
most feelings of the soul, which makes one feel
his vileness and causes him to cry out for mercy ;
and a " faith," or belief, in the gospel which ena
bles one to recognize Jesus as the Saviour
whom " God hath set forth to be the propitiation
for sin," and to accept him as a personal Saviour
in all the fullness and ffeeness of his divine
grace. These were new truths to the Caper
naumites, and well might they be "astonished"
at their bold enunciation, for it is said that " His
word was with power."
The second marked effect of his preaching
was that they immediately drew a distinction
between the teaching of Jesus and that of the
scribes : " He taught as one that had authority,
and not as the scribes."
This contrast is exceedingly interesting, as it
unlocks to us the wretched state of public
teaching then common in the Synagogues and
schools, and places it in strong opposition to
the pure, clear, pungent doctrine of the blessed
Jesus. The scribes were the learned class among the

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 93
Jews, and were the recognized custodians and
expounders of the law of Moses and of the
prophets. They were usually of Priestly or Le
vitical rank ; to them was specially entrusted the
multiplication of copies of the Old Testament,
to the study of which they devoted themselves
with much assiduity. " Our fathers," said Simon
the Just, one of their great scribes, 300 years
B. C, " have taught us three things — to be cau
tious in judging, to train many scholars and. to
set a fence about the law." As. transcribers of
the law they acquitted themselves with wonder
ful accuracy and conscientiousness. Nothing
could exceed their care of the sacred text.
They were scrupulously minute as to words,
letters and points. To their minute accuracy
and watchful fidelity we owe the preservation
of the very words of the Old Testament. They
looked with superstitious reverence upon every
letter and numeral of the divine word, and
guarded it from any admixture of man with
jealous care. Yet while thus vigilant as to the
letter of Scripture, and while nothing would
have induced them to add a "jot" or "tittle" to
the text, they virtually made void the law by
their traditions. These traditions, or current

94 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
precepts, which had been handed down to them
from their fathers, were concreted into the
Mishna. To this code was added the Gemara,
in which were gathered the decisions of Rabbis,
the fables of Jewish superstition, and together
these constituted the Talmud, or the great body-
of rabbinical law. This work, the Jerusalem Tal
mud, though not published until the fourth cen
tury after Christ, is a transcript, however, of what
was held and taught orally in our Lord's day, and
enables us to see the puerility, the superstition,
the folly, the blasphemy even, of those traditions
of the scribes and elders which Jesus so re
buked in his sermon on the mount and in all his
interviews with this class. Witness his denun
ciation of them as recorded in the twenty-third
chapter of St. Matthew, where, after saying that
"the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do," he goes on to say, " But
do not ye after their works, for they say and do
not, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous
to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with
one of their fingers ; but all their works they
do for to be seen of men ; they make broad

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 95
their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of
their garments, and love the uppermost rooms
at feasts, and the chief seats in the Synagogues,
and greetings in the market, and to be called of
men, Rabbi, Rabbi." Then, warning his hearers
against following them, our Lord utters eight
woes against them, which may be considered as
eight counts in his indictment against this law-,
perverting and soul-destroying class. In these
denunciations against these hypocrites he thus
charges them : " Ye shut up the kingdom against
men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suf
fer ye them that are entering to go in." "Ye
devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make
long prayers." "Ye compass sea and land to
make one proselyte, and when he is made' ye
make him twofold more the child of hell than
yourselves." " Ye blind guides which say, Who
soever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing,
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the
temple, he is a debtor. Whosoever shall swear
by the altar, it is nothing, but whosoever swear-
eth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye
pay tithes of mint and anise and cummin, and
have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, faith." " Ye strain at a gnat

96 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
and" swallow a camel." "Ye make clean the
outside of the cup and of the platter, but within
they are full of extortion and excess." " Ye are
like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear
beautiful outward, but are within full of dead
men's bones and of all uncleanness ; even so ye
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but
within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity/'
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can
ye escape the damnation of hell?" This was
the deliberate Judgment of Him who "knew
what was in ' man," who knew the thoughts and
intents of the heart, and whose judgment was
just and true. We can scarcely imagine a class
of men who, considering- their official position^
their social standing and their avowed sanctity,
were more thoroughly rotten and morally lep
rous than these blind guides who sat in Moses'
seat, and who were the recognized expounders
Of God's holy law. How great and deep-seated
must have been the crimes of these people to
call out from the meek and lowly Jesus such
maledictions ! How he rose above all personal
considerations of interest or of fear, when he
thus publicly, and renewedly, denounced such
woes, not against the lowest orders of society,

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 97
but against the highest and most learned class,
the most powerful in State and Synagogue, the
very men whom he knew would in a few days
crown their life of infamy by putting him to a
death of shame !
Of the puerility of the teachings of these
scribes instances might be adduced sufficient to
fill a volume ; only a few need be inserted here
as indicative of all. From the text, " Thou hast
fashioned me behind and before," they deduced
the conclusion that Adam was made with two
faces, and that Eve was made by sawing him
asunder. "If a man should be born with two
heads, on which forehead should he bind the
phylacteries?" is a sample of the subjects of
their most serious discussions. On the feast of
Purim the pious Jew was recommended to
make himself so mellow that he should not.be
able to distinguish-between " Cursed be Haman"
and " Blessed be Mordecai."
From the Mosaic provision of divorce the
conclusion was drawn that a man .might divorce
his wife whenever he found a woman handsomer
and more to his liking, since his wife no longer
found favor in his eyes. But enough of this.
Yet with few exceptions such was the general

98 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
tone of the teaching in the schools and in the
Synagogues,-by the scribes and Pharisees, the
recognized doctors of the law.
It required, therefore, not much sagacity to
discern the difference between our Lord's teach
ing and theirs, and to contrast the power of the
truth and the authority of the speaker with the
emptiness of the doctrines and the hesitancy and
uncertainty of those who thus taught for com
mandments the traditions of men.
They were doubtful teachers, not fully believ
ing the truths they pretended to expound. They
were false teachers, setting aside the great truths
of Jehovah for the puerile comments of men,
exalting the ceremonial over the moral law, and
making the essence of religion to consist in
washing of hands and pots and kettles, in the
breadth of the border of the garment, in the
size and number of the phylacteries, in the tith
ing of anise and mint and cummin, rather than
in love to God and in a life of obedience to his
commandments. This led to the complete io--
noring of that. grand Messianic scheme which
was the . central theme of all their law, their
prophecy, their ritual, their4;heocracy, and which,
had it been rightly taught, would have fired their

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 99
hearts, quickened their minds and inspired them
with holiest hopes and a living faith.
For this was the "power" that accompanied
Jesus' teaching. He taught not the silly sput-
terings of babbling scribes, but the great utter
ances of God as comprehended by his divine
mind. He spoke not doubtingly or with uncertainty
as to what was or was not right and good and
true, as they did, but with the "authority" and
the positiveness of incarnate truth, speaking, as
he said to Nicodemus, "that we do know, and
testifying that we have seen."
Could there be greater contrasts as to the
persons who taught, the manner in which they
spoke, the doctrines they inculcated, and the ef
fects which followed ?
Well might they be " astonished at his doc
trine, for his word was with power."

CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM.
(Continued.)
CHRIST'S WORKS IN THE SYNAGOGUE.
E have seen the "power" of Christ's
word on the Sabbath : let us now con
sider the "power" of Christ's deeds
at the same time and place.
The subject thus introduced is that of per
sons possessed with devils, or demoniacal pos
session. That there were such cases in our
Lord's day is proven by the frequent mention
of them in the New Testament. In the Gospels
generally, in James ii. 19, and in Rev. xiv. 15
the demons are spoken of as spiritual beings at
enmity with God, and having power to afflict
man, not only with disease, but, as is marked by
the frequent epithet, " unclean," with spiritual
pollution also. They "believe" in the exist
ence of Christ, " and tremble." They recognize
Jesus as the Son of God, and acknowledge the
100

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. IOI
power of his name used in exorcism by his ap
pointed ministers as equal to the name of Jeho
vah (Acts xix. 15), and look forward in terror
to the judgment to come. The description is
precisely that of a nature akin to the angelic in
knowledge and power, but with the emphatic
addition of the idea of positive and active
wickedness. That these evil spirits, were per
mitted by God at that time to possess certain
persons does not, in the face of the facts of the
New Testament, admit of a doubt. That they
are riot merely "symbolic utterances," "unreal
in actual life," as the mythical school teaches, is
evident from the way in which all these narra
tives are introduced, so that, if they are myths,
all else is mythical ; they are part and parcel of
the same web of history, and are with other
facts its warp and woof. Take one set away,
and you destroy the whole texture. If these
are myths, then all that is miraculous in the
Bible is a myth, and Judaism as the conservator
of the covenant promises of God, of the truth
of God, of the worship of God and the usherer
in of the Messiah ; and Christianity as the ripe
fruit of that budding and blossoming Judaism,
with all its grand and elevating influences upon
9*

102 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the world of politics, the world of letters, the
world of morals, the world of art, are no better
than the mythology of Homer or the theogony
of Hesiod. That they were not, as some sup
pose, mere cases of moral insanity, though they
have many symptoms-in common, is proved by
the fact that our Lord addresses himself several
times to the demon itself, speaks to him and of
him as something distinct from the man himself,
as when he said (Mark i. 25), "Hold thy peace
and come out of him ;" from the fact, that they
had a personal knowledge of Christ as being
not as the Jews generally called him, " the Son
of David," but as "the Son of God;" and again
they said, "We know thee who thou art, the
holy One of God ;" from the fact, that they
asked questions aside from anything that could
have been personal to the man possessed, and
they marked their own individualism and their
perfect distinctness of personality from the un
fortunates whom they temporarily subjected to
their thrall, by asking, " If thou cast us out, suf
fer us to go away into the herd of swine."
These, with many other facts and reasons, abun
dantly discriminate these cases from those which
in our day are classed under the head of moral

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. IO3
insanity. That-theory completely fails to meet
and satisfy all the demands of the various cases
stated in the Gospels,
That our Lord fell in with the common belief
of the day, and used the superstitious language
of the times in order not only not to run coun
ter to the Jewish prejudices, but also and espe
cially thereby. to augment the greatness of his
pretended cures, is to attribute to him falsehood
in speaking what he knew to be untrue ; dissimu
lation in countenancing gross error ; and a pan
dering to the popular taste and sentiment such
as can be found in no one act of his whole life.
It would make our blessed Lord deceitful,
cringing, hypocritical and false. " The alle
giance we owe to Christ as the King of truth,
who came not to fall in with men's errors, but to
deliver men out of their errors, compels us to
believe that he would never have used language
whichwould have upheld and confirmed so se
rious an error in the minds of men as the belief
in satanic influences which did not in truth exist,
for this error, if it was an error, was so little an
innocuous one, such as might be left to drop
naturally away, did, on the contrary, reach so far
in its consequences, entwined its roots so deeply

IO4 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
among the very ground truths of religion that
he would, never have suffered it to remain at
the hazard1 of all the misgrowths which it could
not fail to occasion."
" Even had not the moral interests at stake
been so transcendent, our idea of Christ's abso
lute veracity, apart from the value of the truth
which he communicated, forbids us to suppose
that he could have spoken as he did, being per
fectly aware all the' while that there was no cor
responding reality to justify the language which
he used. Take, for instance, his words (Luke
xi. 17-26. His reply to those who said he cast
out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils),
and assume him to have known all the while he
was thus speaking that the whole Jewish belief
of demoniac possessions was utterly baseless,
that Satan exercised no such power over the
bodies or spirits of men, that, indeed, properly
speaking, there was no Satan at all, and what
should we have here for a king of truth ?"
It involves more difficulties and. requires more
credulity to accept the rationalistic and mythical
explanations of these passages, than to believe
the generally received and literal interpretation
of them as declaring " that there are evil spirits,

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 105
subjects of the evil one, who in the days of the
Lord himself, and his Apostles especially, were
permitted by God to exercise a direct and con
trolling influence over the souls and bodies of
certain men, producing violent agitations and
great sufferings both mental and corporeal."'
While we confess, then, that there is much
that is mysterious and inexplicable in the sev
eral narratives of the demoniacs, we are bound
by all the laws of evidence and reason to accept
their statements, not only because they are part
and parcel of one grand revelation, and so can
not be disjointed and removed without detri
ment to the whole, but also because they are
more easily explained in the position they hold,
and by their surroundings in the several Gos
pels, than by any other system of interpretation.
"For this purpose," says St, John, "the Son
of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of ^the devil;" and surely by no
method could our Lord make this appear more
visible or tangible to men, than by healing
all manner of diseases which constituted one
crop of Satan's sowings in our bodies, and by
casting out devils from those, whom the prince
of darkness had brought under his thrall ; for in

106 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
both cases there was a direct appeal to men's
senses — to their absolute knowledge of things
as an evidence of good results effected — which
they could not, in the face of the facts, deny.
Let us now consider the miracle itself. In
the Capernaum Synagogue, drawn thither by
impulses which we cannot know, was one of the
demoniacs — one who, as St. Mark says, had " an
unclean spirit," or, as St. Luke writes, he " had a
spirit of an unclean devil."
The terms "clean" and "unclean" are bor
rowed from the Levitical law, where certain
things, certain acts and certain conditions were
termed by that law as being "unclean" or defil
ing, and as necessarily excluding such persons
or things from participation and use in the rites
and ceremonies of that ritual. David used the
terms to express spiritual purity or holiness.
Hence he says, " Create in me, O God, a clean
heart." " Cleanse thou me from my secret
faults;" and in reply to the question, "Who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ?" the
Psalmist replies, " He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart," etc.
The gospel use of the term unclean is equiva
lent to sinful, or unholy, and means the absence

THE, FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 107
of purity, of soundness, of goodness, of holi
ness. All sin is uncleanness, and it is thus spoken
of . in a general term by the apostle when he
says, " God hath not called us unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness."
Our blessed Lord also, speaking to his disci
ples, said of them, after he had washed their
feet (John xiii. 10, n), "Ye are clean, but not
all, for he knew who should betray him, there
fore said he, Ye are not all clean."
The uncleanness of sin results from the fact
that it attacks the holiness of God, and would,
were it universally prevalent, eradicate all purity
from the world. Sin is the work of the devil,
for the apostle says (i John iii. 8), " He that
committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sin-
neth from the beginning." He is the moral an
tagonist of Jehovah. He is, therefore, by this
very antagonism, unclean, unholy, the opposite
of whatever God is in his perfection., There is
in him no moral uprightness, no truth, no purity,
no goodness. He is " the enemy and the oppo
nent of all righteousness," and all the deeds he
has done since his rebellion in heaven, and all
the deeds which he has instigated his servants

108 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
to do on this "earth, from the temptation of Eve
in the garden of Eden to this hour, have been
unclean, a defiling of man made in the image of
God, a defiling of God's law, the reflection of
the holiness of God ; a defiling of the character
and work of Jesus, the brightness of the Fath
er's glory and the express image of his person ;
a defiling of the revealed will of God as holy
men wrote it as they w^re moved by the Holy
Ghost; a defiling of the Church of the living
God, the mystical body of Christ, by polluting it
with heresy and superstition and evil living of
its professors. Thus sin, Unclean in its nature,
its .origin, its influence, seeks ever to make un-
clean what it touches, and gives to each soul that
moral defilement, that spiritual pollution, which
makes it in the sight of God unclean,' and which
requires for its cleansing that, and that alone,
which can change its character and give it
purity — viz., atoning blood ; for it is a great and
a sublime and a most comforting truth " that the
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cloanseth us from
all sins."
Every sinner is thus the servant of an " un
clean" master. Every sin is an "unclean" act,
and a life of sin is a daily adding of uncleanness

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. IO9
to uncleanness until both the substance and the
surface of the soul, its inward principles and its
outward manifestations, are full of pollution, an
object of just abhorrence to holy angels and a
holy God, who, we are told, cannot look upon
sin but with abhorrence. The man thus pos
sessed "with the spirit of an unclean devil"
had, it may be, lucid intervals, and in one of
these temporary lulls perhaps he went to the
Synagogue. During the teaching of Jesus the
man began to manifest symptoms of demoniacal
possession ; and though it does not appear that
our Lord had addressed a word to him, yet he
cried out with a loud voice, "Let us alone.
What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of
Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ? I
know thee who thou art, the holy One of God."
Such an interruption of the discourse of Jesus
must have spread terror in the minds of the
congregation, and we may readily imagine the
alarm that would be produced by the presence
of a demoniac under the active spell and po
tency of an unclean spirit, not knowing what he
might say or what he might do.
To reassure the trembling audience ready to
break away from so dreaded a spectacle, to stop

10

HO THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the undesired confession and acknowledgment
of the evil one, and to manifest his own power
over the unseen spirits thus Working their foul
work through human agencies, our Lord calls
out, not to the man/ but to the devil within him,
" Hold thy peace and come out of him." He
thus recognized the presence within the man of
a spiritual agent separate and apart from the
man, a duality of existence wherein the human
was subjected and captive to the demon who in
habited him, the subordination of the whole man
to the power of the devil. To the command of
Jesus, " Hold thy peace and come out of him,"
there was an immediate though reluctant obe
dience. The unclean spirit was not willing to
go, and yet go he must, but go he would not until
he had done all the hurt which his limited and
impotent rage permitted, and hence it is stated by
St. Mark that "when he had torn him and cried
out with a. loud voice, he came out of him," and
by St. Luke, " When the devil had thrown him
in the midst, he came out of him and hurt him
not." These accounts seem to show that as
soon as the unclean spirit heard the word of
Christ he threw the man into violent convulsions,
during the paroxysm of which he was torn with

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. Ill
pain and suffering, so that he fell writhing in the
midst of the people, and uttering the loud and
terrifying, though inarticulate, cry of blended
rage on the part of the devil and torture on the
part of the demoniac, so that it sounded through
the Synagogue like the yell of a defeated yet
still defiant spirit, the unclean spirit departed
from him. We have at Mark ix. 26 (cf. Luke
ix. 42) an analogous case, although there a par
oxysm more violent still accompanies the going
out of the foul spirit, "for what the devil cannot
keep as his own he will, if he can, destroy ; even
as Pharaoh never treated the children of Israel
so ill as then, when they were just escaping
from their grasp. Something similar is ever
more finding place, and Satan tempts, plagues
and buffets none so fiercely as those who are in
the act of being delivered from his tyranny for
ever." The exclamation of the man, "Let us
alone, thou Jesus of Nazareth; art thou come
to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art, the
holy One of God," showed that the evil spirits
knew Christ even in his guise of humanity, as
if this man had said, " You appear outwardly as
- only Jesus of Nazareth, but I know thee who
thou art, the holy One of God ;" and with this

112 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
confession as to the person of Jesus there was
also implied an acknowledgment of his power
and authority over them, for the unclean spirit
asked, "Art thou come to destroy us ?" They
knew that it was the work of the Messiah, whose
presence under the garb and name of Jesus of
Nazareth they recognized, to destroy the work
of the devil and to bind hand and foot and cast
into outer darkness, where their worm dieth hot
and the fire is not quenched, all those his ene
mies, men or devils, who will not submit lovingly
to his' sceptre and dominion.
This and other similar confessions of the
unclean spirits show also that the devils know
what is to be their ultimate fate, that they are to
be destroyed ; not destroyed by annihilation —
that is directly contrary to the clear teachings
of the Bible — but destroyed in a sense corre
sponding with the term "second death;" that
destruction of all hope, all love, all peace,
all joy, all rest, which will be the doom of the
wicked, that dying out within them of every
thing that once was good, that deadness of the
soul to all the high and holy bliss of heaven,
that entombment of the disembodied spirit in
the eternal prison-house of the lost, where the

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 113
smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and
ever. In directing the devil who had made this con
fession concerning Jesus to " hold his peace," or,
literally, "be muzzled," Jesus showed that he
wanted not his testimony to His divine mis
sion. The truth needed no witness to it
from the " father of lies ;" nor was Jesus to be
bought off from his purpose of dispossessing
this poor man by the flattery of the unclean
spirit within him, saying that he was the holy
One of God, and that he had the power to
destroy him.
What Jesus did in this case we find he did also
in others, for it is said in another place, " He suf-
.fered not the devils to speak, because they knew
him," conscious, perhaps, that their attestation
might weaken the force of his words, and subject
his ministry and his works to the charge of col
lusion with the spirits whom he thus appeared to
cast out. Indeed, we find that this was at length
distinctly charged upon him : " He casteth out
devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils ;" and
on another occasion, after listening to words
which because of their spirituality and power
they could not comprehend, the people said,
10 a »

114 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
"He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye
him ?"
The credentials which Jesus demanded of
these unclean spirits were not confessions as to
his person and his power, but obedience to his
word. By going out of men at his bidding, they
gave a higher proof of Jesus' divinity and cha
racter as the Redeemer from sin, than could pos
sibly arise from all the confessions of all fallen
angels. By going out at Jesus' bidding they
showed to the world that in him lay a higher
power — a power they could not resist, a power
that only temporarily held back their foretold
destruction — that they and their master and the
whole realm of evil which they represented were
subordinated to the word of Jesus, and thus ac
knowledged his superiority.
And when we ponder on it for a moment,
what a wonderful testimony to Christ was thus
borne to his Messiahship, by the fact that in
every instance mentioned in the Gospels, the
devils knew him, feared him, obeyed him, fled
from his presence, and deprecated his power!
How it tells of the inherent divinity that was
thus temporarily overshadowed by his humanity
which could speak with such authority ! How

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 115
it tells of his supreme dominion over the whole
world of spirits, the good and the bad being
alike subjects of his universal rule— the angels
to minister unto him, ;the devils, to believe and
tremble, both to bow before him !
The effects of this act of Jesus produced great
amazement and great questionings. As this
was doubtless the first time that. he had wrought
such a miracle, and the first time that any such
dispossession of evil spirits had taken place,
they were entirely unprepared for such a mani
festation of divine power, such a grappling with
the spirits of evil, such an assertion of control
over the unseen world, such a concentrating of
power in speech, as they then saw in their Syna
gogue. No wonder they were amazed, con
founded, alarmed. No wonder that they, ques
tioned with themselves, What a word is this ?
what new doctrine is this ? what thing is this ?
for with authority and power he commandeth
the unclean spirits and they do obey him.
Thus wondering and discussing among them
selves at what they had seen and heard, the
congregation of the Synagogue broke up into
little knots of eager talkers and listeners,
and as they went their several ways, they

Il6 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
told all -they met of what had been done, until
the city was rife with the story, and all Caper
naum heard with astonishment that the new citi
zen, Jesus, who had so recently come to their
town from Nazareth, had that day spoken words
such as their ears never before heard — words of
truth and holiness and power— and done a deed
that day such as had never been wrought in all
Israel, the tangible and living evidence of which
was before them in the dispossessed man and
the hundred witnessing people, so that they
could not gainsay or disbelieve without distrust
ing the evidence of their senses and the credi
bility of their friends. This miracle and this
teaching gave to Jesus a prominence which drew
to him all eyes, all ears, as a great wonder
worker in Israel, for " his fame spread abroad
throughout all the region round about Galilee."

CHAPTER VI.
THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM.
(Continued.)
CHRIST OUTSIDE THE SYNAGOGUE.
" And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's
mother laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the
fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them. When the
even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with
devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that
were sick : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the
prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses."
Matt. viii. 14-17.
" And forthwith, when they were come out of the Synagogue, they
entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and anon they.tell him
of her. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and
immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And at
even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were dis
eased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was
gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of
divers diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to
speak, because they knew him." Mark i. 29-34.
'¦ And he arose out of the Synagogue and entered into Simon's
house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and
they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked the
fever, and it left her, and immediately she arose and ministered unto
them. Now, when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with
divers diseases brought them unto him, and he laid his hands on every
one of them and healed them. And devils also came out of many,
crying out and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he, re
buking them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew that he was
Christ." Luke iv. 38-41. 117

Il8 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
jHE service of the Synagogue, conform
ing to the hours of temple worship,
began at nine o'clock, the third hour
of the day, and would ordinarily end before
noon. On this occasion, however, the exercises
were interrupted by the demoniac and the con
sequent act of Jesus in casting out the unclean
spirit, and the people dispersed in astonishment,
without waiting for the ,usual benediction.
Jesus had already called Peter and Andrew,
James and John, the two pairs of brothers, from
their fishing boats and nets to be his disciples
and to become " fishers of men," and now, ac
cepting an invitation from the two elder breth
ren, he goes to the house of Simon Peter for
the Sabbath meal, which, according to Josephus,
was usually eaten at the sixth hour, or twelve
O'clock. The dwelling which he entered is called
by St. Matthew "the house of Peter," by St.
Mark, " the house of Simon and Andrew," and
by St. Luke, "the house of Simon." The two
latter evangelists speak of Peter {i.e., rock),
surnamed thus by our Lord after his memorable
confession of him as " the Christ," by his earlier
Syriac name of Simon (z. e'., hearer).
St. Mark, who wrote under the special direc-

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. H9
tion of St. Peter, and who, therefore, in the facts
concerning him, wrote with greater minuteness
of detail, says that the building was " the house
of Simon and Andrew," as if it was the joint
property of the sons of Jonas, or at least occu
pied by the families of each.
Here, then, was the home of the two first-
called apostles. There is nothing to indicate
whether it was large or small, well or poorly
furnished, in a prominent or a retired part of
the town. All that we know with certainty of
their worldly condition is that they were fisher
men, that they owned one of the fleet of fishing-
smacks, or small vessels, which sailed on the
lake, that they owned a dwelling in Capernaum,
that Peter was a married man, that Peter's wife's
mother was living with them, that they extended
their plain hospitality to Jesus by asking him to
take his mid-day Sabbath meal with them, that
they included James and John in this invitation,
and that our Lord rewarded their hospitality by
a miracle of mercy to the sick mother-in-law of
Peter. We infer from St. Mark's record that Jesus
was not informed of the sickness of Peter's
wife's mother until after he had gone to. the

120 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
house, for he says, " He entered into the house
of Simon and Andrew, . . . and anon they tell him
of her." She was " laid," or prostrate, thrown
down, on a bed, " sick of a great fever." From
the term translated "great," by which St. Luke,
himself a physician, characterizes' this fever, fol
lowing therein the distinction made by Galen
and the Greek physicians of "great" and
" small " fevers, we infer that the sickness was a
high grade of Syrian fever, such as is often met
with at this day in those regions, and which was
frequently and rapidly fatal. No sooner is he
informed of her illness than he goes to her
room, and standing by her bed, takes her hand,
rebukes the fever, gently lifts her up (for all
these acts are hinted at by the several writers),
and immediately the fever left her and she arises
well and strong. The healing medicine here
was Christ's rebuking word to the fever. This
word " rebuked " is surely worthy of special no
tice here, for it implies the presence of some
hostile power and the rebuking or turning back
that power by a superior and controlling power.
The word is the same as that used in quelling
the stOrm upon the Sea of Galilee, when it is
said, "Then he arose and rebuked the wind and

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 121
the sea, and there was a great calm." In the
case of the stormy sea there was a great tem
pest above, together with the raging of the
water dashing over the ship, and the rebuke
was couched in the words, "Peace, be still."
The immediate subsidence of winds and waves
into " a great calm " showed how obedient these
powers of nature, even in their wildest and
most furious state, are to their Lord and Master,
and how he makes them, as servitors of his will,
do his bidding and submit to his sway. Just so
with one tempest-tossed with a raging fever,
restless, delirious, so that the whole surface of
his being is furrowed with the waves of pain as,
like successive billows, they roll over the system
in the exacerbations of fever. The rebuke of
Jesus to the assailing fever, this boisterous and
disturbing power, " Peace, be still," hushes at
once its violence', breaks at once its force, drives
away at once its pain, restores at once the
poised mind, the steady will, the strong limbs,
the quiet heart.
The results of this beneficent act of Jesus
were immediate : " the fever left her." But it
did not leave her, as fevers ordinarily do, with an
exhausting weakness after the artificial strength
" 11

122 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
. of the febrile attack. It did not leave her pros
trated in the contest, requiring care, nursing,
food, in order to build up the system and repair
the wasted strength through the usual process
of slow convalescence, for we are told that not
only did the fever leave her, but " she arose and
ministered unto them." She proved the sound
ness and the quickness of her recovery by at
once doing the personal services which the rites
of hospitality required. Thus the word of Christ
not only rebuked the fever, but invoked health,
not only banished pain and suffering and weak
ness, but infused strength, activity and all ma
tronly energy. It was a double miracle. Jesus
had, perhaps, never been under that roof before,
yet what a blessing he brought to that house !
and how the miracle-healed mother must have
rejoiced that her son-in-law was the professed
disciple of Him who could command not only
the wind and the waves, butdiseases and devils,
and they obey him !
This narrative is also interesting as it inci
dentally brings out two facts: first, that the
apostle Peter was a married man. It was his
" wife's mother " that was healed. If Peter, the
head .of the college of the apostles, the " Rock "

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 1 23
on which, as so many contend, the Lord builded
his Church, the " founder," as is claimed by self-
styled infallibilists, of "the Church of Rome,"
from whom the pope derives his power of the
keys, and up to whom he traces his ecclesias
tical lineage, — if Peter could be married, and,
as St. Paul says (i Co/, ix. 5), "Lead about a
wife," surely his successors may do the same,
for they are not more pure and holy than he,
and to forbid any tO do it, is to forbid what
our Lord himself countenanced and approved.
The second fact is, that by his presence in that
house, and by his miracle wrought there under
those circumstances, he evinced his approval of
the marital state in which he found his servant
Peter. If Jesus had disapproved of marriage
and of marriage feasts, would he have wrought
his "beginning of miracles" to enhance the
pleasure of a bridal banquet? and* if Jesus had
disapproved of his ministers having wives and
desired them to be celibates, would he have ac
cepted the hospitality of a married apostle and
wrought a miracle to heal his wife's mother?
Most certainly not.
But the work of the day is not yet over.
The Jewish style of reckoning was from sunset

124 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
to sunset, hence the Sabbath ended with the
going down of the sun. The strictness which
till that hour had been so scrupulously observed
was then relaxed, and works might be done then
which it would have been unlawful to do an
hour before. But though the solemn observ
ances of the day were over, yet the sacred influ
ence of the Sabbath still lingered, as did the
twilight of the Sabbath sun, and while strictness
was relaxed, hallowed feelings and words still
lingered above the horizon which had hid the
setting Sabbath. So soon, therefore, as this
hour arrived, we find that all Capernaum is astir.
The streets are being filled, and the throngs are
directing their steps toward Peter's house. But
what a strange motley of people ! Not only the
usual elements of a crowd, the young and old,
man and woman, the higher and the lower
classes, the rude and the refined, but see ! there
is one mother carrying in her arms a sick infant,
there is a person leading a blind man, there is a
litter borne by two persons on which lies a pa
tient deathly sick, there is a group struggling to
get along with them a raving maniac, there is a
helpless paralytic carried by his friends, there
goes the cripple slowly crawling over the rough

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 1 25
pavement. What a strange' congregation of
sick and diseased and maimed and deaf and
dumb and blind and epileptic and demonized
persons, yet all eager, all anxious, all with faces
set toward one spot ! What means this unusual
sight, never before seen in that city ? Why this
gathering to the house of this fisherman ? It is
because Jesus is there. They have heard of his
morning miracle, they have caught rumors of
other wondrous works, they recognize among
them the presence of One who can do what hu
man love and tenderness, human physicians and
surgeons, cannot do, and they come in crowds,
some to ask his help for themselves and friends,
and others prompted by curiosity to see whether
or no this Jesus of Nazareth can do what report
says he has done in other places ; and so it came
to pass, as St. Mark has it, "All the city was
gathered together at the door."
Nor were they gathered in vain. The Lord
Jesus goes out to them as they crowd the streets
and open spaces, and passing from one to an
other, lays his hands on every one — not one
overlooked — and heals them all. He also cast
out many devils "with his word," who, as they
came out of their victims, cried out, saying,

126 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
" Thou art Christ, the Son of God ; but Jesus
rebuked them and suffered them not to speak,
for they knew that he was Christ ;" and he was
not willing that their impure tongues should
proclaim his holy mission, lest, in the perverted
minds of those who were ever seeking occasion
to denounce him, the testimony of these unclean
spirits to his person arid mission might mar the
work which he came to accomplish.
What a Sabbath evening scene was that ! As
one after another was healed and stood up in
the full flush of health, as the cripple walked, as
the blind saw, as the dumb spake, as the crook
ed was made straight, as the paralytic became
strong, as the sick were made well, how each in
turn must have added to the common stock of
joy, each caused fresh wonder to the gaping
crowd, each observed the exhaustless fullness
of healing grace which showed itself as strong
in casting out the last devil as in curing the first
fever! The shadows of the evening crept over
the surrounding hills, the short but lovely twi
light had departed, and the stars looked down
and glassed themselves in the mirror-like lake
below them, before the loving work of Jesus was
over, and there remained not a sick or demoniac

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 1 27
person in that whole city of Capernaum except
such as may have refused to go to Jesus. Who
can tell the joy that Jesus thus sent into many
hearts and many homes? Who can measure
the sorrow and the suffering which thus, at a
word, he drove away? and as the citizens after
such intense excitement settled themselves to
their nightly sleep, they must have wondered at
the marvelous change which one short hour had
wrought in their social- life, leaving not a sick
person to be watched over or cared for, but all,
without exception, could lie down in health and
sleep in peace, because the great Healer had
scattered broadcast his blessings and taken
away the long-existing evils, and given freely,
without money and without price, life, health
and soundness of mind and body to all who
sought his healing power.
St. Matthew gives the keynote to this whole
transaction when he adds to his account of it
these remarkable words : " That it might be ful
filled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet,
saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare
our sicknesses." The words of Isaiah (liii. 4),
in our English version, are, " Surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." The

L28 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
chapter in which these words occur is one of the
most touchingly Messianic of all his prophecies.
From the beginning to the end the one theme
is the Messiah — Messiah rejected, Messiah suf
fering, Messiah in his vicarious redemption,
Messiah the sin-bearer, Messiah conquering and
Messiah in final triumph.
- The words, as originally uttered, evidently
had a double meaning, referring primarily to
Christ's bearing away or carrying away our sins,
an act typified by the scapegoat on the great
day of atonement, when the selected victim,
having had, as it were, laid upon his head by
the imposition of the high priest's hands "all
the sins of the children of Israel" which they
had before confessed, was given over to the
hand of a special messenger to be led away into
the wilderness, " into a land not inhabited," and
was there let loose. Thus symbolically the
scapegoat bore away the sins of the people.
All this was a figure of Christ, the true sin-
bearer, to whom all the types of the Levitical
ritual pointed, and who alone "bore away" our
sins. Isaiah uses the words, "griefs," "sorrows,"
putting the effect for the cause. Sin always,

THE FIRST' SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 1 29 ,
however sweet at the first taste, brings eventual
grief and sorrow, and the root of every grief
and sorrow that afflicts man is sin. St. Mat
thew applies it to another form of sin's doings,
and still, like Isaiah, putting the effect for the
cause, says, after the wondrous putting forth of
healing power on that Sabbath evening, " Him
self took our infirmities and bare our sick
nesses." Sin brings in infirmities and sickness.
There is not a cause of human suffering that
does, not find its origin in sin, and it is the mani
fold and wide-branching results of sin which
cover the earth as with sackcloth, which fill it
with sick bodies and diseased souls, which make
it a vast lazar-house of infirmity and woe. It is
all sin's work, its fruit, its wages.
The taking away of these physical effects of
sin — an act beyond all human power — proved
that he could take away sin itself the parent of
this progeny of disease and death.
Our Lord himself appeals to this in the case
of the man sick of the palsy, for when the
scribes objected to his saying to the paralytic,
" Thy sins be forgiven thee," charging him with
speaking blasphemies and declaring that God
only can forgive sin, Jesus simply adds, "But

130 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
that ye may know that the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sin, he saith.to the
sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take
up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."
As if he had said, You challenge my right to
forgive sin, you accuse me of blasphemy in say
ing what I did, because it is the sole preroga
tive of God to forgive sin. I will, therefore,
prove to you that I have the power to forgive
sins, and that I am not, as you think, a blas
phemer, by giving immediate cure to this para
lytic confessedly beyond the reach of all human
skill, and the immediate response to the word
of Jesus by the paralytic, now no longer crip
pled with palsy, but suddenly starting up into
full health, was the divine attestation and cre
dential of his power to forgive sin.
In a secondary sense, therefore, when Jesus
took away the resulting evils of sin, he did fulfill
a prophecy which foretold that he should " bear
our griefs and carry our sorrows," so that St.
Matthew might in truth say, " Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses."
There is no doubt that the healing power
which our Lord exercised in and around Peter's
house was" also accompanied with deep persona]

THE FIRST SABBA TH IN CAPERNA UM. 1 3 1
consciousness of the evil of sin as thus working
out these sad results, and with intense compas
sion for those afflicted with the grievous mala
dies. These two feelings, a consciousness of
the full evil of sin and a true sympathy with the
sufferer from sin, blended in one strong emo
tion, must have weighed heavily upon the ten
der and holy heart of Jesus, and burdened his
spirit with a grief too deep for human compre
hension. It was not with him a cold, mechanical
bestowal of healing power, in the giving out of
which he was an impassive agent. He did not
regard himself as a walking battery of vital
forces, needing only a physical, tactual applica
tion, to receive the energizing and health-beget
ting influence, but in all his acts and works we
everywhere discover that he weeps with those
who weep, mourns with those who mourn, re
joices with those who rejoice, brings his heart
in living contact with other hearts, and touches
all the faculties and affections of the soul by the
manifestations of his sympathetic spirit.
" He realized, as no one else ever did, the
law of all true helping, namely, that the burden
which you would lift you must yourself stoop to
and come under (Gal. vi. 2), the grief which you

132 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
would console you must yourself feel with; a
law which we witness to as often as we use the
words "sympathy" and "compassion" was tru
est of all in him upon whom the help of all was
laid. Not in this single aspect of his life alone
were these words of the prophet "fulfilled, but
rather in the life itself, which brought' him in
contact with the thousand forms of want and
woe, of discord in man's outer life, of discord in
man's inner being. Every one of these, as a
real consequence of sin, and at every moment
contemplated by him as such, pressed with a
living pang into the holy soul of our Lord. " He
could therefore heal neither bodily nor spiritual
disease without a deep consciousness of his spe
cial relation to man as the Substitute, the Re
deemer, the Lamb of God, who was to bear the
penalty of the world's guilt. And it is not, we
believe, too much to suppose that by a super
human and perfect compassion he took into his
own holy consciousness and truly realized the
bodily as well as the spiritual suffering which he
removed from others."
What an ennobling idea does this give us of
the height and depth and length and breadth of
our Lord's compassion ! . How beautifully does

THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM. 1 33
it interpret those heart-soothing words, "We
have not a high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,"
and those other words, " For verily he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things
it behooved him to be made like unto his breth:
ren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. For in that
he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is
able to succor them that are tempted."
" When gathering clouds around I view,
And days are dark and friends are few,
On Him I lean who not in vain
Experienced every human pain ;
He feels my griefs, he sees my fears,
And counts and treasures up my tears."
Such is the record of the first Sabbath of our
Lord at Capernaum, full of holy words, whose
power thrilled hundreds of hearts ; full of holy
deeds, whose healing effects reached hundreds
of the sick and the possessed of devils ; and the
personal presence of Jesus speaking these holy
words, and doing these wondrous deeds, and
diffusing these marvelous blessings, made that
Sabbath the most noted day ever known in the
history of that city.
12

CHAPTER VI.
THE SABBATH AT THE POOL
BETHESDA.

OF

"After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool,
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
In. these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,
waiting for the moving of the water, • For an angel went down at a
certain season into the pool, and troubled the water : whosoever then
first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of what
soever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an
infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew
that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt
thou be made whole ? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have
no man, when the water is, troubled, to put me into the pool : but while
I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him,
Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole, and took up his bed, and walked : and on the same day was the
sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the
sabbath day : it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered
them,. He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy
bed, and walk. Then asked they him,- What man is that which said
unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? An.d he that, was healed wist
not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a, multitude
being in that place." John v. 1-13.
N reference to the opening verse of
this chapter, Chrysostom says, "Jesus
went up to the feast at Jerusalem to
show his reverence for the law of Moses, and in
134

BETHLEHEM.

THE SABBA TH AT BE THESDA. 1 3 5
order to preach to the multitudes then assem
bled there." Certainly he never lost an oppor
tunity of " preaching the kingdom of God," and
ever availed himself of casual events and way
side scenes, to do good to the souls and to the
bodies of men. This is illustrated by his Sab
bath work at the pool of Bethesda. This pool
or reservoir was situated near St. Stephen's
gate — the old sheep-gate — and just outside of
the northern wall of the Haram Area. There
was evidently a spring or fountain here, which
for sanitary purposes had been converted
into a large tank by excavating and building
around it with solid masonry, so as to hold a
large supply of water. On the border of this
pool were erected colonnades or porches, con
sisting of several archways or cloisters, for the
use and enjoyment of those frequenting that
attractive spot.
It seems that the popular opinion was, as the
legend recorded in the fourth verse shows, that
at a certain season an angel troubled the water,
and then whosoever first stepped in afterward
was healed of whatsoever disease he had. This
pool was resorted to, therefore, by multitudes of
impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, " waiting

I3'6 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
for the moving of the waters." That this was
the common belief among the Jews cannot be
denied. What grounds there were for it we do
not know, though the legend must have had
some basis or root out of which the widespread
superstition as to the angelic troubling and heal
ing grew.
There is some doubt as to the authenticity of
this fourth verse, founded on the fact that the
words are not found in some very old and im
portant manuscripts and versions, and hence by
those who reject the verse it is supposed to be
the interpolation of a transcriber, who incor
porated into the sacred text what was origin
ally only a marginal gloss of a commentator
explaining the healing virtue of the water by
stating the current legend of the troubling of
it by the angel Who periodically bathed in its
waters. Though the absence of this verse from some
first-class manuscripts, Uncial as well as Cursive,
casts some suspicion on its genuineness, yet there
is great weight of evidence on the other side,
and the words are found in copies of the gospel
in the time of Tertullian, and are quoted as
canonical Scripture by some of the earliest and

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. I37
most cautious of the Christian Fathers. The
presence or absence of this verse, however, has
little to do with the narrative of the miracle, as
it only accounts for the poor infirm man being
where he was and for so long a time. The mir
acle which our Lord wrought rests not upon that
verse, and hence its omission or retention does
not affect the divine transaction.
The traditional pool of Bethesda, called the
Birket Israil, is now in ruins. Its once capa
cious basin is nearly filled with rubbish, its once
populous colonnades are now fallen, and only two
so-called porches or arched recesses are visible.
But its locality, its proportions, its surroundings,
seem to indicate that that, and not, as some sup
pose, the Fountain of the Virgin, outside of the
gate, in the valley of the Kedron, is the 'real
pool of Bethesda by the sheep-gate or market
mentioned by St. John.
The objection made by some to the state
ment that only one person was healed after
each troubling of the water does not neces
sarily militate with the reception of the verse,
because it does not say how often that " cer
tain season " was at which the angel went down
into the pool, and it may have been once a

12*

138 THE SABBATHS. OF OUR LORD.
month, or once a week, or at irregular but yet
numerous times, so that during the year a score
or more persons might have been thus healed.
Besides, is not the fact as it is recorded, like
many other of God's providential dealings with
his people ? Had not our Lord a little while
before, in his discourse in the Synagogue at
Nazareth} mentioned two almost analogous
cases of God's sovereignty in the disposition
of his gifts of grace, and healing? ""Many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias,
when the heaven was shut up three years and
six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land ; but unto none of them was Elias
(Elijah) sent save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow. And many
lepers were in- Israel in the time of Eliseus
(Elisha) the prophet, and none of them was
cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian." God
thus gives or withholds at his- pleasure, with
or without human or angelic instrumentalities,
and none can say, What doest thou ? or question
his right to do what he will with his own gifts
of healing or of grace ; and our Lord himself,
be it remembered, only healed one of all the
multitudes which lay there. Besides, this was

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 1 39
a period in the Jewish history when angelic
interpositions and miracles were looked for,
and did actually occur; and by them, infre
quent as they were, the minds of the people
were made conversant with them, were pre
pared to receive them, and the more readily
accredited the truths or facts they were de
signed to herald or attest.
The attempt of some commentators to take
the healing efficacy of the waters out of the
category of miracles, and attribute it to mere
medicinal qualities in the spring, such as are
found in the chalybeate or sulphur or other
mineral springs in our day, not only conflicts
with the words of the text, but suggests the
unanswerable questions, If the healing virtue
lay in the medicinal character of the water,
why were not all who stepped into it healed ?
Why was it restorative only at certain seasons ?
Why exhaust its efficacy on one case ?
Let us now look at the scene which presented
itself to our Lord on that Sabbath morning.
On his way to the temple he had to pass
Bethesda. In its many porches he saw "a
great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt,
withered, waiting for the. moving of the water."

140 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
There were no hospitals then where the sons
and daughters of sickness could be housed and
cared for. Those who had money or friends
might receive due attention, but the poor and
the friendless crawled into the streets or open
places of the city, or lay along the highway, ob
jects of pity and compassion, begging alms, im
ploring relief, exhibiting their sores and deform
ities, and indebted to the passing stranger for the
daily sustenance of a wretched, homeless life.
We see much of this at the present time in
the East. It is a calamity to be sick anywhere —
to be blind or halt under any the most favorable
circumstances ; but to be diseased and have no
hand of friendship to mitigate your suffering,
to be blind or deaf or dumb or paralytic and
have no commiseration of kindly companionship,
to be left all broken down in body and mind
to grope along life's pathway halting, stum
bling, suffering, dying, with no word of com
fort and no arm of succor, — oh, this is wretch
edness indeed ! This the climax of sorrow !
Christ's conduct toward the sick and the afflicted
has given birth to all the hospitals and asylums
and benevolent institutions of the world. They
are the outgrowth of the words and the deeds

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 141
of Jesus. But for them the world would be
now what it was before the advent of Christ,
without a hospital or an asylum or a reforma
tory or any association banded together to dis
pense relief or comfort to the needy and the
disconsolate. The world owes all the brightness of its be
nevolence and the glory of its great eleemosy
nary institutions, and the lofty compassion that
rules the minds of thousands, and the grand
philanthropy that sees in every human face " a
brother," and in every wayside sick man a
"neighbor," to the Lord Jesus Christ. „
All this is his work — a work, too, incidental to
his higher work, though necessarily flowing out
of that, for, as that love which brought him to
earth to be man's redeemer was infinite, so its
overflowings to the sinful and unworthy, even to
those who will not receive his offered salvation,
are fraught with copious blessings, diffusing their
virtue through- that network of Christian be
nevolence which now spreads its meshes over
all classes and conditions and makes all whom
it can reach the objects of its benedictions.
The sight of so much misery as grouped it
self within the porches of Bethesda excites our

142 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Lord's compassion, and he pauses to look upon
the heart-sickening scene. Conversing, per
haps, with one and another, he finds a poor
cripple who "had an infirmity thirty and eight
years," one who in answer to our Lord's question,
"Wilt thou be made whole?" told Jesus, "Sir,
I have no man when the water is troubled' to
put me into the pool, but while I am coming an
other steppeth down before me." The question
which our Lord asked of this man, "Wilt thou
be made whole ?" was put, not because he did
not know the desires of this man, but in order,
doubtless, to draw the attention of the man to
himself as one unusually interested in his case,
and also to rouse up perhaps the almost extinct
hopes of the man, in whom, after thirty and
eight years of suffering, there remained but lit
tle anticipation of effectual relief. He wanted
to concentrate the man's thoughts and looks
upon himself as preliminary to the putting forth
of divine healing, just as he asked the blind man,
on another occasion, " What will ye that I shall
do unto you ?" There must be a felt need of
outward help on the part of the recipient of
Christ's favor, so as to make the favOr received
recognized as a divine interposition. When

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 1 43
Jesus had brought this infirm man to this state
of conscious need and expectance of some kind
of blessing (for he must have read the premoni
tion of it in Jesus' benevolent face and kindly
words), he said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed,
and walk." Instead of stopping to say, " Sir,
have I not just told thee that I cannot rise, that
if moved at all it must be by the help of others,
and that this is the very reason why I cannot
avail myself of the troubled waters ?" as he
might have done, he makes the effort to obey
the divine mandate " Rise," and in the effort finds
the strength, waiting not until it consciously
comes before he puts it forth, but in the act of
obedience, finds the power to obey. And so the
poor impotent cripple, who had not walked per
haps for thirty-eight years, who was so utterly
poor and helpless that he could not command
the services of a. man to put him into the pool,
and who was thus perhaps rendered as hopeless
as he was helpless, now stands erect, to the
wonder of all around him. He took up the
pallet, or rug, on which. he had been so long
lying, and walked forth in perfect soundness of
health and. limbs. The change was immediate.
It was not the current of returning strength

144 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
flowing first into one member of the body and
giving motion to that, and then into another,
swelling out its long-withered muscles, but it
was an instantaneous change, bringing with it
the full and complete restoration of every physi
cal power to that emaciated, shriveled, weak
ened, crippled, helpless body. One moment an
object of intense pity by reason of his intensi
fied infirmity, the next standing up stalwart and
strong in all the freshness and fullness of reju
venated life !
One would have thought that such a marked
manifestation of divine power would have called
forth admiration at the deed of Jesus, and that
he would have been praised for his abounding
mercy. But whatever may have been its effect
on some, on others it had the effect, of arousing
opposition ; and unable to find fault with Jesus
for speaking a healing word, they turned upon
the healed man and accused him of breaking the
Sabbath because, at the command of Christ, "he
took up his bed and walked." The wonder at
the miracle is lost in the pharisaic hypocrisy of
zeal for the Sabbath, and hence the Jews said
unto him that was cured, "It is the Sabbath
day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed."

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. I45
According to the strict construction of the
fourth commandment, and according to the di
rections of Nehemiah (xiii. 19) and Jeremiah
(xvii. 21, et seq.), "to bear no burden on the
Sabbath day," it was true that "the man was
breaking the Sabbath by carrying a "burden,"
even his bed, on that day. But this declaration
of these Sanhedrists, or persons connected with
the supreme council of the Jews (for it is to
these that St. John refers when he uses the
term "Jews"), is a very narrow and carping
view to take of that commandment. It was
evidently a cover under which to attack Jesus
himself; as it subsequently comes out in the six
teenth verse, where the apostle says, " Therefore
did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to
slay him, because he had done these things on
the Sabbath day," .How intense must their
bigotry have been, when it made them blind to
the wondrous miracle and keen-sighted as to a
supposed breaking of the traditions of their
fathers ! failing to recognize the blessing vouch
safed in the desire to find fault with the gracious
Giver. The reply of the healed man is at once sim
ple and conclusive : " He that made me whole,
13 k

146 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and
walk." In his mind, evidently, the authority
which could work the cure was quite sufficient
authority for his carrying his bed. Foiled here,
they turn upon the man again. and ask, "What
man is that which said unto thee take up thy
bed, and walk?" The animosity of the Jews
leaks out here in the suppression of all allusion
to the work of mercy, and. in dwelling only on
the declared infraction of the law. They ask,
not, "What man is that which made thee whole
that we may see and admire so gracious . a
being ?" Oh no ! they doubtless knew very well-
who it was, and were only concerned to fix on
Jesus the charge of breaking the Sabbath. It
seems not a little remarkable, on first thought,
that the Once impotent man did not know who
had healed him. One would have supposed
that receiving so great a boon he would at least
have inquired the name of the giver, but in the
flush and excitement of his cure, the sudden in
flux into his almost hopeless mind of so unex
pected a blessing, he forgot, as it were, all the
proprieties of gratitude, and he was more anx
ious to realize his new-found strength by at once
doing what he was told, take up his bed and

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. I47
walk, than to delay for the purpose of ascertain
ing who was his benefactor. The man was evi
dently bewildered by the tumultuous emotions
which then filled his mind, as we can easily im
agine what a whirl there would be in our feel
ings under similar circumstances. It must be
remembered, also, that before the man could
recover from his astonishment and collect his
thoughts, "Jesus had conveyed himself away, a
multitude being in that place." The working
of a miracle in so public a spot necessarily
drew a large crowd together, and Jesus, unwill
ing to remain in their midst, glided away, avail
ing himself of the excitement to pass quickly
through the multitude, and went onward to the
house of God. Thus he did not stop long
enough to let the healed man show his gratitude
or learn his true character.
Afterward the. two, the Healer and the healed,
stand together again. They/are in the temple.
The Healer on his mission of grace, the healed,
"doubtless, to give thanks for his cure. But the
latter does not recognize the former, and not
until Jesus speaks to him does he ascertain who
it was that had healed him.
The purpose of Jesus in finding him in the

148 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
temple was to let the man know his benefactor,
and specially to give him warning for the future.
"Behold," says our Lord, "thou art made whole.
Sin no more, lest a worse thing come uhto
thee." In these words there is a clear recognition of
the fact that the man's long infirmity was the
result of his youthful sins. This, in one sense,
is true of all sickness and suffering ; they result
from the violation of the laws of our physical
being, and he who. sins against these laws sins
against God their author, and violation of law
always exposes to punishment. How frequently
do we see in daily life this truth sadly worked
out in the lives of the sick and the suffering !
How much force of meaning is thus given to
that expression of the law of the perpetuating
of evil, "Thou makest me to possess the iniqui
ties of my youth" (Job xiii. 26), and that other
declaration of Job, "His bones are full of the
sin of his youth" (xx. 11)! For medical men
will tell us with one voice that the larger part
of the maladies of the human family are the re
sults of youthful excesses and indiscretions, the
open or secret violations of the laws by which
God had hedged in and protected our health

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 1 49
and happiness, but which passion, self-indul
gence, waywardness, had caused us to break
through, reaping at the time, perhaps, no imme
diate evil from our transgressions, but yet cer
tainly laying up in store future evils that would
surely vindicate the broken law.
This truth has forced itself even upon heathen
minds. Cicero, in his " De Senectute," not only
tells us that the loss of strength is more fre
quently the fault of youth than of old age, but
he adds that a youth of sensuality and intem
perance transmits to old age a worn-out, used-
up body.
The author of Lacon (Colton), when he says
that " the excesses of youth are bills drawn by
Time, payable thirty years after date, with inter
est," only paraphrases the terse Latin proverb
that we pay when old, for our sins when young.
Even when a man repents of his sins and be
comes a new creature in Christ Jesus, breaking
off from all former indulgences, he does not
thereby secure immunity from the operation of
this law ; for while the religion of Jesus Christ
saves the soul, it does not repair the wastes and
inroads upon the body which sin has already
made. The vices which had undermined the
13*

150 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
constitution before he became a Christian still
show -the gaps and weakness of it, even after
he becomes a child of God through faith in
Christ Jesus.
These thoughts are borne out by that other
declaration of God's word, " His own iniquities
shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
holden with the cords of his sin." We suffer
for our own misdoings even on earth. We braid
together by the strands of our little and almost.
unnoticed youthful sins, the cords which bind us
so tightly about with pain and discomfort and
remorse in middle life or old age. It is retribu-
tive justice finding us out on earth, and by its
chastenings warning us to immediate repent
ance, to flee from the deeper and more en
during wrath that will, if unrepenting, overtake
us in the world to come.
And then again these words of Jesus, "Sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," imply
that to sin afresh, after receiving signal mer
cies, is but to incur more grievous judgment.
Surely it was a bad thing that thirty and
eight years of this cripple's life had been made
full of pain and misery, and had been rendered
utterly useless by reason of his early sins ; but

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 151
bad as was that almost life-long suffering,
wretched and degraded as he had become
through helplessness and poverty, there was a
" worse thing " yet in reserve if he again went
back to his sins, " like a sow that was washed
to her wallowing in the mire." For in sinning
afresh, after receiving great blessing, the man
commits a twofold wrong : he ignores the bless
ings received from their divine Author, and in
spite of warnings, breaks away into new trans
gressions. Hence the moral force which he
must necessarily put forth to do these things, in
spite of blessings, in spite of warnings, in spite of
the lashings of conscience, gives to him such an
impetus, such a momentum, as it were, that he
is carried beyond all his former bounds of guilt,
and finds himself in new fields of sin, and
under a deeper spell of evil. This truth our
Lord illustrated with startling force, and in a
manner which should awaken most serious con
sideration, when he speaks of the cast out
devil returning again to the house whence he
was ejected. "When he cometh back," saith
our Lord, "he findeth it empty — swept and
garnished ; then goeth he and taketh to himself
seven other spirits worse than the first, and

152 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
they enter in and dwell there, and the last state
of that man is worse than the first." We
cannot too often call to mind these truths. Let
us never forget that much — yea, probably (could
we see the subtle connection), all — of our pains
and sicknesses are directly or indirectly the
result of our sins or the sins of our parents.
" However unwilling we may be to receive this,
bringing, as it does, God so near, and making
retribution so real and so prompt a thing, yet it
is true notwithstanding. As some eagle pierced
with a shaft feathered from its own wing, so
many a sufferer even in this present time sees
and is compelled to acknowledge that his own
sin fledged the arrow which has pierced him
and brought him down." History, sacred and
profane, abounds with illustrative instances of
this truth, and each one can perhaps find still
further confirmation in the experiences of his
own life.
As soon as the man ascertained the name
of his benefactor, he " departed and told the
Jews that it was Jesus who had made him
whole." Not as a heartless wretch wishing to
betray, but as a grateful man anxious to make
known the name and fame of Him who had

THE SABBA TH AT BE TIIESDA . 1 5 3
done so great things unto him. The effect of
this communication so stirred up this priestly
party that they manifested at once a hatred
which eagerly sought to catch him and slay him
" because he had done these things on the
Sabbath day."
According to the Levitical law (Ex. xxxi. 14,
Num. xv. 35), the penalty of breaking the Sab
bath was death by stoning. They regarded Jesus
as having broken the Sabbath, and hence " they
sought to slay him." But the violator of the
Mosaic law could only be stoned to death judi
cially — i. <?., after a fair trial — and the witnesses
of his guilt were to be the first to cast the death-
dealing stones. But the power of life and death
had been taken away from the Jews by their
Roman masters, and as the rulers confessed to
Pilate, " It is not lawful for us to put any one to
death." What these enraged "Jews" wanted
was, to wreak their vengeance on Jesus, whose
words, whose works, whose life, was a daily re
proach to them, a constant galling of their pride,
their presumption, their pretended piety; and
unable to brook his reproaches or to turn away
the people from following him, they determined,
if possible, by any means to get rid of him'.

154 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
There could be no peace to the scribes and
the Pharisees while he was alive. His very
presence revealed all their darkness and
iniquity, just as the presence of light makes
visible all the foul and noisome things upon
which it shines. Their rage had been excited
against him from the time he made a scourge"
of small cords and cleansed the temple by
driving out of it the sheep and oxen and the
money-changers, and denouncing them as
having made his " Father's house a den of
thieves." From that hour their rancor knew
no bounds. They hunted diligently for evi
dence to convict him of some great crime.
They cared not what it was if it would only
secure his destruction. Hence they sent
Herodians "to entangle him in his talk" that
they might accuse him to Herod of political
crime ; and hence by artful ways they sought to
bring him into conflict with the great Sanhedrim
that that powerful body might secure from
Pilate his longed-for death. This was the spirit
which now possessed these " Jews," and under
the influence of which they sought to slay Him
whose daily life and teaching were so obnoxious
to them.

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 1 55
Jesus flinches not at their presence. He
boldly confronts them and meets their objections
by an argument of the most dignified and pro
found character.
This vindication of himself is found in John
v. 1 7-47. Whether spoken on the Sabbath day
in the temple, or afterward when arraigned per
haps before the lesser Sanhedrim on the judicial
charge of breaking the Sabbath, we cannot tell.
Whenever or wherever uttered, it is one of
Christ's most sublime discourses, and constitutes
a thorough defence of himself, first against the
charge of Sabbath-breaking and secondly against
the subsequent charge growing out of Jesus'
refutation of the first — viz., blasphemy, " making
himself equal with God."
As to the first charge, of breaking the Sab-
bath, God the Father, who ordained the Sabbath
to commemorate his resting on the seventh day,
not from fatigue, but from active creative effort,
" worketh hitherto " in the upholding and con
serving and governing the world which he made
in six days, and thus ceaselessly doing good to
all his creatures, and " I," his Son in all the divine
fullness which that relation implies, "work" —
work as he works in doing good, not in servile

156 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
work for selfish ends, but in Godlike works for
holy ends ; not as a breaker of the law of the
Sabbath, as if it required complete passiveness
and abstinence from good deeds even, but as a
true keeper of the law in the spirit of Him who
gave the law — a spirit of ceaseless benevolence
and love flowing out in active blessings, not for
six days and then ceasing, but on the seventh
day as well as on the sixth, because the work
done was as holy as the day, and as the God
who did it.
This line of defence, placing himself as " equal
with God" in the right and purpose to work as.
the Father worked, so far from being accepted
by these Judaists, was made the ground of the
second charge against him of blasphemy, as
thus " making himself equal with God." This
second charge Jesus quickly meets by asserting
his equality with God in " work " (verses 17, 19,
20), in the power to raise the dead (v. 21), in
the power to judge the world (v. 22), in the
honor which- it behoved men to bestow (v. 23),
in the power to give eternal life (v. 26). This
claim to divine Messiahship by doing all the
works that their longed-for Messiah was to do,
he confirms by the specific testimony of John

THE SABBATH AT BETHESDA. 1 57
the Baptist (v. 32-35), the testimony of Moses
(v. 45-47), the testimony of all the scriptures
(v. 39), the testimony of his own miraculous
works (v. 36-38), and in the witness of God the
Father (v. 37).
To this triumphant and unanswerable vindica
tion of himself, the Jews — the spiritual rulers
of the people — could give no reply. John the
Baptist, to whom they had appealed, was against
them. Moses, in whom they trusted, was against
them. The Scriptures, in which they sought
eternal life, were against them. God, whom
they claimed as their Father, was against them.
Every ground of opposition to, and of condem
nation of, Jesus was taken away by this dis
course, and there remained only the deadly ani
mosity of obdurate hearts and rebellious minds.
They who accused Jesus are now accused by
him for their lack of the knowledge of the Scrip
tures, for their unwillingness to follow the lead
of Moses, for their virtual rejection of the testi
mony of John the Baptist, and for their keeping
away from Christ, the source of all spiritual life
and light. They had arraigned him at -their tri
bunal ; he arraigns them at his. " They had ac
cused him of deeds worthy of temporal death ;
14

158 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
he accuses them of deeds worthy of eternal
death. There is something sublime in this atti
tude of Jesus in the presence of his accusers,
quietly turning against them their own witnesses,
convicting them of the very crimes which .they
charged against him, showing himself before
them by many infallible proofs as their Messiah,
claiming equality with God, and that " all men
should honor him, even as they honor the
Father." Had not Jesus been divine, this lan
guage would have been the most insufferable
arrogance and blasphemy, but he was " God
manifest in the flesh," and hence it is all true,
and harmonizes with, and illustrates, both the
human and the divine in the redeeming, the me
diatorial and the judicial work of -Christ.

QrHHH
o oH a

«
n3

CHAPTER VIII.
THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS.
" At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn ; and
his disciples were ahungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and
to, eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy
disciples do. that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But
he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did when he was
ahungered, and they that were with him; how he entered into the
house of God and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him
to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests ?
Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the
priests in the 'temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless ? But I
say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But
if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacri
fice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man
is Lord even of the Sabbath day. And when he was departed thence,
he went into their Synagogue." Matt. xii. 1-9.
." For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this moun
tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say
unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying,
forgive, if ye have aught against any, that your Father also which is in
heaven may forgive you your trespasses,. But if ye do not forgive,
neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
And they come again to Jerusalem ; and as he was walking in the tem
ple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders,
and say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who
gave thee this authority to do these things?" Mark xi. 23-28. 159

l6o THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
" And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he
went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of
corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the
Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on
the Sabbath days ? And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read
so much as' this, what David did, when himself was ahungered, and
they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and
did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with
him, which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone ? And he
said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. ':
Luke vi. 1-5.

1HE period referred to by the opening
sentence of St. Matthew, "At that
time," was when, after calling and
commissioning his twelve disciples as recorded
in the tenth chapter, Jesds " departed thence to
teach and to preach in their cities " — i. e., it was
during one of his missionary circuits among
the towns on the western shore of the Sea of
Galilee. St. Luke marks it as "the second Sabbath
after the first," being a "great Sabbath," as it
was the first Sabbath " of a year that stood sec
ond in a sabbatical cycle." On this Sabbath
day, as Jesus and his disciples passed through
the corn-fields (not what we in America term
such, filled with maize or Indian corn, but fields
of wheat and barley, which in that country at
that time, being in all probability about the first

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. l6l
of April, were then just ripening into harvest),
his disciples, being hungry, " began to pluck the
ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their
hands " to remove the husk. This it was lawful
for them to do, for the direction in Deut. xxiii.
25 reads, "When thou comest into the standing
corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck
the ears with thy hand ; but thou shalt not move
a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn." In
that country, it must be remembered, the fields
are not enclosed with fences, as with us, but are
separated one from the other by certain stones,
stakes, ridges or ditches which constitute the
"land-marks" of the several owners. The ef
fect of this is, to make a whole plain or valley,
preceding harvest-time, appear as one Vast un
enclosed field, and never did that verse of Da
vid's in which he says, in order to indicate fer
tility and luxuriance, "The valleys also stand so
thick with corn that they shall laugh and sing "
(lxv. 13, Pr. Bk. vers.), come out to our mind
with such pastoral beauty as when, looking down
over the large corn-fields just waiting for the
sickle, we. saw them rolling to and fro in the
wind with that billowy motion which, like a glee
ful smile, dimpled and rippled over the waving
14* 1

1 62 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
grain, while the rustling of the stalks and leaves
swaying in the breeze rose up like the voice of
singing. To this harmless act of our Lord's
disciples, and done for the purpose of satisfying
their hunger, the Pharisees objected because
done on the Sabbath day.
One of the laws of the Pharisees, as subse
quently embodied in the Talmud, was, " He that
reapeth corn on the Sabbath tO the quantity of
a fig is guilty ; and plucking corn is as reaping,
and whosoever plucketh up anything growing is
guilty under the notion of reaping."
In reply to this pharisaical objection, our Lord
justifies the act of his disciples in what they did
by citing cases and principles which entirely set
aside their rigorous literalism, and placed the
day and its observance on their true basis.
" Have ye not read," he asks, " what David did
when he had need and was anhungered, and
they that were with him, how he went into the
house of God in the days of Abiathar the high
priest, and did take and eat the shewbread which
is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave
also to them that were with him ?" The refer
ence here is to the transaction recorded in
i Samuel xxi. i, et seq., when David, fleeing

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 63
from the persecution of Saul, went to the sacer
dotal city of Nob, situated in the tribe of Benja
min, and there begged of the high priest the
shewbread (the "bread of faces" as it was
called) for himself and hungry companions.
The shewbread consisted of twelve cakes or
loaves made of fine flour and set " in two rows,
six on a row, upon the pure table before the
Lord, and thou shalt put pure frankincense upon
each row that it may be on the bread for a me
morial, even an offering made by fire unto the
Lord. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order
before the Lord continually. And it shall be
Aaron's and his sons', and they shall eat it in
the holy place, for it is most holy unto him of
the offerings of the Lord made by fire." Lev.
xxiv. 5-9. At the time of the weekly renewal
of the shewbread the incense upon each row
was burned before the Lord, and the loaves
were eaten by the priests in the temple.
It was this shewbread, just removed from the
table to give place to the fresh and hot, which,
in his extreme necessity, David asked for and
received, and of which he and his hungry men
partook. Though ordinarily unlawful for him to
eat it, as he was not of the Levitical priesthood,

1 64 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
yet his pressing need made it right both for the
priest to give and for him to take the hallowed
loaves, because it was better to prolong life and
meet the imperious demands, of hunger at the
expense of a ceremonial law, than by keeping
the law of sacrifice subject man to suffering, and
thus break the higher law of mercy.
From the narrative in Samuel we may rightly
infer that it was on the Sabbath that David and
his men went into the sanctuary and ate this
bread, thus intensifying the crime, if crime it
was ; but our Lord showed conclusively, by cit
ing this case with approval, that neither David
nor the priest had violated the spirit of the cere
monial law in the transaction, and that there
were human necessities which rightfully set aside
all Levitical regulations.
Rising from a personal and exceptional act,
our Lord cites another case of a general charac
ter, where the apparent violation of the sabbatic
law is done, not by a few lay people, but by all
the priests ; not in Nob alone, but in Jerusalem
the holy city ; not in a humble Synagogue, but
in the Temple itself, and that, too, in the very act
by which they profess to worship Jehovah.
"" Or have ye not read in the law how that on

oHH<$ MPH W<HHWH

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 65
the Sabbath days the priests irt the temple pro
fane the Sabbath and are blameless ? But I say
unto you, That in this place is one greater than
the temple. But if ye had known what this
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye
would not have condemned the guiltless."
St. Matthew only records these words of our
Lord, yet they are most significant and pungent
in their bearing on the question before him. As
if he had said, You say no burdens shall be
borne, no fire kindled, no utensil handled, no
manual labor performed, yet the priests in the
discharge of their duties in the temple carry in
wood, lay it on the altar, slay the victims, kindle
fires, handle the sacrificial knives, carve up the
offered lambs and goats, and therefore, accord
ing to your views, profane or secularize and
make unholy the Sabbath ; yet you say that they
are blameless, for the maxim of the Jews in
reference to this very temple-work was, that
there is no Sabbath in the temple, and that the
temple sanctified the work. Indeed, so far from
remitting labor on this day because it was the
Sabbath, the labor was doubled by reason of the
double sacrifices which were required by the
Levitical law (Num. xxviii. 9, 10). Yet they

1 66 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
"are blameless," yourselves being judges, for
you never thought of arraigning a priest as a
Sabbath-breaker because he killed and flayed
and quartered a burnt-offering, and you never
thought of interdicting the temple-worship be
cause it required double toil -and service of its
ministers on the seventh day. Now, then, if
the fact that these works are blameless because
they were done in and for the temple, the tem
ple thus giving sanctity to the act, so I, who am
here with you "in this place," am "greater than
the temple," and can give to works done by me,
or with my permission, that sanctity, that they
shall not profane, but hallow, the Sabbath, for
being done by or for me, they are lifted out of
the level of secular things and partake of the
holiness of the person they are designed to
serve. If the temple, therefore, makes the
priests blameless, I, who am "greater than the
temple," hold my disciples blameless ; for not
only have they done no more than David did,
satisfying hunger by doing what was technically
and traditionally unlawful, but they have done
their works as the priests did their service, for
the Lord of the temple himself, now standing
before you.

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 67
To understand in what respect Jesus was
"greater than the temple," we must consider a
moment what the temple was in his eye. With
out going into the structure of the tabernacle in
the wilderness, or the temple which succeeded
it, and which loomed up like a cloud of glory on
Mt. Moriah, or marking their numerous typi
cal relations to, and prefigurings of, Christ, it will
suffice to say, as St. Paul does in the Epistle to
the Hebrews (ix. 9-12), that it "was a figure for
the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make
him that did the service perfect as pertaining to
the conscience ; which stood only in meats and
drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordi
nances, imposed on them until the time of refor
mation. But Christ being come an high priest
of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he
entered in once into the holy place, having ob
tained eternal redemption for us." The temple,
then, in its structure, its ritual, its sacrifices, its
priests, was designed to present to the eye and
mind of the Jew the one great doctrine of the

1 68 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
atonement of sin through vicarious blood — viz.,
the unforfeited life or blood of the guiltless and
the innocent, shed for the forfeited life or blood
of the guilty and the sinning. The temple was
the embodiment of this atoning idea. It was
God's thought of mercy to maji, put into shape
and made visible before the nation for hundreds
of years by means of priest and sacrifice and
incense and holy and most holy place, 2nd all
the rites, personalities and buildings which made
up what we express by one word, " the temple."
In this aspect the things of the temple were, as
the Epistle to the Hebrews states, " patterns of
things in the heavens," "figures of the true,"
" a shadow .of good things to come, and not the
very image of the things." But Christ was the
substance which forecast this shadow. He was
the antitype of which these earthly structures
and emblems were "the figures." He was the
original of that of which the temple was but an
imperfect " pattern." Christ, in his person and
his work, was not only all that the temple
adumbrated, but infinitely more. Hence he
speaks of himself as a "temple" in that pas
sage which so puzzled the Jews, " Destroy this
temple, and in three days will I raise it again,"

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 69
but "he spake of the temple of his body." If
the temple, then, was but a shadowing forth of
what the Messiah should be and do, the Mes
siah who was thus prefigured, or who thus cast
this shadow, must be greater than the temple,
so that Jesus, knowing that he was the Messiah
and having declared it openly in his conversa
tion with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well,
could truly say, as he stood before his carping
enemies, " In this place is one greater than the
temple." If those who served on the Sabbath a'bout the
earthly, the material temple, did so and were
blameless, those, therefore, who ministered to
and about him the living Temple, " greater than
the temple" which sanctifies priestly service, can
supply their necessities, and make themselves
more ready to discharge their duties, and also
be blameless.
Jesus then tells them, " If ye had known what
this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacri
fice, ye would not have condemned the guilt
less." This is a quotation from the prophet
Hosea (vi. 6) : " For I desired mercy and not
sacrifice," placing the higher value on the in
ward affection of the heart and not on the out-
15

170 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
ward and visible act. It is couched in one of
those forms of Hebrew negation where the use
of the negative (not) is not designed to express
that the "sacrifice" is unnecessary or improper,
but to intensify that with which sacrifice is con
trasted, " mercy," and to show that in the com
parison of the two "mercy" will take the su
premacy. Thus " sacrifice," good in itself, or
dained by God, held a lower place in God's view
than "mercy," that emotion of a tender, loving,
considerate soul.
The " mercy " which the Pharisees showed was
limited to external acts — feeding the hungry,
blowing a trumpet before them when they gave
alms, and such-like. There was in their doing
these outward and visible things no mercy, for
all their acts were done " to be seen of men ;"
the true spirit of kindness and charity was ab
sent. So our Lord says to these Jews, If you
had only known this truth (brought out so
clearly by Hosea and Micah, vi. 6, 8), you would
have put a kindly interpretation on this act of
my disciples, and not treated as guilty those
whom I pronounce guiltless. It is the absence
of this spirit among Christians now, which is
productive of so much evil and faultfinding and

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 171
dissensions. It is this spirit of legalism ever
striving against the spirit of a merciful liberalism
which is doing so much to check the growth of
the Church and bind upon the conscience " bur
dens grievous to be borne," which tithes anise
and mint and cummin and neglects the weightier
matters of the law, judgment, mercy and truth.
It is a harsh, technical, faultfinding spirit. It
looks solely to " the letter of the law " and the
outside of the ceremonial. But the law of
mercy looks at the state of the heart, and busies
itself more about the aspect of the soul toward
God than about its appearance toward men.
Micah brings out this truth with great force
when he asks, " Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before the high God ?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams or with ten
thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my
first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul ? He hath showed
thee, O man ! what is good ; and what doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with thy God ?"
These grand utterances of the old prophet,

I72 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
seven hundred years before " Christ, find their
full echo and response in the equally strong
declaration of St. Paul : " Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity (that inner love of the soul out of which
mercy grows), I am become as sounding brass
or a tinkling cymbal ; and though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I give all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, I
am nothing." What strides onward the Church
would make if ministers and people would only
cultivate more of this "mercy" which "rejoiceth
against judgment," and would put on this charity
which the apostle tells us " is the very bond of
perfectness " ! for mercy would assimilate our
character to that of God, and charity (love) is
" the fulfilling of the law."
After speaking this deserved rebuke to these
unmerciful Pharisees, our Lord enunciates the
truth, "The Son of man is Lord even of the
Sabbath day." This assertion is recorded by
the three writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 73
nearly in the same words. In making this as
sertion he wanted his hearers to know that he
regarded himself as "the Lord of the Sabbath,"
and could, out of himself, give the laws which
should regulate its observance, and therefore
that nothing that he did could break an institu
tion of which he was Lord or Ruler.
St. Mark prefixes this declaration with an
other — viz., "The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath." Judging from the
pre-eminence given by the scribes and Pharisees
to the fourth commandment, and the excessive
care shown in fencing it around with all kinds
of restrictions, so that_the memory could neither
retain them nor the people fully observe them,
it was needful that our Lord should take just
such a common-sense view of the Sabbath as
he does take in these words. So unjustly had
they magnified this law, not only out of propor
tion to the others, but in contravention of the
Others, that they declared, " He who shall duly
observe all the rites and customs of the Sabbath
shall obtain the pardon of all his sins, even'
though he hath been guilty of idolatry," The
Sabbath was thus bound hand and foot in the
grave-clothes of stringent traditions. Its orig-
15 *

174 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
inal and benignant purpose had been overlooked
in their rabbinical glosses, and it was time that
the order should go forth from the Lord of the
Sabbath, " Loose it and let it go," that it might
stand forth untrammeled by the swathings and
bandages of those scribes who had on this, as
on many other subjects, taught for doctrines the
commandments of men, and thus "made the
word of God of none effect through their tra
ditions." The Sabbath, or a rest one day in
seven, was made and ordained by God for man's
physical, mental and moral good. It was to
give him rest from earthly toils and cares, and
time for heavenly thoughts and acts. It was to
be, not a burden, but a comfort. It was to, be a
means to an end ; that end man's highest earthly
and eternal good. "Wherever, therefore, the
keeping of the Sabbath in the way prescribed,
instead of promoting would frustrate that end,
it was more honored in the breach than in the
observance. It was never to be regarded as
itself an end. Apart from the physical, social,
moral and religious benefits to be thereby real
ized, there was no merit in painfully doing this
one thing, or rigorously abstaining from that
other. The Sabbath was made to serve man,

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 17$
but not man to serve, or be a slave to, the Sab
bath. And just because it is an institution
which, when rightly used, is so eminently fitted
to minister to man's present and eternal good,
the Son of man, who came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister as the Head of our hu
manity, to render to it the greatest of all ser
vices and to take all other servants of it under
his care and keeping, would show himself to be
" Lord also of the Sabbath."
It is worthy of note here, in passing, that with
one exception (Acts vii. 56), our Lord only speaks
of himself as the " Son of man." It is a term
used by none of the apostles, but fifty different
times by Jesus himself, as if it was the favorite
title by which he would designate himself. It is
a name which the prophet Daniel (vii. 13) gives
to the Messiah, and hence was a name recog
nized by the Jews as a designation of the Mes
siah. As the phrase, " Son of God," when ap
plied to Jesus, meant the full and perfect com-'
munication to him of the, divine nature, with all
its attributes and functions, so that we could
truly say as St. Paul does, " In him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily," so the
phrase, " Son of man," when used by him, indi-

176 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
cated the full and perfect communication to him
of the human nature, with, all its attributes and
functions, sin only excepted, so that he is indeed
" the second Adam, the Lord from heaven." In
his human nature he "was made of a woman —
made under the law," "for verily he took not
on him the nature of ¦angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham, wherefore in all things it
behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,"
and he was therefore made in the likeness of
men. It is a term that thus identifies Christ
with the men whom he came to save. He has
taken to himself our humanity. He has ex
alted and glorified it, and lifted it up out of the
depths into which sin had degraded it, and
brought us into the light and liberty of the chil
dren of God;— while it also shows, that as the
Son of man he was the highest and fullest em
bodiment of humanity — man without sin, man
perfectly holy, man with no physical defect, no
mental idiosyncrasies, no class, national or re
ligious prejudices; man in the full, rounded
and complete development of all his mental and
moral faculties, incorporating in himself all the
glories and perfections of a sinless and unfallen
manhood; the ideal of what man would have

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 177
been had he not sinned ; the pattern of what
man ought to be on earth; — the type of what man
will be in the heavenly regeneration.
As " the Son of man " gathering up into him
self all the interests of our common humanity
and ruling over everything that bore upon its
welfare here, and destiny hereafter, he had the
right of Lordship and sovereignty over an in
stitution "made for man" — the Sabbath — and
hence could do with it whatever his holy will
pleased without breaking its sanctity or enfee
bling its power. He is the Arbiter ef his own
ordinance, the interpreter of his own law, and
he therefore, by the bold declaration that " the
Sabbath was made for man," reinstates it in its
primitive design, and re-enforces its claims by
his own authority and example. It becomes no
longer, under this interpretation of Jesus, a day
of burdensome exactions and tedious ceremo
nies, hampering the free spirit and fettering
every natural emotion by traditional restrictions
or the tightened ligatures of pharisaic formal
ism ; but it is made a day of joy, of freedom
from servile work, of social and domestic happi
ness, of personal and private communion with
God, of public worship with the assemblies of
M

I78 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
God's people, of doing works of mercy and
charity, of reading and meditating on God's
word and works. There is nothing rigid or
straitlaced about it. It is enfranchised from
all Jewish glosses, and man is called upon to
use and enjoy this Sabbath in a manner that
shall at once glorify and honor the Lord of the
Sabbathr and secure the highest welfare of man
for whom this Sabbath was made.
In reference to what is called the Sabbath
question, we should ever keep these two cardi
nal facts before us, that Jesus is the Lord of
the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath was made for
man. The first fact being true, it follows that we
must use the Sabbath for the service and glory
of him who is its Lord ; otherwise we fail to
recognize his Lordship over it, and set at naught
his divine authority.
It follows further that the hours of the Sab
bath are Jesus' special gift, and we must do
nothing in its hours that will contravene its sa-
credness, such as appropriating them to mere
secular purposes or the advancement of secular
ends. It follows still further that the example of

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. 1 79
Christ, in so far as it is applicable to us, must
be our pattern. He employed its hours in be
ing in the places of worship, whether Synagogue
or Temple, where he happened to be in minis
tering to the sick and suffering; in preaching
and teaching the gospel of the kingdom ; in con
soling the afflicted, and in partaking of the so
cial hospitality offered to him. He swept away
with one wave of his hand the cumbrous tradi
tions which had encrusted themselves about this
fourth commandment, and because he did so he
involved himself in frequent conflicts with the
scribes and Pharisees, who judged his actions
according to the letter of their traditions, rather
than by the spirit of the law itself.
The second fact being true, that " the Sabbath
was made for man," it follows that man ought
to regard it as a divinely ordained institution for
his special enjoyment and blessing. It is an
ordinance indissolubly bound up with man's best
and highest interests. It was made to give him
what, but for this day of rest, he would not have —
a periodical remission of work, a periodical sea
son of worship. It is a day for him to put the
world aside and bring heaven into view ; to let
the body rest, that the soul may wing its way

l8o THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
upward before the throne ; that soiled and be
grimed, as it were, by his six days' work, he
might wash off the earthiness from his spirit and
bring his heart into the house of God, to hear
the word of God, to engage in the worship of
God and to listen to the preaching of the am
bassador of God.
It would be impossible to tell a tithe of the
blessings which result to man from a right en
joyment of this Lord's day. Are we slaves to
business all the week ? This rest-day enables us
to stand up the Lord's freemen. Is our mind
all the week immersed in worldly cares and
studies ? . On this rest-day we fling open the win
dow of the soul and let the light of the celestial
city stream in upon it. It is a day which comes
to us laden with blessings. It brings in its hands
all good things and all lovable things and all
holy things for our souls and for our bodies. It
offers us rest, retirement, spiritual refreshment,
a feast of fat things in God's earthly house. It
invites us to holy domestic and social gatherings
where all the finer and nobler feelings of our
nature can have free exercise. It shuts the gate
upon the world, and swings open for a time the
gate of pearl that we may look in upon the glo-

THE SABBATH IN THE CORN-FIELDS. l8l
ries of the New Jerusalem. He who spends the
Lord's day in a manner that will honor the Lord
of the Sabbath stands, as it were, in the ante
chamber of heaven, and is thereby becoming
more and more meet for the inheritance of the
saints in light and for " the rest that remaineth
for the people of God."
16

CHAPTER IX.
CHRIST HEALING THE WITHERED HAND
IN THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE SABBATH.

" And when he was departed thence, he went into their Synagogue;
and, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they
asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days ? that they
might accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be
among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the
Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out ? How much
then is a man better than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do well
on the Sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine
hand. And he stretched it forth, and it was restored whole, like as the
other. Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him,
how they might destroy him.'' Matt. xii. 9-14.
" And he entered again into the Synagogue ; and there was a man
there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he
would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And
he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. And
he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to
do evil ? to save life, or to kill ? But they held their peace. And
when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth
thine hand. And he stretched it out; and his hand was restored whole
as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took
counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him."
Mark iii. 1-6.
" And it came to pass also on another Sabbath that he entered into
the Synagogue and taught; and there was a man whose right hand was
withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he
would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation
1S2

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 1 83
against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which
had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in. the midst. And he
arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one
thing : Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil ? to
save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all,
he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so, and his
hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with
madness, and communed one with another what they might do to
Jesus." Luke vi. 6-1 1.
jHE narrative of this Sabbath is placed
by the three Evangelists in close con
nection with the Sabbath which we
have just considered. Still, it is 'entirely dis
tinct, as St. Luke tells us that it was upon " an
other Sabbath."
Where the Synagogue was is not stated,
though it was doubtless in or near Capernaum.
From the tenor of the language used we can
infer that, knowing our Lord would visit this
Synagogue pn this day, the scribes and Phari
sees had brought there a man whose right hand
was withered, as a bait to catch him in some
work of healing, for it is stated that "they
watched him whether he would heal on the Sab
bath day," not that they might applaud him for
his work of mercy, but " that they might find an
accusation against him." The man with the
withered right hand was evidently a prominent
object, and they inferred from our Lord's ready

1 84 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
exercise of mercy that he would most likely
display it on his behalf. Jesus knew their evil
thoughts, the aim and purpose of their plans,
and as if to anticipate any movement on their
part, and to make- the transaction the more con
spicuous, he said to the man, "Rise up and
stand forth in the midst, and he arose and stood
forth." All was now excitement and expectation.
The looks of the audience were passing rapidly
from Jesus to the man, and from the man to the
rulers of the Synagogue, in the consciousness
that a great event was at hand.
Knowing, doubtless, our Lord's purpose in
telling the man to " rise up and stand forth,"
they put to him the question, "Is it lawful to
heal on the Sabbath day ?" with the design of
entrapping him into an answer which would fur
nish the ground of accusation against him as a
breaker of the law of Moses. He, however, as
St. Luke tells us, " knew their thoughts ;" their
wicked hearts and perverted minds lay bare and
open before his piercing eyes, so that neither
their feigned courtesy nor their hypocritical
righteousness deceived him. And so, after the
man had at Christ's command risen from his place

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 185
and gone into the open space in the Synagogue
where all could see his withered and useless
arm, he replied to the question by saying, "I
will also ask you one thing : is it lawful on the
Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save
life or to destroy it?" The question itself car
ried its own answer, but without waiting for
them to reply, he proceeds to illustrate his
meaning by an appeal to their own experience
in the common transactions of that sheep-raising
country. " What man shall there be among you
that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into 'a
pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on
it and lift,.;it out? How much, then, is a man
better than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to
do well on the Sabbath days." What argument
could be clearer, stronger, more convincing, than
this ? It was an appeal to their common-sense
view of things-, and to their pecuniary interests,
which they could not gainsay, and so it is re
corded, of them that "they held their peace."
They had nothing even plausible to object to
such a putting of the truth, and so kept silence.
But it was not the silence of assent, but the
sullen silence of conscious defeat. They were
baffled, but not convinced, and He who read
16*

1 86 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
their inmost thoughts knew the evil feelings that
were roused within them by this thwarting of
their well-laid plot, and hence he " turned and
looked upon them with anger, being grieved for
the hardness of their hearts."
This is the only place in which it is said that
our Lord was angry. Yet, in saying that he
"looked upon them with anger," we must not
attach to it those ideas which we have of man's
anger. Anger which excites evil passions against the
peace, the comfort, the life, of persons, which
leads to words of wrath and deeds of violence,
which stirs up enmity and revenge, which hur
ries one out of self-control into hasty and fool
ish actions, and which leaves its sad virulence
behind, — such anger is sinful. But no such an
ger as this ever took possession of Jesus.
On the other hand, there is an anger which is
just and sinless — ran anger against sinful deeds,
purposes, characters ; an anger which is but'
righteous indignation against ungodly words
and works, such as the apostle speaks of when
he says, "Be ye angry and sin not." When St.
Mark speaks of Jesus being angryr he means
that his holy mind was deeply disturbed as he

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED, 1 87
saw with his omniscient eye the evil thoughts
and purposes of his enemies against himself,
and therefore against man's Redeemer, and con
sequently against man's highest and eternal in
terests. It was at the sin which lay in the hearts
of these men, and which broke out so fiercely in
their words and acts, that he was angry — not at
the poor sinners, but at that which made them
such. " Indeed, with Him who was at once per
fect love and perfect holiness, grief for the sin
ner must ever go hand in hand with anger
against the sin ; and this anger, which with us
is in danger of becoming a turbid thing, of
passing into anger against the man who is God's
creature, instead of being- anger against the sin
which is the devil's corruption of God's crea
ture, with him was perfectly pure, for it is not
the agitation of the waters, but the sediment at
the bottom, which troubles and defiles them, and
where no sediment is, no impurity will follow on
their agitation. "
With this anger was mingled grief — " being
grieved for the hardness of their hearts." Sin-
ful anger never could mingle itself with holy
grief, and this grief was holy because it was ex
cited by seeing the hard, callous, impenetrable

1 88 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
hearts of these men, who, while professing to
keep the law in its letter, were breaking it con
stantly in spirit, who were mistaking shadows
for the substance, and who were thus " blind
leaders of the blind," remaining willfully blind
when they might see, and refusing to come to
the light "lest their deeds should be made mani
fest that they are out of God."
After surveying the audience with this all-
comprehending look of blended anger and
grief — a look which they all "saw and felt — he
said to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand."
There was here no manipulating of the hand,
no touch, no rubbings, no embrocations, but a
simple direction to the man to do what, under
other circumstances, it would have been impos
sible to do ; and in doing as he was bid, in
stretching it forth, it was restored whole as the
other. The cure was instantaneous. So sur
prising an act of mercy, wrought so conspicu
ously in their midst, beyond all possible cavil as
to its being effected by other agencies than by
the word of Jesus, ought to have called out
their admiration and praise. So far from it that
St. Luke says that " they were filled with mad
ness." The pent-up rage excited by his foiling

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 1 89
ajl attempts to entangle him in his talk or works,
and the conscious rebuke which they felt at his
look and his words, and the fearlessness of
Jesus which quailed not before their scrutiny,
and stopped not in his works of mercy because
they .objected to his healing on the Sabbath,
now burst forth with volcanic force. The words
are emphatic, "filled with madness." Their
hearts were overflowing with hate, rancor, dis
appointment, mortified pride, conscious guilt, so
that they were beside themselves with rage.
There was no room in their bosoms for a single
feeling of kindness or mercy. In the great out
burst of indignation all other emotions were ab
sorbed, and to give efficacy to their rage and
wreak their vengeance on their holy Victim was
now the one aim and purpose of the maddened
Pharisees. To this end they "communed" first "one
with another" as to what had best now be done,
and then, calling together the Herodians, " took
counsel against him how they might destroy
him." The Herodians were a body of men among
the Jews who were the political partisans of
Herod Antipas. This Herod, who married He-

190 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
rodias, his brother Philip's wife, beheaded John
the Baptist ; and to him Pilate sent our Lord on
the day of his crucifixion. Aiming at higher
power, he was banished to Lugdunum (Lyons);
and died in exile about A. D. 40.
The Jews, as a people, chafed under the Ro
man yoke ; and the Galileans particularly, a
rough, easily excited and turbulent people, often
rose up against the local Roman rulers, and
were as often put down and reduced to still
more galling bondage by the Roman soldiers.
It was a stigma upon a Jew to point to him as a
partisan of Herod, the tool of the Roman em
peror. It was like deserting the standard of the
lion of the tribe of judah and ranging himself
under the labarum of a heathen empire. It was
a virtual confession of the failure of all Messi
anic prophecies and Messianic hopes, a sort of
giving up in despair that, after all, the long-
promised One, who was the hope of Israel,
would not appear, and that it was best to accept
the present order of things even though it placed
a heathen governor over the royal generation
of Jacob. The Herodians, as the upholders of
heathen royalty in opposition to their old! theoc
racy, and the supporters of a foreign prince

'Herod demands of the scribes where Christ should be born."

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 191
rather than a prince of the house of Judah,
were shunned by the scribes and Pharisees, who
decried them as infidels and profane, as willing
for selfish and political ends to sacrifice all that
was dear to the Jew, if the favor and protection
of Rome might thereby be secured.
Notwithstanding this deep-rooted aversion of
the rulers of the Jews to this political sect, we
find now a ready coalescence with them on the
part of the scribes and Pharisees in the common
cause of destroying Jesus.
To get rid of Jesus they were willing for a
time to sink all antipathies and opposition, and
to use even the detested Herodians, if they
might relieve themselves of the presence and
teaching of the still more despised Nazarene.
On a later occasion, toward the last days of our
Lord's life, we find the Pharisees again making
the same coalition, when "they sent out unto
him their disciples with the Herodians" that
"they might entangle him in his talk." Matt.
xxii. 16.
How this shows the intensity of their opposi
tion to our dear Lord ! They were indeed " filled
with madness." In seeking the aid of the
Herodians they doubtless hoped to find some-

192 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
thing in the words or works of Jesus that might,
by a forced interpretation, be made to show that
he was disloyal to the powers that be — some
thing that would bring him under the surveil
lance and condemnation of the Roman authori
ties. This is evident from the question which
the Herodians put to him in their interview with
him shortly before his death. With mock rever
ence and hypocritical words of courtesy they
come to him, "saying, Master, we know that
thou art true and teachest the way of God in
truth, neither carest thou for any man, for thou
regardest not the person of men. Tell us,
therefore, what thinkest thou ? Is it lawful to
give tribute unto Caesar or not?" Here was
presented to him a dilemma on one or the other
horn of which the Herodians felt sure that they
would impale him ; for if he answered, No, it is
not lawful to give tribute to Caesar, they could
at once accuse him to the Romans as a sedition-
ist and a refuser of tribute, which constituted a
grave political crime punishable with death. If
he said, Yes, it is lawful to give tribute, then
they would accuse him of being a traitor to the
Jewish theocracy, an enemy to Jewish independ
ence and a supporter of Roman ascendency,

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 1 93
which would destroy all his influence with the
people. Our Lord " perceived their wickedness,
and said, Why tempt ye me, hypocrites ?" They
could not so disguise their minds by honeyed
words and flattering compliments as to hide
from Him "who knew what was in man" the
hypocrisy of these questions, and hence he re
veals them to themselves as hypocrites, and
makes them conscious of their duplicity before
he answers their catching question. The man
ner of his reply is a marvel of wisdom. He
calls for a piece of the " tribute money," not the
Jewish shekel, but a Roman denarius or penny,
the money in which the tax was paid and which
had stamped on it Caesar's image, and some
times heathen emblems and superscriptions.
Holding this before them, he simply asked,
" Whose is this image and superscription ?"
They say unto him, " Caesar's." Then saith he
unto them, "Render unto Caesar the things which
are Caesar's," as if he had said, The current coin
of your country is Caesar's, and. its circulation,
displacing as it did, for nearly all purposes ex
cept that of the temple-service, the Jewish coin,
proves your subjection to Caesar and his right
to levy tribute. But if our Lord had stopped
17 N

194 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
here, he would, have at once been accused by
the Pharisees of siding with the Herodians, and
so been brought into disgrace with all pious
Jews. He does not, however, stop, but adds
the markedly significant words, " and unto God
the things that are God's." As made in the im-
age of God and bearing, as it were, his super
scription, " Holy to the Lord," give yourselves to
him as the tribute due to your divine Creator
and King.
These two instances in which the proud Phari
sees made common cause with the hated Hero
dians for the purpose of destroying Jesus evince
, the animosity of both parties, and their readi
ness to forget lifelong hatreds if they may but
slay their common enemy.
Such is always the attitude which sin takes
toward holiness. The presence of holiness in
variably draws out the opposition of sin. Sin
hates light, " nefther cometh to the light lest its
deeds should be made manifest that they are not
of God." Holiness is spiritual light. It is a
revealing power, making known on the one
hand the beauty and excellency of God, and on
the other the heinousness of sin as "that abom
inable thing which God hateth." They ever

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 1 95
have been, and must necessarily ever continue
to be, antagonistic. In the case before us Jesus
had done nothing which was wrong. He had,
indeed, gone contrary to the traditions of their
elders, but his vindication of himself had com
pletely silenced their lips. He had done no
works but those of mercy. He had spoken no
words but those of purity and compassion. He
had allied himself to no sect, political or theo
cratic. Why then this enmity, this continual
plotting against his life, as if he were a robber
or a murderer? It was because of the hard
ness of their hearts and the blindness of their
eyes, which refused to recognize his Messianic
claims, though fortified by such a holy life, such
godly wisdom and such supernatural works.
The same effect, though not manifesting itself
in the same way, is seen now, as it was then.
The holding up of Jesus, and the truth as it is
in Jesus ; the declaring that unless men believe
in him they will be damned ; that " he that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on
him;"" — these truths, when read in the Bible or
proclaimed from the pulpit or uttered in private,
will always arouse the hatred of the unrenewed

I96 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
heart and provoke deadly opposition to the Lord
Jesus. The spirit that now ruleth in the hearts
of the children of disobedience is not going to
yield its claims, of its domicil, without. stout op
position. Hence, any attack upon the heart
under the influence of sin by truth, wakes up the
enmity of that heart to God, and manifests its
deeply-seated guilt.
What a comment is this on sin ! It hates
God, the great and glorious Being who is the
author of every good and perfect gift. It hates
Jesus, the holy One of God — holy, harmless, un-
defiled — who, when on earth, went about doing
good and gave his life a ransom for many. It
hates the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of
life, the spirit of truth and holiness, the renewer
and sanctifier of the heart. It hates God's word,
which reveals his nature, man's sin and the
world's Saviour. It hates God's Church, the
blessed company of all faithful people, with its
divine ordinances of grace. It hates God's min
isters, the- heralds commissioned by him to
preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand." It hates all good men whose
daily lives bud and blossom with grace and bring
forth the fruit of the Spirit. There is nothing

THE WITHERED HAND HEALED. 1 97
good and holy and divine which sin does not
hate, and would not, if it could, destroy. What
it cannot destroy it will seek to defile; what it
cannot defile it will vilify; what it cannot vilify
it will mock or counterfeit. It is an ever-active
hatred, and in the individual man begins with
the first dawnings of spiritual life, and follows
the soul through all its pilgrimage days until
death ends the conflict. Yet all who are out of
Christ, who have not a lively faith in him, and
whose life is not answerable to this faith, are
servants of sin, slaves of the prince of the
power of the air, " the spirit that now ruleth in
the hearts of the children of disobedience."
What a master to serve ! a fallen angel cast
down from heaven. What a service to engage
in ! a daily slavery in working against every
thing good and holy. What wages to receive
at the end of this servile toil ! death ! " The
wages of sin is death."
So soon as our Lprd perceived the spirit of
these Pharisees, and that they had taken coun
sel with the Herodians against him, " he with
drew himself with his disciples." His time was
not yet come. He would not, by remaining and
contending with these adversaries, precipitate
17*--

198 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
events,, and hence went down to the seaside and
thus thwarted their murderous plans.
This narrative teaches us the blinding nature
of sin. It causes the eye of the mind to look at
the highest moral beauties- and see no beauty in
them ; to behold the most holy characters and
mark no excellences therein ; and attributes to
mean and unworthy motives the most exemplary
and charitable acts. Grace long resisted is sure
to beget judicial blindness, for God's Spirit will
not always strive with man.
This narrative also teaches us that the heart
of Jesus is grieved by the perversity of men.
When Christ exhibits himself to men in his
word, his Church, his sacraments, his Spirit, and
they reject him and seek only how to rid them
selves of him, then is the holy heart of the Sa
viour grieved at the hardness and impenitency
of those whom he came to save, but who say,
"Away with him." " We will not have this man
to reign over us." May God save us from the
doom of rejecting an offered, loving, bleeding,
divine Saviour!

CHAPTER X.
THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH.

" And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in
their Synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, Whence
hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works ? Is not this the
carpenter's son ? is not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren,
James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? And his sisters, are they
not all with us ? Whence then hath this man all these things ? And
they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is
not without honor save in his own country, and in his own house.
And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
Matt. xiii. 54-58.
" And he went out from thence and came into his own country, and
his disciples follow him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he
began to teach in the Synagogue ; and many hearing him were aston
ished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what
wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works
are wrought by his hands ? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary,
the brother of James and Joses, and of Juda and Simon? and are not
his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus
said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own coun
try, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could
there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick
folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went round about the villages, teaching." Mark vi. 1-6.
ROM the treatment which our Lord
received after his first preaching in
Nazareth, recorded in the fourth chap
ter of St. Luke, we should hardly have supposed 199

200 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
that he would so soon have gone thither again.
But no doubt his heart was specially drawn to
ward those who had been his townsmen for so
many years, and whom he knew in all the inti
macies of social life ; and he yearned for their
salvation. Hence he was willing to make an
other effort to disciple them to his faith. This
was in accordance with his conduct on a later
occasion, when his disciples would dissuade him
from going into Judea again by saying, " Master,
the Jews of late sought to kill thee, and goest
thou thither again ?" he heeded not the sup
posed danger, and went where duty called.
Having, then, waited a sufficient time after
his first repulse at Nazareth, for reflection to
have sobered their minds, and for rumor to have
borne to their ears the wonderful things which
he had done in all the region of Galilee, he now
bends his steps thither.
The day before he took this journey had wit
nessed some of his mightiest works. He had
crossed the Sea of Galilee to the country of the
Gadarenes on the eastern side, and there had
cast out "the legion of devils" from him who
was possessed, and who, in consequence, dwelt
in tombs, and by his fierceness and strength had

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 201
t>ecome the terror of the whole country. This
legion of devils Jesus had not only cast out, but
permitted, at their own request, to go into a
herd of swine two thousand in number, which,
contrary to Jewish law, were kept in the vicinity,
" and the whole herd ran violently down a steep
place into the sea and were choked in the sea."
Returning to Capernaum, he was there met by
Jairus, the ruler of the" Synagogue, with the
touching appeal, " My little daughter lieth at the
point of death. I pray thee come and lay thy
hands on her that s,he may be healed and she
shall live." Not only did he comply, and raise
her from the dead (for the servant of the ruler
announced to the agonized father before he
reached the house, "Thy daughter is dead;
trouble not the master"), but on the way to the
house of Jairus he healed also, through the vir
tue that pervaded his very dress, the woman
with an issue of blood twelve years, who with
great faith, but modest secresy, had come be
hind and touched the hem of his garment in the
assured conviction, "If I may but touch his
clothes, I shall be whole."
After a day full of such deeds of divine mercy-
he ascends the steep hillsides of Tiberias, moves

202 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
across the plain of Galilee, toils up the rugged
hills that shut in Nazareth on the north, and
from their summit looks down once more on his
childhood's home. In this journey his disciples
are with him. He returns to Nazareth not
alone, but with the twelve companions and wit
nesses of his word and works. He goes there
also preheralded by the mighty works which he
had done elsewhere — works which rumor bore
to all ears, but which rumor could not magnify
because they already exceeded human imagina
tion. He went there a few days, 'doubtless, before
the Sabbath, as if to show that he harbored no
malice against those who would have cast him
down from the brow of the hill on which the
city was built, and that, despite their ill-treat
ment, he still sought their salvation. "When
the Sabbath was come," he went, as had been
his custom from childhood, to the Synagogue
and " began to teach." It was the same Syna
gogue out of which he had been hustled a few
months before, and before the same congrega
tion which had been "filled with wrath" at his
first discourse.
There is no intimation here of what he taught,

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 203
as there was before, but we know that wherever
he went he was "teaching and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom."
The effect of it is, however, noted. It pro
duced first astonishment, then distrustful ques
tionings, then offence. Astonishment, or that
confusion of mind under the blended influence
of wonder and fear at some unexpected appear
ance or event, was often produced in the minds
of his hearers by the strong, bold, true, life-
giving words of Jesus.
Though the people of Nazareth had heard
him before, yet they listened again with new as
tonishment. Their minds seemed to be per
plexed at such a phenomenon. They 'wonder
how it could be that He who had lived nearly
all his life among them, receiving no higher ad
vantages than they, reading no more learned
books than they^ taught in no school beyond
that of the village rabbi, and brought up to the
trade of a carpenter, should suddenly appear so
wise, so wonderful, so influential, as to fill all
Galilee and Judea with the rumor of his words
and deeds. " Whence," they ask, " hath this
man this wisdom ?" They acknowledged the •
wisdom, but wanted to know " whence it was,"

204 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
.and how is it that "such mighty works are
wrought by his hands ?" JHere again the mighty
works are acknowledged, but they cannot solve
their origin. They thus give unconscious testi
mony to both, while yet they seek to bring both
into discredit by asking, " Is not this the carpen
ter ?" " Is not this the carpenter's son ?" " Is
not his mother .called Mary ?" Is he not " the
brother of James and Joses, and of Juda and
Simon ? and his sisters, are they not all with
us ?" " Whence hath this man these things ?" -
From these carping questions we learn inci
dentally several things : that Jesus was not only
the reputed son of a carpenter, but was himself
a carpenter — learned the trade as a youth and
wrought at it as a man ; that his reputed father,
Joseph, was dead, as no mention is made of him
in these questions ; that our Lord had brothers
and sisters, four being named of the former
and several of the latter, whose names are
not given ; that the family of Mary, the moth
er of Jesus, was still living at Nazareth, and
was, one well and reputably known to all the
people. It is not. necessary to discuss the question
whether the brothers and sisters spoken of

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 205
here were the children of Joseph and Mary, or
the children of Joseph by a former wife, or
whether they were merely, as the usage of lan
guage would warrant us in believing, the cousins
of our Lord, the children of Cleopas or Alpheus.
This is a question about which much has been
written, concerning which little is known and
where conjecture is fruitless. In whatever sense
they were related to Mary, they evidently con
stituted her family, and among the people they
passed as the brothers and sisters of our Lord,
and this without any rebuke or explanation from
Jesus or his disciples.
St. John mentions that the people of Caper
naum asked on one occasion nearly the same
question as the people of Nazareth: "Is not
this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know ? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven ?"
To these questionings our Lord simply re
plied, " A prophet is not without honor save in
his own country and among his own kin and in
his own house." The tenor of the objections,
veiled under the questions which they asked
among themselves, was that of depreciating his
character and works by referring to the lowness
18

206 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
of his origin and the humbleness of his occupa
tion and the scantiness of his learning. They
thus sought to take away from the force of his
teaching and the greatness of his miracles, be
cause they could not comprehend the wisdom or
the_ mighty works which he showed forth.
The reply of our Lord was evidently prover
bial. It is one of those truths which have passed
into the current thought of all languages, los
ing nothing of its truth as it flows' from age to
age and nation to nation.
Every day , illustrates the accuracy of this
proverb. Few great men can bear the close in
spection of social and domestic life. There is a
certain perspective point from which you have
to look at greatness. If too near, it reveals mi
nute defects — if too distant, you lose some of
the finer lineaments ; and so a just mean is re
quired between the microscopic, that would
dwell on the details, and the telescopic, which
notes only large outlines, in order to get a just
estimate of real excellence. The treatment
which the ancient prophets received from those
of their own kin and nation fully illustrates the
truth of the sentiment of our Lord. Secular
history confirms what Jesus so broadly asserts.

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 207
St. Mark says that " they were offended at him "
— i. e., scandalized at him. He became to them
a subject of gossip and tattle and misrepresen
tation and contumely. He was talked against
and misrepresented and traduced. His words
were twisted into wrong meanings. His won
drous' miracles were distorted into the working
out of evil agencies. This is always the aim of
the evil one, a purpose known to our Lord and
against which he warned his followers when,
after bidding the disciples of John to go and
show him what things they had seen and heard,
he adds the significant words, " And blessed is
he whosoever shall not be offended in me."
It was prophesied (Isa. viii. 14, 15) that Mes
siah would " be for a stone of stumbling and a
rock of offence," that which would be a scandal
and a tripping to those' who were so .blinded by
worldliness and self-righteousness that they
could not or would not see this " tried stone,"
this "precious corner-stone," which God laid in
Zion for a foundation. What St. Paul calls "the
offence of the cross " still exists, and it will con
tinue so long as there is an unrenewed heart on
earth, for the same apostle gives us the true
reason of it when he says, "The natural mind

208 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
is enmity against God ; it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be." Blessed
indeed are those whose eyes have been opened
to see the preciousness of that Corner-stone at
which the ungodly stumble, and to embrace with
loving hearts Him who is to the Jew a stumbling-
block and to the Greek foolishness, " but to them
that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the
wisdom of God and the power of God."
The result of this offence toward Jesus, and
unbelief in him, was a depriving them of many
temporal blessings which would doubtless have
attended his ministry among them, for St. Mat
thew says, " He did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief." St. Mark uses
language which implies an inability to do mighty
works resulting from lack of faith in the people :
" He could there do no mighty works," etc. It
is to be observed here that nearly all the mani
festations of the miraculous power of Jesus
were made at the solicitation of others, and as
an indication of their belief in his ability to do
as they desired. It was the response of Jesus
to their faith in him. " Believest thou that I am
able to do this ?" was his question to one. " If
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 20g
that believeth," was his rejoinder to another.
According to your faith be it unto you, were the
terms of his healing grants to others. " O
woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even
as thou wilt," is his language to her whose per
sistent entreaty told her persisting faith. If the
blessings which he had so lavishingly bestowed
were desired, they were worth asking for, and
in the absence of the faith of the Nazarethites
we see the almost total absence of his mighty
works. Yet even in that city he left not him
self without witness, for he did " lay his hands
upon a few sick folk and healed them." There
were a few who believed even in the midst of
unbelief, and to these sick ones the compassion
ate Jesus went and laid his holy hands on them. .
Their faith was rewarded with health, and thus
he left a testimony behind him of his mingled
compassion and power.
Even these miracles made, it seems, but
slight impression, for St. Mark immediately
adds, "And he marveled because of their
unbelief." In the case of the Centurion of
Capernaum whose servant he healed, it is
said by' St. Matthew that "he marveled" at the
greatness of his faith ; here we learn " he mar
is* o

210 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
veled " at the want of faith in the people of Naz
areth. , ,
The Centurion was a Roman, had only heard
of Jesus or seen a few of his works, and yet
had such faith in him that he did not deem it
necessary for Jesus to go to his house to heal
his sick servant, but only to give an order to the
palsy to go, as he, a soldier, would give an order
unto a soldier under him to go, and the palsy,
like the soldier, would do the bidding of the
Master's word. It was a faith that invested our
Lord with the whole command of life and death,
and hence he " said to them that followed, Ver
ily I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel."
The people of Nazareth, however, had seen
him, known him, heard him. There was no ex
cuse for their-not believing in him save the so
cial jealousies which would not concede the pos
sibility of greatness to one on a social level with
themselves, and who could receive their homage
only at the cost of their self-disparagement.
Hence in this case the wonder of Jesus was ex
cited at their allowing so small an obstacle to
hinder their recognition of his mighty works,
and for the sake, perhaps, of personal or family

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 211
pride, refuse to acknowledge the claims of the
Son of Mary. It should be stated here, also,
that St. John tells us (vii. 5), "Neither did his
brethren believe in him " — i. e., did not at that
time (though they did afterward, Acts i. 14), ac
cept him as the Messiah, did not give full cre
dence to his claims and become his active disci
ples. This declaration gives deeper intensity to
the meaning of the proverb, " A prophet is not
without honor but in his own country and among
his own kin and in his own house:" Not un fre
quently the nearest relatives throw more obsta
cles in the way of God's children than strangers.
That hardness of heart which could not be
penetrated either by the gracious words or the
mighty deeds of Jesus might well excite his
wonder. It shows, however, that persons may
live in the house with Jesus, be his kinsmen ac
cording to the flesh, work with him at the same
trade, dwell with him many years, worship to
gether Sabbath after Sabbath in the same Syna
gogue, blend in the intimacies of domestic and
social ties, and yet not believe on him. How
often have men said, " Oh, if I had only lived
in Christ's day and seen his miracles and
heard his preaching, I certainly would have been

212 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
his disciple !" Yet the probabilities are that you
would not. The adage, "Familiarity breeds
contempt," would have been as active in its
workings in your minds as in the minds of the
citizens of Nazareth. The heart is fertile in
finding excuses for not believing, and, left to it
self, seeks darkness rather than light, because
its deeds are evil.
The fact is, that we at the present day are in
a better attitude for receiving the truth as it is
in Jesus than those were who saw and heard
and dwelled with him when on earth. To us he
is taken out of the common family, social, na
tional surroundings in which he appeared to the
Jews. .He is lifted above all the extraneous in
fluences which at that time warped and preju
diced the minds of those around him. He is no
longer to us the Son of the widow Mary, the
brother of James and Joses and Simon and
Judas, the carpenter of Nazareth, the peasant
of Galilee. To us he no longer wears the ordi
nary dress of men, followed about from place
to place by a retinue of plain fishermen and
publicans. To us he does not stand out as
the opponent of the scribes and the Pharisees,
the rich and the powerful classes, withering

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 213
them by his woes and exposing their hypocri
sies, and receiving in return their poured-out
wrath, waxing greater and fiercer until it com
passes his death. The sharp outlines of these
passing events, stirring to their depths all Syria,
commented on from Dan to Beersheba, bruited
about with maledictions by scribe and Pharisee,
have, with their deteriorating effect on the
then acceptance of his person and mission,
all passed away ; and that which then lessened
'the proportions of his character, because it
was viewed only in a partial light, now aug
ments its greatness, when we see it in its
true position and magnitude and under its
fully-developed glory.
We are therefore far better off in our real
knowledge of Jesus than the people of Naza
reth, or than even his brethren were. We have
all the testimony which they had, and manifold
more. We have the culminating records of
centuries of the practical effect of his life and
work. We have his atonement as unfolded in
the types of Leviticus and as practically at work
in reconciling the world unto' God. We have
his Messiahship as depicted in the glowing words
of the old Jewish seers, and as testified to by

214 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the wonders of his life and the marvels of his
kingdom. We have his doctrines, not as he dropped his
gracious words here and there in the Syna
gogue, on the mountain-top, by the seashore, at
the table, but gathered up in one repository,
by holy men writing as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost, working out their silent but regen
erating effect upon cities, nations and the world.
The thousands of hearts in every age which
have drunk in the water of life as it flowed from
him, testify that he is precious. The thousands
of minds which have bent with intense study
upon all the points of his character and his
teaching, testify this is the Christ. The thou
sands of churches, with their ministry and sac
raments throughout the world, testify this is the
Saviour of men.
Painting, and Sculpture, and Architecture, and
Music, and Poetry, and History, and Jurispru
dence, and Literature, and Science, in all their
higher and truer developments, each pays
tribute by their noblest works to " Him in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and know
ledge." Thus, wherever we look over Christen
dom, we see proofs of Christ's greatness, and

THE SECOND SABBATH IN NAZARETH. 21 5
glory. From him, as from the world's centre,
have gone out the elevating, refining, enlight
ening, humanizing forces which have driven
back ignorance, oppression, and heathenism,
with their foul and trooping evils. From him,
as from the world's centre, has shot out " the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ," which is the true light
of the mind and heart of men.
And here I cannot but quote the words
of one (Theodore Parker) who, having put
the life and teachings of Jesus into the cru
cible of his own free-thinking philosophy,
and having subjected them to the test and
force of a scorching criticism, finds yet this
residuum, which he thus eloquently describes :
" How vast has the influence of Jesus been !
How it has wrought in the world ! His words
judge the nations. The wisest son of man
has not measured their height. They speak
to what is deepest in profound men ; to what is
holiest in good men ; to what is divinest in re
ligious men. They kifldle anew the flame of
devotion in hearts long cold. They are spirit
and life. His truth was not derived from Mo
ses and Solomon ; but the light of God shone

2l6 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
through him, not colored nor bent aside. His
life is the perpetual rebuke of all time since. It
condemns ancient civilization ; it condemns
modern civilization. Wise men we have since
had, and good men, but this Galilean youth
strode before the world whole thousands of
years, so much of divinity was in him. His words
solve the questions of this present age. ....
Let men improve never so far in civilization, or
soar never so high on the wings of religion and
love, they can never outgo the flight of truth and
Christianity. It will always be above them. It
is as if we were to fly toward a star, which be
comes the larger and more bright the nearer we
approach, till we enter and are absorbed in its
glory." If, therefore, Jesus marveled at the unbelief of
those around him then, may he not, does he not,
wonder still more at your unbelief, with your
great light and knowledge ? You do not enough
think how many more reasons to believe in
Christ press upon us in the nineteenth century
than existed in the first. How the weight of
evidence is rolling itself up more and more with
each advancing age ! Standing, then, before
the Bible, with all the light of eighteen hun-

THE SECOND SABBA TH IN NAZARE TH. 2 1 7
dred years of Christian hope and achievement
thrown upon its sacred pages, how can you re
sist its claims, reject its enshrined Christ, and
remain an unbeliever ? A great responsibility
is thus laid upon all who dwell in Christian
lands, and under the influences of the Church of
God. The possession of a Bible lifts you up
into a degree of moral accountability before God
truly astounding. For in that Bible you find, an
offered Saviour and a free salvation. Reject it,
disuse it, and you cannot be saved, for Jesus
only is " the way, the truth, the life." Accept it,
use it prayerfully, believe it fully, and it will lead
you to the cross here, and to a crown hereafter.
19

CHAPTER XI.
THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN ON
THE SABBATH.
" And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did this sin,
this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of
God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can
work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
When he had thus spoken he spat on the ground, and made clay of
the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by inter
pretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came
seeing. The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him
that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged ? Some said,
This is he : others said, He is like him : but he said, I am he. There
fore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened ? -He answered
and said, A man that is called Jesus, made clay, and anointed mine
eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash : and I
went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him,
Where is he ? He said, I know not. They brought to the Pharisees
him that aforetime was blind. And it was the sabbath-day when Jesus
made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also
asked him how he had received his sight. .He said unto them, He put
clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some
of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the
sabbath-day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such
miracles ? And there was a division among them. They say unto the
blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine
eyes ? He said, He is a prophet. But the Jews did not believe con
cerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they
218

a<o

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 219
called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked
them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind ? How then
doth he now see ? His parents answered them and said, We know
that this is our son, and that he was born blind : but by what means he
now seeth, we know not ; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not :
he is of age; ask him : he shall speak for himself. These words spake
his parents, because they feared the Jews : for the Jews had agreed al
ready, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put
out of the Synagogue. Therefore said his parents, He is of age ; ask
him. Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto
him, Give God the praise : we know that this man is a sinner. He
answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not : one
thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they
to him again, What did he to thee ? how opened he thine eyes ? He
answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear ; where
fore would ye hear it again ? will ye also be his disciples ? Then they
reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple ; but we are Moses' disci
ples. We know that God spake unto Moses ; as for this fellow, we
know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto them,
Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is,
and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth
not sinners : but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will,
him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of
God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou
wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us ? And they cast
him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had
found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?
He answered and Said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that
talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped
him. John ix. 1-38.
1HESE passages bring before us the
transactions and words of Jesus on
the Sabbath after the Feast of Taber
nacles, in or .near the temple.
The man whose case is here recorded was
probably one of that class of beggars who were

220 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
accustomed to frequent the gates of the temple,
that they might do as the lame man healed by
Peter and John did, " ask alms of them that en
tered into the temple."
The cry of the man for help, coupled perhaps >•
with his own sad plight, arrested the attention of
the disciples, and prompted it may be by what
our Lord not long before had said to the impo
tent man, when he found him in the temple,
" sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
thee," they were induced to ask the question,
" Master, who did sin, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?" The connection of
sin with disease was a doctrine well known to
the Jews, and had been taught to them by type
and precept for many hundred years. They
were made to feel that sin, disobedience to
God's law, brought upon man its sore temporal
chastenings, and that the evils thus visited upon
themselves for their transgressions were trans
mitted to their children and children's children.
This biblical truth had, however, been much
perverted, and had.given rise to fanciful theories
by which to account for the presence of sickness
and calamities of various kinds. The question
of the disciples brings -out two forms of this

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 221
false theory : first, that the congenital blindness
of the man might be the result of sin on the part
of " his parents " before he was born, thus visit
ing directly and personally the sin of the father
upon the child. Second, that the blindness of
the man now might perhaps have been caused
by some sin of his in a former state of being.
For though the Jews generally did not believe
in the pre-existence or transmigration of souls,
yet the Essenes and Cabalists did- hold these
views, and by them interpreted and accounted
for the evils of this present being. To this ques
tion of the disciples our Lord at once replies,
" Neither did this man sin, nor his parents."
Not that they were not sinners, " for there is no
man that liveth and sinneth not," but that they
were not sinners in the sense which their ques
tion implied, as drawing down upon themselves
as parents, or upon this man as their son, this
specific evil for some supposed specific sin be
fore he was born. The man was not born blind
for any offence committed either by himself or
his parents. Thus that whole class of ideas
which cropped out in this question, and which
evidently had found entrance into the disciples'
minds, was swept away by a single sentence.
19*

222 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
This negation of the question was made stronger
by an affirmation which declared that the blind
ness of the man was a result of God's providen
tial ordering, " that the works of God should be
made manifest in him," the idea doubtless .be
ing that this blindness would be overruled by
God for the showing forth of his glory in his
restoration to sight. Thus the physical and tem
poral evil would be transmuted into a spiritual
and eternal blessing, not to the man only, but,
through the record of his cure, to the whole
world. Recognizing in this blind man a condi
tion of things in the relief of which he could
manifest a work of God, Jesus said, as if address
ing those who would dissuade him (in conse
quence of the Jews having just before taken up
stones to stone him) from doing any further act
of mercy on the Sabbath, "I must work the
work of Him that sent me while it is day : the
night cometh in which no man can work." In
speaking of himself as being " sent " into the
world, he speaks in reference to that voluntary
subordination of himself as Mediator and Re
deemer, which he made when He " who was in
the form of God thought it not robbery to.be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputa-

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 223
tion and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men." That
self-humiliation which he manifested when he
said, as is recorded by the Psalmist (xl. 6) and
St. Paul (Heb. x. 7), "Lo, I come to do thy will,
O God ; yea, thy law is within my heart."
" The works " of God which he was thus
"sent" to do, were those works of grace,
mercy, truth, which were so fully illustrated
in the gracious words which proceeded out
of his mouth, in the many mighty works of
healing mercy, and in the enunciation of those
divine truths, the concrete of which he himself
summed up in the one grand declaration, " I am
the way, the truth, the life." His wondrous
miracles did this, and accredited him as one
" sent from God," even as Nicodemus reasons,
" for no man can do the works that thou doest
except God be with him."
But Christ's spiritual work was to have, as it
were, its paralleh physical work running along
side of the spiritual, and attesting and authenti
cating at every step his divinity, headship and
power. Our Lord gave a synopsis of this work
in the text of his first sermon in the Synagogue
of Nazareth, where, quoting from Isaiah, he said,

224 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty. them that are .bruised, to preach the ac
ceptable year of the Lord ; " and he announced
himself as doing this work when he said, " This
day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."
Christ's working day was then drawing to a
close. But a few months intervened between
him and the cross, when the night of death
would put an end to his earthly work, for before
he died on that cross he uttered words which
showed that his work was done, as he cried, " It
is finished!" and "gave up the ghost." This al
lusion to his life-work as a "day" is several
times made by him, and in reference to his
labors therein he declares, " My meat is to do
the will of Him that sent me and to finish his
work." Having thus spoken of the necessity of work
ing "while it is day," he then makes the sublime
assertion, "As long as I am in the world I am
the light of the world." It was prophesied of
the Messiah that he should " open the blind eyes,

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 225
bring out the prisoners from the prison, and
them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house." Isa. xlii. 7, 8. It was declared in refer
ence to him that "the people that walked in
darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon
them hath the light shined ;" and the same
prophet, casting his vision across the ages, calls
out to Israel, in view of the advent of Jesus,
"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee ! Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the bright
ness of thy rising."
He was announced also figuratively as "the
star out of Jacob," " the day star," " the day-
spring from on high," "the sun of righteous
ness " that should arise " with healing in his
wings," or beams. In making the assertion, then,
" I am the light of the world," Jesus had gath
ered up into himself the predictions and symbols
of the olden seers, and gave them a personal
and corporate form.
On several occasions he applies the term
" light " to himself. In his conversation with
Nicodemus, and also in those discourses re
corded in the 12th chapter, of John, when he

226 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
said, " Yet a little while is the light with you ;
walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come
upon you. While ye have light belieye in the
light, that ye may be the children of light." And
then, that there might be no question as to who
or what this light was, he adds, " I am come a
light into the world, that whosoever believeth
on me should not abide in darkness."
As he stood in the temple on one of the
mornings of this Feast of Tabernacles, he said
to those around him, " I am the light of the
world ; he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life." The
next day, standing beside the blind man in the
temple, he repeats the same declaration, "I am
the light of the world," as if he had said, I am in
the moral and spiritual firmament what the sun
is in the physical firmament, the source and
centre of all light. I am the moral and spiritual
light of the world.
This must have seemed to those who heard
him, and who saw in him little to distinguish him
from other men, a very bold, self-assertive, even
arrogant claim. When had any of their re
nowned rabbis, Hillel or Shammai or Gamaliel,
ever spoken- of themselves in this manner?

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 227
When had ever any of the great philosophers
of the world, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, ever put
forth such pretensions ? and who was this Gali
lean carpenter that he should make this asser
tion of claims that could exist only in the Mes
siah? Accustomed as we are to regard Christ
as the light of the world, is it difficult for us to
enter into the astonishment of those who heard
him first lay claim to be this light of the world,
and how their national pride, and their personal
prejudices, and their sectarian views, stoutly rose
up in resistance of any such Messianic assump
tions by this son of a carpenter ! Looking back
as we can over a space of eighteen hundred
years, and interpreting Jesus' words in the light
of fulfilled prophecy and a triumphing Christian
ity, we can see how literally true they were, and
that look at him in any and every aspect, he is
indeed, as St. John declared he was, " the true
light that lighteth every man that cometh into
the world."
Take the revealing power of light and examine
Jesus' character in that phase, and see how well
the term applies to him. Light, as we know,
reveals or makes manifest things ; the opposite
of darkness, which covers up and hides them.

228 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Now with all that the human intellect had done
in the regions of mind and morals, with all the
great philosophical discoveries of the sages and
magi in Egypt, in Persia, in Greece, in Rome,
there were certain regions into which their spec
ulations had not penetrated, and certain topics
which they had in vain labored to comprehend
or explain. There was, with all their metaphys
ical acquisitions, a large terra incognita in the
region of mind and morals. There were undis
covered continents of man's spiritual relation
ship lying unknown beyond the ultima thule of
Seneca's visions, or the half-ventured hopes of
Socrates. As to the cause and consequences
of man's fall ; as to the origin and prevalence of
evil ; as to the knowledge of the true God, the
way to reach him, the way to worship him, his
attributes, his manifestations ; as to the real ob
ject and aim of this present life, with its unsolv-
able mysteries; as to any future life beyond
the grave ; as to all the great problems of life
and death, good and evil, soul and body, men
and angels, future rewards and punishments, —
the universal mind was in darkness and needed
revelation, light — revealing- light. And just

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 229
here it is that upon each and all these points
Christ sheds light.
He reveals to us "the way" to God, "the
truth" of God, "the life" of God. He has
"brought life and immortality to light in the
gospel." He -has taught us that " God is a
spirit, and must be worshiped in spirit and in
truth." He has made known to 'us the true
aims and destinies of our mortal being. He has
revealed the grace of God in the salvation of
fallen man, through the terms and conditions of
repentance and faith, and thus shown us that
sin can be conquered, that death can be van
quished, that the grave can be stripped of its
victory, so that, in the strong language of the
apostle, " the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God is revealed to us in the face of
Jesus Christ,"- "who is the brightness of the
Father's glory, the express image of his person."
He is thus the Revealer, the light-dispenser,
the scatterer of darkness and doubt, and the
bringer-in of a bright and eternal day. From
the face of the Sun of righteousness are shot
out those widespread and deep-penetrating
beams of light which drive away the trooping
shadows of superstition and error, and which
20

230 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
will eventually fill the earth with " the light of
Jesus Christ."
Or, take again the life-giving power of light,
and see how true . it is that Jesus is, in this
aspect, "the light. of the world."
The researches of modern chemistry prove
what experience has for long ages taught men,
that there are certain kinds of rays in the beams
of the sun which are absolutely necessary to
ensure vegetable and animal life and growth.
Could these peculiar rays be removed from the
sun, though an illuminating quality might re
main, its life-giving and sustaining power would
be lost, and man, and beast, and bird, and tree,
and flower, would wilt and die.
Just so with the light which Jesus sheds. It
is not merely enlightening, it is life-giving. This
St. John brings out most clearly in the opening
chapter of his Gospel. " In him," he says, " was
life, and the life was the light of men." The
argument is, Christ is the light, but the light of
Christ is seen by us finite beings only in his
life. That life becomes our light, our guide.
It is the lamp in the tall tower of his holy charac
ter which reflects that inner light in its outlook
over the sea of humanity. It is his own life, the

¦THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 23 1
life spiritual, that Jesus imparts to all his follow
ers ; and because they seek to imitate him in his
shining virtues, they become themselves " chil
dren of light," and their light shines before men,
that men seeing their good works may glorify
their Father which is in heaven. Thus the light
of Christ in the soul is always life-giving, life-
sustaining and life-developing.
Yet once more, look upon the beautifying
power of light, and mark how, in this aspect also,
Jesus is " the light of the world.'" All the beau
tiful coloring of nature, from the gorgeous clouds
to the seven-listed rainbow ; from the most del
icate penciling of the tiniest flower to the broad
bands of rosy glory which flash up in the restless
northern lights ; all the thousand-tinted glories
which have been lavished in the painting of field,
and forest, and flower, and sky, and sea, and the
works of man's device, — all these are due to the
beautifying power of light, to the divisibility of
its rays, to the different angles of its refraction,
to the varying velocities of its ethereal waves as
they pulsate from the sun, and to the manifold
densities and reflecting or refracting power of
the objects on which those rays impinge. So
that if the light be taken away, all tint and color

232 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
is gone, the beautifying' power is withheld, and
" colorless patches and tintless fields, and a dull,
unvarying uniformity of darkness, would clothe
all nature. And as we look at the moral world,
do we not find that all its beauty is derived from
Jesus, the light of the world ? Sin is deformity,
derangement, darkness, death. Sin is error, per
version, untruthfulness, doubt. Sin is foul, pol
luting, defiling, wrecking alike to soul and body.
Sin defies God, rejects Christ, quenches the
Spirit, kills the body and destroys the soul in
hell! What are all the loathsome and vile and
abominable scenes in daily life ? What are all
the great diseases and sores and wounds of our
common humanity? What are all the waste
places and deserts and wildernesses of poverty
and ignorance and superstition ? What are all
the Stygian lakes- of human lusts and bestial
crimes ? What, we ask, are all these, and every
thing else that disfigures our once fair earth, but
sin's work ?
But where the light of Christ shines, there
these darksome and doleful things flee away,
and beauty, moral beauty, springs up. As the
light of Christ shines into the individual heart it

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 233
decks the heart with unearthly beauty, and a
character that grows silently and symmetrically
as the palm tree, developing all its beauty out
of an inner life " hid with Christ in God," towers
up in graceful luxuriance before us, and the
world says, What a beautiful character !
As the light of Christ shines into a family,
making father, mother, child, brother, sister,
luminous with the holy light of truth and purity
and love, how the elements of that family har
monize and co'mmingle into exquisite pictures of
domestic life under the sweet groupings and the
rich colorings of the Holy Ghost ! As the light
of Christ shines into and permeates society, how
it purifies, ennobles and then beautifies it !
It is his light that has vivified and quickened
into life all the native excellences of heart and
mind, because even what was good in human
nature could not develop itself amid the dark
ness of heathenism, and only comes out under
the light of pure religion ; and not only so, but
by resolving the entire duty of man to man, and
man to God, into one great commandment,
whose root principle is love, as Jesus did, he
has bound society together by this love-tie,
which, in its daily effects on the individual cha-

234 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
racter, is gradually expelling all that is contrary
to this "first and great commandment," and
cementing together heart to heart, and rank to
rank, and class to class, and tribe to tribe, until
love shall rule all hearts in their dealings one
with another, and love pervade all hearts in their
actings toward God ; and thus love will be " the
fulfilling of the law." What a beautiful aspect
will a family, a society, a nation, a world, present
to the eye human, as well as to the eye divine,
when all shall be illuminated by the light of
Christ, when all shall seek to walk ' in that
light, and as children of light hold forth, each in
the candlestick of his own profession, the word
of life as the law of his heart and the hope of
his soul !
There were many founders of religion and
philosophy who styled themselves, or were styled
by others, " the lights of the world." Confucius,
who lived five hundred years before Christ and
founded the great state religion of China, is
mostly represented in Chinese pictures in the
attitude of prayer, while a beam of light from
heaven descends upon his book of wisdom, out
of which he teaches his scholars as they stand
admiringly around, showing that the popular

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 2 35
idea of the Chinese concerning their highest
sage was that of the receiver and imparter of
light from heaven.
Zoroaster, who lived about the same century
and founded the religion of the Parsees, as de
veloped in the sacred books of the Zendavesta,
made light the pure and eternal source of all
perfection. He considered himself as belonging
to the kingdom of light, and felt called upon to
fight with all his strength against the kingdom
of darkness ; and hence the good principle of
his religion, or Ormuzd, is termed the light of
the world, which by its working seeks to trans
form everything to light.
Apollo, the most influential god in the re
ligion of Greeee, and concerning whom it has
been justly said " that the Greeks would never
have become what they were without the wor
ship of Apollo," is always represented as born
of light and as being the god of light, and his
work, according to the mythology of the day,
was to diffuse light in all the regions of mind,
and in all the arts and sciences of men. Hence
the sun is the emblem of this powerful divinity.
Indeed, all the religious systems of the world
sought to establish themselves as the light of

236 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the world. But they signally failed. Their light
did not illumine the hearts of their founders.
The brilliancy of their thoughts and the flashes
of their yearning spirits, like the shimmer of
heat-lightning in the evening, only made the
surrounding darkness more dark by contrast
with their fitful and unprofitable light.
But it is not so with Jesus, and the religion
which he established.
Let us not forget, too, the intense force of the
definite article "the" here, that Jesus is the light
of the world. Not a light, one among many oth
ers and of equal value, and no more, but the
article the, being exclusive as well as e7nphatic,
shows that Jesus, and fesus only, is^the light of
the world. There is no other source and foun
tain of spiritual light. All comes from him, and
other lights, like the planets of the solar system,
shine only in his light, and show forth, therefore,
only a reflected glory. In saying, " As long as I
am in the world I am the light of the world,"
Jesus did not mean to convey the idea that his
light-imparting power was tied to his earthly
life, and would cease when that terminated. Far
from it ; for though he is taken bodily from us,
he is still here by his Spirit, by his Word, by his

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 237
Sacraments, by his Church, by his Ministers.
His assurance to his disciples, and through them
to all the spiritual generations of men, was,
"Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of
the world," " I will not leave you comfortless
(orphans), I will come unto you," "Where two
or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."
The meaning, then, is that he would ever be
the enlightening power of the world. He would
never cease to shine on men as the light of life,
the light-giving life and the life-imparting light.
In the days of his flesh he shone on only a lim
ited circle ; his light was circumscribed ; its
beams shot into and were almost lost in the thick
fogs and haze of Jewish prejudice and hatred
and unbelief. Now, however, he is lifted above
his earthly surroundings. He is no longer girt
around by the hills of Galilee or Judea. He
has -ascended on high, "gone up with a shout,
and our God with the voice of a trump," and
from the heaven above, and from before the
throne, he still shines out the " light of life," be
cause he is ever " the King of glory."

CHAPTER XII.
THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN ON
THE SABBATH.
(Continued.)
AVING thus prepared his auditors by
telling them that he was " the light of
the world," Jesus proceeds to give
them ocular proof of , the truth of his assertion
by a miracle which would at once illustrate his
meaning and demonstrate his power. *
" He spat on the ground and made clay of
the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind
man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash
in the pool of Siloam." The question at once
arises, Why did our Lord interpose three dis
tinct instrumentalities between himself and the
completed miracle, the clay, the spittle, the
washing in Siloam ? The reply is that at times
he chose to work with means, and at times with
out means, and the reason of his doing so may
238

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 239
generally be found, in some circumstance con
nected with the specific case before him. The
miracle was not the less a putting forth of divine
power, in that he chose to use intermediaries
which of themselves, and without the divine
power operating through them, were yet power
less to heal. The use of these media was in
accommodation to the request of those asking
the miracle, or to the weak faith of the patient.
Jesus needed them not. He could heal at a
distance and without seeing the object of his
miraculous cure, as he did the nobleman's son
(John iv. 46-53) and the centurion's servant.
Luke vii. i-io. He could heal with a word,
without a touch, as he did the ten lepers (Luke
xvii. 11-19) and the two blind men near Jeri
cho. Matt. xx. 29-34. H e could heal without a
word, or a conscious touch on his part, as in the
case of the woman having an issue of blood.
Matt. ix. 20-22. He could heal with a touch
and a word, as in the case of Peters wife's
mother (Matt. viii. 14-17) and the woman with
a spirit -of infirmity eighteen years. Luke xiii.
11-13- We find two other cases in the New Tes
tament somewhat analogous to the one un-

240 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
der consideration. One was as he was passing
through the coast of Decapolis, where "they
bring unto him one that was deaf and had an
impediment in his speech, and they beseech him
to put his hand upon him." Mark vii. 31-37.
The other was wrought in the vicinity of Beth-
saida, where "they bring a blind man unto him,
and they besought him to touch him." Mark
viii. 22-26. It will be observed as to both these
cases that the men were brought to Jesus, that
in each case he was asked to touch them by
those who brought them. Hence in each case
our Lord accommodated his work of healing to
the apprehension of his auditors, and. used such
interventions as would arrest their attention,
while yet their use would take off nothing from
the greatness of the miracle. So in the case
before us. The man had not asked to be
healed, nor had any one asked healing on his
behalf. Indeed, it appears that he had perhaps
never before heard of Jesus, and hence could
have no faith in him. It was necessarv, there-
fore, in such a case, to implant the beginnings of
hope and faith in his mind by calling the man to
him, and thus raise an expectation in him of .
some relief; then, having prepared the unguent

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 24 1
and anointed his eyes, deepening that expecta
tion into hope ; then preparing him for the final
blessing by putting his just developing faith into
action, and telling him to "go to the pool of
Siloam and wash." The call, the anointing, the
command, the going, the washing, were so many
ascending steps in the development of that
man's faith ; each was based on the former, and
all together rendered easy the ascent from
ignorance of Jesus to that full belief in him
which he so speedily manifested. The several
processes of healing corresponded to the sev
eral processes in the blind man's mind, just as
they evidently did in the case of the blind man
near Bethsaida. The cure lay in neither the
clay, the spittle nor the pool, but in the doing
of what Jesus told him to do, and while obeying
he reaped the blessing.
The pool of Siloam, mentioned as far back as
Nehemiah (iii. 15), to which he was sent to wash,
still exists, just outside the southern wall of
Jerusalem, in the village of Siloam, and is one
of the few undisputed localities in that region.
It seems to have been connected with the tem
ple mount by a rocky, sinuous conduit which
brought to a lower and walled-in basin, called
21 Q

242 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
"the pool," the waters that flowed from the
spring beneath the temple area above. It is
to this that Milton alludes when he speaks of
" Siloa's brook, that flowed
" Fast by the oracle of God."
It is now a mere ruin of crumbling walls,
broken columns, decaying steps. The water it
self is brackish and unclean, the place is dank
and filthy, and the whole surroundings are as
unromantic in fact as Milton has made it ro
mantic in song.
Jesus, having anointed the eyes, of this man
with the clay, told him to go and wash in Si
loam, but- did not tell him what would result
therefrom. " He went his way therefore and
washed, and came seeing." The result was not
only sight to the eyes of the body, but to the
eyes of the soul, for he saw at one and the same
time the light of day — the sun ; and the light of
the world— Jesus ; and at once, in the presence
of Pharisees and doubters, he acknowledged his
cure as a miracle done by a prophet come from
God. Now follows a most interesting and life
like dialogue, first with his neighbors, then with
the Pharisees, then with Jesus. It is related by
St. John with all the vividness of an eye-witness

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 243
and with the graphic pen of a word-painter, set-^
ting before us the ensuing events with pictu
resque beauty and fidelity.
We judge from the narrative that immedi
ately on- his regaining his sight the man went to
his home, as the first attestants to the reality
of his cure are his " neighbors." They " which
before had seen him that he was blind, said,
Is not this he that sat and begged?" They
saw a change so great in the whole aspect
of the rtian, that some could scarcely say
whether it were he or not. In this variance
of opinions they resort to the blind man. him
self, and he promptly tells them, " I am he."
At once they ask, " How were thine eyes
opened?" He answers, "A man that is called
Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes, and
said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and
wash, and I went and washed and received
sight." This is clear and succinct, and yet it
implies that the man probably had never heard
of Jesus before that day, and knew perhaps'
nothing of his character and fame. The neigh
bors immediately inquire where Jesus is, but
the man can only repfy, " I know not."
Unwilling to let the matter rest here, the

244 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
once blind man was brought before the Phari
sees — i. e., to the lesser Sanhedrim. This body
consisted of twenty-three members in every city
in Palestine in which there were not less than
one hundred and twenty householders, and its
office was to determine minor cases of civil and
ecclesiastical law, carrying up to the greater
Sanhedrim of seventy-one members, as to a
court of appeal, the weightier cases beyond the
province of the lesser Sanhedrim. Before this
tribunal this once blind man is brought, not so
much, as it would seem, to punish him for any
thing done on the Sabbath day, as to get his tes
timony to. what Jesus did, that they might have
whereof to accuse him of Sabbath-breaking.
Standing before this judicial body, he gives to
their query "how he had received his sight"
(for the fact itself was never disputed) nearly
the same answer as- to his neighbors. This
answer produced a division in the council. One
party, looking at it only in its bearing on the
Sabbatic law, said, " This man is not of God, be
cause he keepeth not the Sabbath day ;" while
another party, looking at it from its miraculous
side, argued, " How can a man that is a sinner
do such miracles ?"

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 245
Unable to reach any unanimity, they turn to
the man standing in their midst and ask him
how he regards the person who wrought this
cure. At once, without a moment's hesitation,
he replies, " He is a prophet." His process of
reasoning seems to be not unlike that of Nico
demus, who said, "We know that thou art a
teacher come from God, for no man can do
these miracles that thou doest except God be
with him" — a sound conclusion from right prem
ises. This confession of the man, however, did
not satisfy them, and so they tried another de
vice. They rejected the story that the man had
been blind and had received his sight, thus vir
tually making Jesus and the blind man conspire
together to impose a false miracle on the peo
ple. Hence they summon before them the
parents of the man, in the hope that they may
perhaps secure from them such a confession as
will enable them to proclaim the whole transac
tion fraudulent. To the question of the tribunal;
" Is this your son ?" the parents promptly reply,
" We know that this is our son." To the ques
tion, Do ye say he was born blind? they as ex- ,
plicitly answer, " He was born blind ;" and to
the last question, " How then doth he now see ?"

21*

246 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
they could only say, whether from ignorance or
fear, " By what means he now seeth we know
not, or who hath opened his eyes we know not ;
he is of age, ask him ; he shall speak for him
self." The testimony that he was born blind is
now -conclusive. Yet how completely did his
parents truckle to their fears of being excom
municated, in the thoroughly evasive, if not ab
solutely false, answer as to the person by whom
their son had been healed ! They knew that it
-was "Jesus, for their son had fold them so ; they
knew the method by which it was done, for that
also had been told them. But the hostile party
to Jesus .in the council had already agreed to
" cast out of the Synagogue " any that should
confess that Jesus was the Christ ; and knowing
this, they evaded any such confession by throw
ing the burden of proving the miracle upon
their son, who was of age and who could speak
for himself.
Failing here to get any evidence of collusion
Or deceit, they recall the son; and addressing
him with apparently devout, yet really hypocrit
ical, words, and uttered in a manner as if to
convey to him the idea, Well, we have found out
the trick and have adjudged this Jesus a sinner,

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 2°47
and you must therefore side with us and con
form to our views, they say, "Give God the
praise, we know that this man is a sinner." The
direction "Give God the praise" does not
mean, as at first sight it might appear, as a call
upon the healed man to return thanks to God
for his cure, for they could not thus ask him to
acknowledge the cure as being worthy of praise
to God, while yet he who wrought it was "a
sinner." We must put the two parts of the
sentence together, and interpret one by the
other. Hence we 'infer that the idea in the
minds of the Jews in uttering it was to adjure
him to speak the truth, just as Joshua (vii. 19)
adjured Achan, who by his deeds had brought
such disaster upon Israel, saying, " My son, give,
I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and
make confession unto him, and tell me now
what thou hast done : hide it not from me."
By this solemn adjuration, coupled with their
solemn judgment, this -"man is a sinner," they
hoped to overawe the man, and extort out. of
him some confession that will break down the
force of the miracle and destroy its popular
effects. But they signally failed. The man
answered, "Whether he, be a sinner or no I

248 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
know not," it is not my province to enter upon
that question, but "one thing I know, that
whereas I was blind, now I see." The Jews
now resort to a kind of cross-examination, to
elicit if possible some discrepancy in his testi
mony on which to invalidate it altogether; hence
they ask him again to go over the matter with
them. He ill brooks this questioning, and re
plies with tartness and irony, " I have told ye
already, and ye did not hear ; wherefore would
ye hear it again : will ye also be his disciples ?"
By telling them "ye did not hear" he meant
that they did not credit his testimony, hence it
was useless to ask again ; and by the question,
"Will ye also be his disciples ?" he doubtless
meant to insinuate that all their seeming anx
iety to sift the facts of this miracle was not be
cause of their desire to learn the real truth, and
thus, if it proved Jesus to be the Christ, to enrol
themselves as his disciples, but was solely
prompted by a hatred of him which had already
formulated itself into a resolve to cast out of
the Synagogue any who should become Jesus'
disciple. This reply drew forth their indigna
tion ; and reviling him with opprobrious epithets,
they drew the line of distinction between him

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THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 249
and them, saying, "Thou art his disciple, but
we are Moses' disciples; we know that God
spake unto Moses, but as to this fellow, we
know not whence he is."
The cogency of the man's reply they could
not resist, while yet it not only failed to con
vince their minds, but stimulated them to such
rage that they turned upon him in indignation,
saying, "Thou wast altogether born in sin, and
dost thou teach us?" Their rage culminated
in their casting him out — i. e., not only turned
him with violence out of the judgment-hall,
where this discussion took place, but also ex
communicated him from the Synagogue. This
was as far as they could judicially go — a depri
vation of certain religious privileges coupled
with formal maledictions and popular reproach.
Some one immediately informed Jesus of the
result of this trial, and he at once sought the
man and " found him." It was for Jesus' sake
that he had been cast out, and he never permits
a man to suffer for him without the comfort of
his presence and .support. " The good Shep
herd seeks the poor sheep cast out by the wick
ed ones ; the Son of God will reveal himself to
him who for his name's sake is reviled and

250 THE- SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
evil-entreated of men ;" and he rejoices against
the whole host of the Pharisees over this one
mendicant soul whom he has won. He was
now to experience the truth. of what Jesus had
said in his sermon on the mount: "Blessed are
ye when men shall revile you and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake ; rejoice, and be exceeding
glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you." He who spoke this eighth beati
tude was now to prove its truth by going at
once to this persecuted and cast-out man
that he may bring him wholly to himself as a
full disciple. His first question to him when he
finds him is designed to sound the depth of his
faith— to make the man reveal (not to Jesus, for
he knows what is in man) to his own conscious
ness the amount of his knowledge of Jesus, and
hence he asks, " Dost thou believe on the Son of
God ?'' In this question is folded up the whole
doctrine of the Messiah, of the atonement, of
the salvation of mankind ; for as we learn after
wards in the teaching of our Lord's apostles, to
believe on the Son of God is to embrace all the
doctrine of Jesus brought to light in the gospel.

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN 25 1
This man evidently understood by the term
"Son of God" the promised Messiah, and his
mind, softened by the influences already at work,
was in a state of preparation to believe when
one sufficiently accredited should claim that be
lief. Hence he appeals to Jesus, and says, " Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ?"
And now He who revealed light into his
bodily eye reveals himself unto the soul of this
seeker after God as "the light to lighten the
Gentiles of the glory of God's people Israel,"
for without any paraphrasis he directly unfolds
himself to his receptive mind, and tells him,
"Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that
talketh with thee." This is a clear, explicit,
straightforward declaration of his Messiahship —
as clear as that made to the woman of Sama
ria, and like her this once blind man accepted it
as true. Faith immediately sprung up in his
soul; he made his lips confess it, saying, "Lord,
I believe," and.he carried out his subjective faith
to an objective act, for he " worshiped him."
Receiving this divine worship as justly his
due, Jesus said to the Pharisees and others who
had gathered around him, " For judgment I am
come into this world, that they which see not

252* THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
might see, and that they which see might be
made blind." These are ' strange and almost
paradoxical words, yet they are full of the
deepest and most important truth. On reading
them the question immediately arises, How can
this be reconciled with those passages in which
our Lord asserts just the contrary words ? In
conversing with Nicodemus, he said, " God sent
not his Son into the world to condemn the
world," and just before his death he declared,
" If any man hear my words and believe not, I
judge him not; for I came not to judge the
world, but to save the world." John xii. 47.
These assertions seem to be diametrically op
posite, but it is only a seeming contradiction,
not a real one. Both statements are true, and
the difference which appears on their face van
ishes when we get beneath the surface and go
down to the real meaning of the words em
ployed. Jesus Christ did not come to this earth
for the purpose of executing the office of a
judge of men. Hence, when one dissatisfied
with the distribution of a father's estate came
to him with complaints, and said, "Master, speak
to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with, me," Jesus replied, " Man, who made me a

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 253
judge or a divider over you ?" So also when
the scribes and Pharisees brought to him "a
women taken in adultery," and having stated to
him the Mosaic penalty of such an act, asked
him, " But what sayest thou ?" he declined to
act as judge. He knew that they wished to
entrap him into a judicial decision ; and if he had
given his opinion for or against the woman,
they would in either case have accused him of
usurping a power which did not belong to him,
and for the exercise of which they would have
condemned him. It was not his business to
pronounce upon her guilt or innocence. He
was not there to act as a judge in such cases,
and hence he met their question by the reply,
" Let him that is without sin first cast a stone at
her." In this sense, then, as occupying a judicial
station, our Lord did not come to judge the
world. But there is another kind of judgment than
forensic or judicial — a judgment which results
as an effect from the manifestation of certain
principles or doctrines ; a judgment which is
ever working itself out in the development of
human character under the presence and teach
ing of certain great truths. For- example, take-
22

254 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
a garment which is full of stains and imperfec
tions, both of fabric and color, but which are in
visible by the light of a candle or in the twilight,
and bring it under a mid-day sun, and you at
once judge and condemn the garment as un
worthy by the simple fact that you expose its
defects by an increase of light.
Introduce a great scientific truth into the
.world, like that, for example, of the Copernican
system in astronomy, and its very existence
and demonstration judges and condemns all pre
vious and later theories, from the world-centred
system of Ptolemy to the vortices of Descartes ;
for the very demonstration and reception of a
great truth, condemns and judges all so-called
truths which militate with it.
Thus it was that the very manifestation of
Christ in the flesh did, without any formal sen
tence, condemn the false religions, the false phil
osophies and the false ethics of the world.
He came as revealing the one living and true
God, existing as a spirit, and to be worshiped
as a spirit "in spirit and in truth;" and that
great thought will, in its workings, overturn
every idol god, every priesthood of sin, every
temple of error, every religion of man's device.

THE HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN. 255
He came as "the way, the truth, the life," the
very point about which all the philosophy of the
world had busied itself, and concerning, which all
had erred-; for while to find a way to God, to get
at the truth of God and to obtain a life with
God was the one aim of all philosophical in
quiry, not one could say, I have found it, but
each seemed in error's wandering maze to be
irretrievably lost.
The centring of them all in Christ, and the
manifesting them fully in him, was a virtual
condemnation of all human philosophy in just
so far as that philosophy was at variance with
divine truth.
The bringing in of true godliness showed
what was false. The manifestation of incarnate
truth, virtually condemned all human error, and
the incarnation of the true God, detected as
with Ithuriel's spear, the falsities of pagan
worship, and made the dark and miserable rites of
heathenism start up discovered and amazed, and
" return perforce to their own likeness." What
ever, then, is a test of character, or elicits men's
views of themselves, or discerns between good
and evil, and causes men to show what their
real disposition is, is a virtual judgment upon

256 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
men, and these processes of judgment are con
tinually going on in our minds and continually
witnessed in daily life, where there can be of
course no judicial sentence or formal tribunal.
These are the meaning of our Lord's words,
and he applied these test principles to the
Pharisees, and made them realize in their own
hearts that they were blind to all that was really
good and holy and true, and brought upon
themselves a self-pronounced judgment that
condemned their errors and their lives.
Let us see to it that in our clearer light, and
fuller truth, we bring not upon ourselves the
like condemnation.

CHAPTER XIII.
THE SABBATH ON WHICH JESUS HEALED
THE WOMAN WHO HAD A SPIRIT OF IN
FIRMITY.
" And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath :
and, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eigh
teen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up her
self. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her,
Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands
on her : and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that
Jesus had healed on the sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There
are six days in which men ought to work : in them therefore come and
be healed, and not on the sabbath-day. . The Lord then answered him,
and said, Thou hypocrite ! doth not each one of you on the sabbath
loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ?
And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan
hath bound,, lo these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the
sabbath-day ? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries
were ashamed : and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things
that were done by himi" Luke xiii. 10-17.

JT. LUKE only records this Sabbath
work of Jesus. He does not tell us
in what city it was done, but only says,
" In one of the Synagogues."
He was there teaching, for we do not doubt

22*

257

25& THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
that on every Sabbath day after his public en
trance upon his ministry he preached to the
people in a Synagogue or in the temple. His
work-day, as he knew, was to be brief; hence he
filled all its hours with the deeds which advanced
the establishment of his kingdom. His lan
guage ever was, "I must work the works of
Him that sent me while it is day; the. night cometh,
in which no man can work," and we know that
he said, " My meat is to do the will of Him that
sent me and to finish his work." He had ever
before him. a divine and definite plan. To its
accomplishment he bent all the -energy of his
body and the purpose of his will. In doing this
he never flagged in zeal or faltered in purpose.
In the singleness of his eye to God's glory, in
the fixedness of his will to do God's work, in the
untiring industry which marked his labors, he
sets us an example that we should follow, as
near as we can, the steps of Him "who went
about doing good." The eye of Jesus was as
quick to see, as his heart was quick to feel for,
the bodily afflictions of those around him. See
ing in this Synagogue " a woman which had a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together and could in no wise lift up herself, he

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 259
called her to him." She does not seem to have
gone to the Synagogue for the purpose of re
ceiving healing, nor does she appear as one
asking a favor of Our Lord. Yet Jesus saw in
her not only an object of merciful commisera
tion, but a case by and through which he could
make known afresh, and with renewed force, the
power which he held in his hand as Lord alike
of the spirit world and of the Sabbath. At his
call, this cripple, bent double, with face earth
ward, with body distorted, in whom hope of
relief had died out long ago, and to whom per
haps life was a burden and a grief, came before
the assembly, presenting to them all a mourn
ful spectacle that should have excited their ten-
derest sympathy. As soon as she had reached
Jesus he laid his hand on her and pronounced
the healing words, "Woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity." The words of our Lord
are peculiar, different from those ordinarily used
in his miracles of healing. They implied bonds,
fetters, and these again implied a binder, a fet-
terer, one who had manacled her body with a
chain, and bowed it together and kept it bent
with a bond-which no human power could break.
Accordingly, our Lord says subsequently that

260 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
she had been bound by Satan, that he was the
slave-master who had thus chained together, as
it were, the head and feet of his victim. Thus
her infirmity is traced to Satan, whether di
rectly, through some such permitted agency
as w^as allowed to him in the case of Job, or the
" thorn in the flesh " of Paul ; or indirectly, to
the resulting evil of some sin into which he
tempted her, we cannot tell ; all we know
is that "Satan had bound" her, that she had
been his bond-woman for eighteen years, that
no power of man could loose this bond and
make her body straight, and that she was thus
in her own eyes and in the judgment of others
a helpless, incurable, life-long cripple.
But no sooner does our Lord pronounce the
words which by their potent influence dissolve
the bonds than she lifts herself up, finds herself
made straight, and at once glorifies God. The
strong man, armed, had thus kept and deform
ed the palace of this body for nearly a score
of years, but now a stronger than the prince
of this world had come upon him, broken his
bands asunder, taken from him his spoil, and
let the captive go free, erect, rejoicing.
This act on the part of Jesus immediately ex-

THE WIDOW'S MITE.

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 26 1
cites the indignation of the ruler of the Syna
gogue ; and too much overawed by the miracle
to say a word against Jesus, he turns upon the
people and scolds them, as if they had done an
act of wrong. Indeed, he rebukes them as Sab
bath-breakers, saying, "There are six days in
which men ought to work : in them therefore
come and be healed, and not on the Sab
bath day." He thus sought to do away the
effect of the miracle by urging the charge of
Sabbath breaking. He seeks to change the
current of their thoughts, then doubtless flow
ing Christward in wonder and thankfulness for
such display of divine power, into another chan
nel, whereby the people would . reproach both
themselves and Jesus as violators of the fourth
commandment. Through all this deceit and
mock jealousy of the law of Moses our Lord
saw, and replied, "Thou hypocrite!" causing
the ruler of the Synagogue to feel that he had
penetrated. into the secret motives of his heart;
and then he establishes the charge- of hypocrisy
by asking, " Doth not each one of you on the
Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall
and lead him away to watering? And ought
not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham,

262 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
whom Satan hath bound, lo ! these eighteen
years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath
day?" How pertinent and unanswerable was
this illustration and question of Jesus !
If you can on the Sabbath loose the bonds
that bind your beasts in order to give them
water — bonds that have tied them to your stall,
but a few hours, and beasts that have no souls —
do you blame me for loosing a bond of eigh
teen years' duration, fastened on a daughter of
Abraham, and restoring to her the free use of
limb and body of which Satan had so long de
prived her ? Well might his adversaries " be
ashamed." Their hypocritical cant about the
Sabbath had been exposed, their own works
upon their own cattle were made to testify to
their hypocrisy. They were ashamed also at
being thus exposed to the people, and subjected
doubtless to the ridicule of those whose esteem
and reverence they so sedulously courted. On
the other hand, " all the people " (for we ever
find that " the people " flocked to hear him, that,
" the common people heard him gladly ") " re
joiced for all the glorious things that were done
by him." Thus shame and joy were mingled
in the congregation — shame on the part of the

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 263
ruler and his friends, arising out of their con
scious exposure and defeat, for truth always ex
poses and defeats error and hypocrisy, and joy
on the part of the people, who recognize in
these works of Jesus a pledge of love and
grace which they eagerly sought, though as
yet they understood not- the full purport of his
holy mission.
The time is coming when there will be a
similar exposure of all the hypocrisies of men,
when the gloss and glare of sin shall be rubbed
off, when the masks it wears shall be removed,
when it shall appear in its naked foulness and
filthiness, and when all eyes shall see the mis
erable artifice and subterfuge which served to
disguise guilt and make even sin itself wear the
aspect and livery of goodness.
The time is coming when all Christ's "ad
versaries" shall "be ashamed" — ashamed at
their folly in ever trusting to the lures of the
" father of lies ;" ashamed at their guilt in per
sistently rejecting so glorious .and merciful a
Saviour; ashamed of their personal sins, which
will then lie naked and open before the eyes of
the universe, when the secrets of all hearts shall
be revealed. How will those who now reject

264 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Jesus then "call on the -rocks and the moun
tains, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him
that sitteth upon the throne, for the great day
of his wrath is come, and we are not able to
stand !" It is a hard position to occupy, that
of an " adversary " of Christ. Yet all are ad
versaries who are not his professed and faith
ful friends. His words are, " He that is not
with me is against me," and you can be with
Christ only by a living faith that unites you to
him even as the branch is united to the vine,
and of all who are not thus " with Christ " he
has declared, " Those mine enemies who would
not that I should reign over them, bring them
hither and slay them before me."
On the other hand, it will be a day of intense
rejoicing when Jesus shall rule king of nations as
he now does king of saints, when his word will
be the world's law, his life the world's example,
his truth the world's light, his salvation the
world's hope, his kingdom the world's glory.
Then how desirable will it be to be found
among the "friends" of Jesus, to realize that
the great Redeemer is our Elder Brother, one
who has borne our nature, who has atoned for
our sin, who has graven our names on the

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 265
palms of his hands, and who has prepared for
us the many mansions in the " Father's house "
in heaven ! In that " Father's house of many
mansions " we doubt not that the ransomed
souls will study over and over again " all the
glorious things that were done by him." Not
the few specimen instances recorded in the
gospels, but those innumerable acts and words
of love and mercy of which St. John says, "The
which, if they should be written every, one, I
suppose that even the world itself could not
contain the books that should be written."
The two parables which follow were evident
ly part of our Lord's teachings on the Sab
bath ; and though St. Matthew records both and
St. Mark one (that of the mustard seed) in
somewhat different connections, yet that con
stitutes no reason why they should not have
formed part of his discourse on this day. For
it seems that they naturally sprang up out of the
bitter opposition of the Jews to Jesus, and are
designed to show, first, by the parable of the mus
tard seed, that though the kingdom of God, as
represented now by Jesus and his few followers,
might seem small and insignificant even as a
grain of mustard seed, yet by and by it would
23

266 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
become a great tree, " greater than all herbs ;';
and second, by the parable of the leaven, that
though the teaching of Jesus seemed to find but
small lodgment in the hearts of the people now,
yet, like a small piece of leaven, it would ere
long leaven the whole lump and assimilate all
to itself.
Our Lord introduces these parables with the
questions, " Unto what is the kingdom of God
like? and whereunto shall I liken it?" Not that
he was at any loss to state what it was like, but
for the purpose of eliciting their attention and
to awaken thought in their minds as to the
nature of that kingdom. Not waiting for an
answer, he delivers the two brief but most sig
nificant parables to which we have already
alluded. Without going into any formal exposition of
them, let us note a few of their more salient
points. The mustard seed is, indeed, " the least
of all seeds that are down in the earth " which
produce ligneous stems and branches, and it
was in this sense, doubtless, that our Lord spoke
of it, alluding rather to the relative difference
between the seed and the full-grown plant than to
the seed in the abstract, because the seeds of

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 267
poppy and rue are smaller still, though the
plants never rise above humble herbs, whereas
the mustard seed " becometh a great tree and
shooteth out great branches, so that the birds
of the air came and lodged in the branches
thereof." This, of course, refers to its growth
in warm climates, of which we have authentic
accounts ; thus a traveler in South America says :
" The mustard plant thrives so mightily in Chili
that it is as big as a man's arm and so high and
thick that it looks like a tree, and the birds
build their nests in them, as the gospel men
tions." The exceedingly small, and to human
aspect insignificant, beginning of the kingdom
of God, is thus strongly brought out when it is
compared to a mustard seed. And looking at
it with merely human eyes, what could be more
small and insignificant than this first seed of
the kingdom of God in its earthly manifesta
tion ? The idea, humanly speaking, was absurd,
that less than a dozen illiterate Galileans, the
disciples of a crucified Jew, could overthrow the
old religions of the world and set up a new
one which should extend from the rising to the
setting sun. They were to conquer the world
to the sceptre of Jesus, and yet immediately

268 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
after his death they shut themselves up in an
upper room " for fear of. the Jews." Great
names, literary honors, the patronage of kings,
the favor of the people, they did not possess.
To mortal view it was the veriest absurdity to
commission such men to convert the world,
then just passing through its Augustan age, to
the faith of the son of a carpenter whom the
Jews had excommunicated, and the Romans
nailed to the accursed tree.
Yet see how soon this small seed became a
great tree! Fifty days after the ascension of
Jesus three thousand were converted under the
preaching of Peter. In less than three years
churches were gathered throughout all Judea,
Galilee and Samaria, and in thirty years Chris
tianity had spread over Asia Minor and Greece,
southward to Egypt and westward to Rome.
In a hundred years Justin Martyr declared in
an epistle to the emperor Adrian, " There is
not a nation, either Greek or barbarian, or of
any other name, even of those who wander in
tribes and live in tents, among whom prayers
are not offered to God the Father in the name
of the crucified Jesus." In the fourth century
the golden-mouthed John of Antioch (Chrys-

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 269
ostom) wrote, "The apostles of Christ were
twelve, and they gained the whole earth. If you
go to India, to Scythia, to the uttermost part
of the world, you will everywhere find the doc
trine of Christ enlightening the souls of men."
Eighteen hundred years have passed away,
and how stands the religion of Jesus now?
Take a map of the world, mark on it the
countries most celebrated for law, order, mo
rality, domestic virtue, refinement, intellect
ual culture, free government, and there you
will find that the religion of Jesus prevails.
Why is this ? Why is all that is great and
good and lofty and inspiring in law, govern
ment, literature, art, science and morality only
found among the nations of Christendom, while
all that is debasing in intellect, tyrannical in
power, degrading in morals, whatever strips
man of his glory, society of its safeguards, gov
ernment of its paternal care, woman of her
true position, is found where the religion of
Jesus Christ does not prevail ? Can we
solve the problem of the extension of Chris
tianity on the principles of human philosophy ?
Gibbon tried it in his five celebrated reasons,
and failed. Is it solved by the maxims of po-
23*

270 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
litical science ? Machiavel and Montesquieu
and Bacon and Guizot each assert that its
wondrous development is an anomaly in the
world. Can we match it by any parallel fact
in any country, in any religion, by any founder
of a new sect ? The voice of universal history
answers, No ! It stands alone, the wonder of
the nations, as the triumphal monument of
Jesus on the plains of a fallen' humanity. " Of
the increase of his government there shall be
no end." This religion of Jesus will advance
steadily, surely, triumphantly, over all the bar
riers and obstacles of earth and hell and Satan,
until it shall become the one only religion of
every kingdom and tribe and nation on the
globe. The parable of the "leaven hid in three
measures of meal " refers to this same spiritual
kingdom, but under another aspect. The mus
tard seed represented its outward growth and
enlargement in the eyes of men, the leaven
its inward working in the individual heart, its
assimilative, rather than its accretive, power —
the internal penetrating and diffusing energy
of its truth, rather than its external outspread
ing and greatness. It is the property of the

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 27 1
grace of God, when it finds a lodgment in the
heart, to change the heart into the character
of that which is thus leavening it, just as it is
the property of leaven hid in a measure of
meal to change the character of the whole lump
of dough in the midst of which it was placed.
Like leaven, it works silently, imperceptibly,
surely, transforming little by little the entire
affections of the soul ; and without imparting to
it any new faculties or affections gives new force
and direction to their outgoings and influence,
so that the thinp-s in which the natural man
once took delight now afford no joy ; the emo
tions which he once cherished he now repress
es ; the plans which once absorbed his energies
are now laid aside ; the passions which once
raged in his heart are now tamed ; while the
things he formerly hated he now likes ; what
he once shunned he now rejoices in — prayer,
praise, reading God's word, attendance on the
means of grace, the cultivating of a meek and
quiet spirit, the bridling of his tongue, the effort
to grow in grace, are now sought for and cul
tivated with diligence and delight. '" Old things
have passed away ; behold, all things have be
come new."

272 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
As the operation of the Holy Ghost is thus
leaven-like in its workings in the individual
heart, so it is also in its effects upon the mass
of mankind. For the Church, which is the aggre
gate of individuals, the blessed company of all
faithful people, is in its inner life sustained and
developed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
This work is going on simultaneously in tens
of thousands of hearts, effecting there those
changes and bringing out those results which
in their aggregation are to alter the face of the
earth and make it "a dwelling-place of right
eousness." And as the woman in the parable
took and "hid" this leaven in the meal, so the
leaven-like grace of the Holy Ghost is hidden
from the carnal eye ; for St. Paul tells us, " The
natural man understandeth not the things of
the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." The working of this
gospel leaven does not appear upon the surface
of society — it is covered up from outward ob
servation ; but beneath the surface, at the centre
of the mass, at the core of humanity, it is doing
its assimilating and transforming work, chang
ing into its own likeness and character that

THE INFIRM WOMAN. 273
with which it is brought in contact, and so this
process will go on " until the. whole " — the whole
elect of God — " is leavened."
These parables are prophecies as well as
didactic lessons. They were true then, and
they foretell what has come and what will yet
come to pass. This shows the prophetic ken of
Jesus as well as his self-confidence in the tri
umph and regenerating power of his religion.
Out of these homely truths and illustrations —
so homely that the delicate-fingered rhetoricians
would hardly have touched them because of
their extreme plainness and commonness — out
of these homely incidents Jesus has shadowed
forth the inner force and the outward growth
of his kingdom. And though he stood in that
Synagogue on that Sabbath day, hated by the
rulers and Jews, having made but little pro
gress in gaining disciples, having aroused the
enmity of the learned, the wealthy and the gov
erning classes ; yet he knew, in his prescience,
that though he appeared to men then as in
significant as a mustard seed, yet that the relig
ion which he was establishing would eventually
spread far and wide, and gather the nations
beneath its branches ; that the doctrine which

274 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
he then taught, as disagreeable to them then as
leaven, offensive to their natural taste, would
yet, in its silent operation, change the great
mass of humanity and make it sweet and
wholesome with the sanctifying power of the
Holy Ghost. Blessed be God that these things
are so !

CHAPTER XIV.
DINING WITH ONE OF THE CHIEF PHARI
SEES ON THE SABBATH.
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief
Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him.
And, behold, there was a. certain man before him which had the
dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees,
saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day ? And they held their
peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; and
answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen
into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day ?
And they could not answer him again to these things. And he put
forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they
chose out the chief rooms; saying" unto them, When thou art bidden
of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room ; lest u.
more honorable man than thou be bidden of him ; and he that bade
thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place ; and thou
begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee
cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher : then shalt thou
have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For
whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. Then said he also to him that bade
him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends,
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors ;
lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But
when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the
blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recompense thee ;
for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. And
when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he
275

276 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade
many : and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bid
den, Come ; for all things are now ready. And they all with one con
sent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a
piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it : I pray thee have me
excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go
to prove them : I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have
married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came,
and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being
angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the
city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and
the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast com
manded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant,
Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,
that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those
men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." St. Luke xiv. 1-24.
fHE incident which St. Luke thus de
scribes evidently took place in Perea.
This name (which is of Greek origin
and signifies "beyond") was given to that por
tion of the country lying east of the Jordan,
and including the Old Testament districts of
Bashan and Gilead; the former, celebrated for
its cattle, so often alluded to by the psalmist ;
the latter, for its medicinal gums and spices,
which were exported by caravans to all the
surrounding nations, and even as far south as
Egypt. It is exceedingly difficult and dangerous to
visit that- country now. It is wild and desolate,
the home of marauding Bedouins, and shadowed

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 277
here and there by the black encampments of
these nomads, and uninviting, save to the anti
quarian, who seeks amid its hills and plains
and deserts, to explore the ruins of its once
giant cities. It was in this region that Jephthah
gathered his host wherewith to invade Amnion ;
that Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, was taken by
Abner after his father's death on Gilboa and
made king of Gilead ; that David, fleeing before
his rebellious son Absalom, passed over Jordan
by night and sought there a temporary shelter ;
and Elijah, " the grandest and most romantic
character that Israel ever produced," lived
amidst its wild people and wild scenery, and
derived thence perhaps much of that rugged
and uncouth aspect which made this man of
God terrible to Ahab and Jezebel and the
votaries of Baal.
At the time of our Lord the people were a
mixed race, blending Jew and Gentile, that
kind of half-breed border population which
always fringes the edge of distinct national
ities and distinct religions as they touch each
other. As part of the lost sheep of the house of
Israel he must needs visit these also, and hence
24

278 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
he made a circuit " through all that region round
about." Accepting on one Sabbath day the invita
tion of one of the chief Pharisees " to eat bread"
with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and
sat down to meat. It shows our Lord's ap
preciation of courteous hospitality, and his
readiness to mingle with all classes, and his
fearlessness in the presence of even his most
pronounced enemies, as the Pharisees surely
were, that he should promptly accept the in
vitation thus tendered to him. We find him
accepting hospitalities from various classes — the
publicans, the peasants, the citizens, the Phari
sees, the rich and the poor, restraining himself
to no conventional limits or national prejudices.
It seems that the rich men in our Lord's time,
acting on the glosses and teachings of the scribes,
made Sabbath feasts not only for personal en
joyment, but for sacred hospitality. Special
directions were given by the rabbins for the
preparation of the Sabbath 'table : "Let a man
arrange his table and spread the couches, and
order all the affairs of his house, that he may
find it ready and ordered when he returns from
the Synagogue, for Rabbi Joses says that two

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 279
angels accompany a man on the Sabbath even
ing on his return from the Synagogue, the one
good, the other evil. When he comes to his
house, if the Sabbath lamps be found lighted
and the table prepared and the couch spread,
the good angel says, God grant that it may be
on the next Sabbath ; and the evil angel must
say Amen in spite of himself. But if this be
not the case, then the evil angel says, God grant
that it may be so (i. e., no feast and no prepara
tion for it) the next Sabbath, and then the good
spirit must say Amen in spite of himself." The
Sabbath feast was cheerful, but religious. A
priest or scribe was usually invited to ask a
blessing and guide the conversation, and so we
find Jesus bidden as a guest to the tables of the
rich, with the design, it may be, of securing a
blessing from his presence, for the people gene
rally recognized in him a great prophet and a
good man.
During this meal Jesus sees "before him,"
not probably one of the guests, but one who
had perhaps been aided in getting there by his
friends, " a certain man which had the dropsy."
Addressing the lawyers and Pharisees who were
at the table with him, he asks the question, " Is

280 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day ?" This
question was one to which different Rabbis had
given different answers, and was considered
therefore as still unsettled. The question was
propounded, not perhaps so much for the pur
pose of getting an answer from them, as to call
their attention to what he was about to do, and
to bring the act into the closest relation with
the Sabbath day. It was a premonition to them
that he was going to do one of his mighty
works, and demanding their attention. To the
question of Jesus no one replied. If they had
answered "No," it is not lawful, they knew
doubtless that Jesus would answer them to their
own confusion. If they said " Yes," it was law
ful, then they would put themselves in opposi
tion to many of the received traditions of the
scribes, and thus bring upon themselves their
reproach and displeasure, sO " they held their
peace," watching doubtless with intense interest
what he would do.
What he did, takes only one line to relate,
but oh how much.does it convey ! " He took him
and healed him and let him go." The long-
suffering patient, burdened with a distressing
and most uncomfortable, disease, was at once

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 28 1
relieved. The long process of absorption which
takes place under the best medical treatment
was here accomplished in a moment. The man
who had come into Jesus' presence swollen,
panting, heavy, hopeless of cure, went from that
presence erect, with natural form, perfectly re
stored to health and strength. What a change !
Beyond physicians' skill ! beyond the healing
virtue of anything in the materia medica of
nature ! Only divine power could disperse the
tumid waters and restore the diseased functions
to their wonted action. It was another of the
many unsolicited works of mercy which Jesus
wrought on the Sabbath day.
So soon as he had made this cure and let the
man go — a cure wrought under their full inspec
tion as to all its circumstances — he resumed his
conversation with those who sat at meat with
him and masked another question, in asking which
he placed his whole justification in one pointed
interrogatory: "Which of you shall have an ass
or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straight
way pull him out on the Sabbath day ?" The
immediate reply in their minds, though it rose
not to their lips, was doubtless, We would in
such a case pull him out on the Sabbath, and
2i*

282 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
"They could not," says St. Luke, "answer
him again to these things." It is not to be
supposed here that silence implied consent ;
on the contrary, the language shows that they
would have answered if they had dared, and
were only withheld by a consciousness that by
so doing they would encounter defeat. The
miracle had been wrought, the man had been
let go, the scoffers and objectors were silenced
by an apposite question which carried with it
an unanswerable argument ; and so, dismissing,
as it were, the case, our Lord now turns to an
other subject..
He had observed how the several guests who
had been invited to this feast chose out the
chief rooms or places at the couches or tables
set for them, marking their petty rivalries and
jealousies as to precedence and rank, and in
that spirit which sought to improve every oc
casion for the teaching of sound truth, " he put
forth a parable unto them that were 'bidden,
saying unto them, "When thou art bidden of
any man to a wedding, sit not down in the
highest room, lest a more honorable man than
thou be bidden of him ; and he that bade thee
and him come and say to thee, Give this man

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 283
place, and thou begin with shame to take the
lowest room. But when thou art bidden go
and sit down in the lowest room, that when he
that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee,
Friend, go up higher; then shalt thou have
worship in the presence of them that sit at meat
with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall
be abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted."
The term " parable " here, as applied to this
discourse, does not mean that kind of utterance
so common to our Lord, whereby by similitudes
taken from natural things he instructed in things
spiritual, for in this instance it was a simple
direction how to proceed in an imaginary case
which might any day become a real one, and
for the purpose of illustrating the important
principle, that man rises to greater height by
humility than by self-advanced claims to honor
and precedence. The parable borrows its force
from the social usages of Eastern life. The
"rooms," or places at the triclinium or table,
were graded according to the nicest distinctions
of rank and worth, and the most scrupulous
regard to etiquette was observed, especially on
wedding occasions, to which Jesus here referred.

284 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Instead of choosing for themselves what
places they should occupy at the table, and
thus distinguishing between ¦ themselves and
others, they should feel that, as all had the same
invitation to the same feast, so they should all
take at first a common level, and let the places
of honor be assigned by the lord of the house,
who, having all the guests under his eye, and
knowing their respective places in the social
scale, would be better able to say to one, " Give
this man a place," or to another, " Friend, come
up higher." Thus self-judgment, self-assump
tion, were condemned. The pride of rank that
creates so many heart-burnings, especially when
self-asserted in public places and in an offensive
way, is here rebuked, and justly so ; for, what is
so offensive as bloated pride puffing up its self-
judged pretensions, and insisting on passing
current among men, according to its own false
estimate and self-esteem ?
Having thus quietly yet effectively rebuked
this unseemly contest for "the chief rooms" of
the feast, Jesus then turns to the host and gives
him a principle or rule by which to regulate his
conduct on festive occasions: "When thou
makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends,

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 285
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy
rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again,
and a recompense be made thee. But when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the halt, the blind ; and thou shalt be blessed,
for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt
be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."
The design of our Lord by these directions,
judging from the tenor of these words and of
words" of somewhat similar import used on other
occasions, was not to condemn those social
gatherings of friends and neighbors which are
so common (for he was then himself a guest
at one), nor was it to declare when dinners
or suppers were given that only the poor and
cripples were to be invited, but it Was to show
the paramount duty of practical kindness and
sympathy with the children of want and afflic
tion, over the lesser duty of entertaining friends
at set feasts, to the complete exclusion from
heart and home of the poor and suffering. By
putting the first part of his direction in a nega
tive form, it was doubtless intended to intensify
the affirmed duty of care for the neglected
classes — not that all such feasts were prohibited
or sinful, but such feasts alone,. with nothing for

286 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the relief of the poor, the maimed, the halt, the
blind, were sinful. The Mosaic law made spe
cial provision for entertaining the fatherless,
the widow, the stranger, the poor, at their social
feasts, and our Lord enlarges and amplifies and
places on a Christian basis, what was local and
exceptional in the Levitical code.
To spread a feast for those who will invite you
in return is only to aggrandize yourself, and to
seek the honor which cometh of men. To make
a feast and call to it those whose poverty will
not permit them to'make any return in kind, is
to be like God himself, who sendeth his bless
ings upon the unthankful and unholy — those
who will not return him praise — as well as upon
those who recognize his favor and thank him for
his grace. Yet he tells us in a very marked
way that, though the poor objects of our com
passion can give us no recompense, we shall not
go unrewarded, for "we shall be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just." The deed will
not be forgotten. He who provideth for the
poor and needy wins, thereby a blessing from
God ; and though he receive not any return in
this life, yet come it will, when at the resurrec
tion, all that they did for Christ's poor shall be

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 287
adjudged as done for Christ himself, and so
meet with a full recompense of reward. This
was doubtless the scope and purport of our
Lord's teaching.
The effect of these sentiments on one of
those who sat at meat with Jesus was such
that he broke forth into an exclamation : " Bless
ed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of
God !" This interjection, from whatever motive
it .sprung, was seized upon by our Lord, who
always found texts for his discourses in the
words and scenes which daily met his ear and
eye, to set before the guests the nature of the
kingdom of heaven and the conduct of men in
reference to their invitation to its blessings.
This parable, suggested by the then surround
ing circumstances of our Lord, and fitting in
most strikingly with the time, the place and the
words already spoken by him, is to be dis
tinguished from the parable of " the marriage
of the king's son" recorded in the twenty-second
chapter of Matthew, though there are several
striking similarities between them.
The parable of the royal marriage was spoken
at a later period of our Lord's ministry, under
circumstances different from those in which he

288 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
was now placed, and is, in all its aspects, severer
in its condemnation and results upon those who
refuse the invitation .of the great King.
The parable of "The Great Supper " sets forth
the rich spiritual provisions which God has pro
vided for his people under the figure of a ban
quet of fat things, the various calls sent by his
older and later servants, the manner in which
these invitations were received by those invited,
the subsequent calling of others to supply the
deficiency of the self-excused guests, and the
final exclusion of those who were invited, but
declined. In Oriental countries, on occasions of great
feasts, whether nuptial or social, the first invita
tion or notice that it will be given, is sent out
long in advance of the time, to give to those in
vited opportunity to prepare themselves for the
occasion. When the feast is prepared, then a
second call is made by servants in the words of
the parable: " Come, for all things are now ready,"
or as it says in the parable of the marriage of ,
the king's son, "Behold, I have prepared my
dinner, my oxen and fadings are killed, and all
things are ready : come unto the marriage."
To the first announcement- of the great sup-

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 289
per there 'was no objection. The difficulties
arose when "the fullness of time had come,"
and the second set of messengers were sent
forth with the invitation, " Come, for all things
are now ready." Then " they all with one con
sent began to make excuses." The excuses
were trivial and unsatisfactory. What though
one had " bought a piece of ground "? The ground
was not movable or perishable, that he " must
needs go and see it " now. It would lie in the
same situation and have the same soil to-mor
row that it had to-day, and it was not necessary,
therefore, to excuse himself on this account.
What though another had " bought five yoke of
oxen "? He could test their strength and quality
to-morrow as well as now, and there was no
pressing reason, therefore, why he should neglect
the supper to "go and prove them." What
though another had " married a wife "? Was she
not given to him to be his companion for life,
and could he not spare a day to attend at the
feast? and this excuse, therefore, like the former,
was worthless and insulting. They were all
irrational, in themselves considered, and they
were insulting to the Giver of the "great sup
per," as treating lightly and with indifference
25 t

290 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
his invitation and his feast. They showed that
they preferred farms, and merchandise, and
pleasure, to association with him in the festiv
ities which he had been so long and so elabo
rately preparing.
When these paltry excuses were reported to
the " Master of the house," no wonder it made
him angry, for it was treating him with disdain ;
and turning to his servant, and changing at
once the purpose and character of the feast, he
tells him to "go out quickly into the streets and
lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor
and the maimed and the halt and the blind."
The servant obeyed. These last made no ob
jection — -they came readily and gladly ; but so
extensive had been the preparation for this sup
per that, notwithstanding so many had been
thus extemporized as guests, there yet was
room. The generous host, not willing that any
portion should be wasted or unconsumed, di
rected the servant, who had already, it seems,
thoroughly scoured the city, to go out into the
highways and hedges, and "compel them to
come in, that my house may be filled," while of
the originally invited yet refusing guests he
said not one of them " shall taste of my sup-

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 29 1
per." Thus our Lord illustrated to his audience
the treatment which the gospel feast received
at their hands. When first announced, it was
heard of with joy, but when in the nearer prep
aration for it, the call came which required of
them the giving up of something in which their
heart was interested, the temporary forsaking
of wife and houses and lands, in order to attend
the great " Master of the house," then their un
willingness and indifference came out into a
positive refusal'to obey the summons. So it is
now. The excuses of the parable are daily
repeated, and men still delude themselves with
frivolous reasons for not accepting the invita
tions of the gospel, forgetting the while, that
Christ sees through their self-cheating hypoc
risy, and knows that at the bottom of the pre-
tendedly courteous words, " I pray thee have me
excused," lies a bitter hatred of the glorious
Giver. Of the great majority of those to whom
the gospel invitation comes may it be said that
they either "make light of it" by neglect, or
else begin to make excuse for non-acceptance.
They are all alive to their temporal interests— to
advance these they will toil and make sacrifices ;
but when the -salvation of the soul is set before

292 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
them, when they are exhorted to repent, and
invited to the gospel feast, then they are so
pressed down with the 'cares and business and
riches and pleasures of this world, that they
have no time for the higher and eternal interests
of their immortal souls. It is a sad but true
portraiture of the treatment men give to the
messengers, the invitation, and the Giver, of the
gospel feast.
We cannot fail to observe the singular unity
of thought which pervades all this discourse of
our Lord in the house of this Pharisee, and how
admirably the scene and the occasion is made
the web which is so beautifully filled in with
illustration, exhortation and parable. All his
talk has some relation to what is going on in
his presence. There is nothing far-fetched. His
ideas spring up from the roots of things at
hand, and his words, therefore, so far from
being forced upon the unwilling ears of his
auditors, flow out with a naturalness and grace
fulness inimitably beautiful.- We are thus taught
by the example of our Lord how to mingle our
discourse with the salt of grace if we would have
it savory and wholesome.
What a dignity invests our Lord as he thus

DINING WITH THE PHARISEE. 293
sits at the Pharisee's table, and without cringing
to rank, without truckling to influential men,
without lowering himself to the level of their
carnal minds and without giving any just offence,
he yet tells them great truths in plain language,
with pertinent illustration and with the majesty
of a teacher sent from God, speaking to them
"as one that had authority and not as the
scribes "! If to all our feasts Jesus were invited,
and if his words were the chief wbrds heard
there, how would his name be as ointment
poured forth, and the whole house where he
was thus received, and his words thus honored,
would be filled with the fragrance of the oint
ment. So will it be in all its ineffable fullness of
joy at the marriage supper of the Lamb in the
guest chamber of heaven.
25 *

CHAPTER XV.

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY.

" Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very pre
cious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when
his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is
this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and
given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why
trouble ye the woman ? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
For ye have the poor always with you ; but me ye have not always.
For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for
my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be
preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman
hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Then one of the twelve,
called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them,
What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you ? And they
covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time
he sought opportunity to betray him." St. Matthew xxvi. 6-16.
" And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at
meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of
spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his
head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves,
and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made ? For it might
have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been
given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said,
Let hen alone ; why trouble ye her ? she hath wrought a good work on
me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye
may do them good : but me ye have not always. She hath done what
she could : she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached
294

"The chief priests and the scribes came together and led him into their council."

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 295
throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be
spoken of for a memorial of her. And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve,
went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. And when they
heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he
sought how he might conveniently betray him." St. Mark xiv. 3-1 1.
" Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where
Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
There they made him a supper ; and Martha served : but Lazarus was
one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound
of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair : and the house was filled with the
odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscar
iot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment
sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said,
not that he cared for the poor ; but because he was a thief, and had the
bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone :
against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always
ye have with you ; but me ye have not always. Much people of the
Jews therefore knew that he was there : and they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised
from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put
Lazarus also to death ; because that by reason of him many of the Jews
went away, and believed on Jesus.'' St. John xii. 1-11.
E come now to our Lord's last Sabbath
before his crucifixion. His earthly life
is drawing to its end. In less than six
days he will be lying dead in the tomb. It will
not be uninteresting, therefore, to mark how he
spent this Sabbath, and yet but little is told us
concerning a day which to him must have
been one of mingled joy and sorrow— -joy, in
that hjs work was so nearly " finished ;" sorrow,
in that he had yet to pass such scorching agony
on his way to glory.

296 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
He was now in Bethany, a word which means
"the house of dates or palms," named thus,
probably, from the palm-dates which grew there.
It is situated on the eastern slope of the Mount
of Olives, about three miles distant from Jeru
salem, and not far from the road that leads to
Jericho. It was unknown in Old Testament
history, and comes into view principally as the
home of Lazarus* and his sisters Mary and
Martha. Whatever may have been the beauty
of this mountain hamlet in the palmy days of
Israel, when the land teemed with inhabitants
and its well-cultivated soil richly repaid the
labor of the husbandman, it is now an un
sightly place, with a few wretchedly-built stone
houses, and the support of the miserable inhab
itants who kennel there, rather than keep house
there, is largely derived from the exactions
made upon credulous travelers, in conducting
them to the legendary house of Simon the
leper, and to the so-called tomb of Lazarus.
All that we gather in reference to the family in
Bethany, where Jesus spent the last days of his
earthly life, leaves the impression of a home of
comfort, peace and love ; and in the quiet of
this domestic circle he found, doubtless, that

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 297
repose which seemed so needful to him, amidst
the intense labors of Passover week, wherein
mind and body were taxed in all their powers.
Simon the leper is generally regarded as the
father of Lazarus and his two sisters. Whether
he was dead, and the name of the father, as
was then customary, still clung to the house ; or
whether, being a leper, he was then under the
ban of the Levitical law, and an exile from his
home, a dweller in some waste place void of
human habitation, we know not.
So many fanciful conjectures have been made
in reference to him and his children and circum
stances, and that too by commentators who are
generally cautious, that pretty romances might
be woven out of their speculations, though we
must remember that all which they say is gra
tuitous, and probably apocryphal.
The household at this visit consisted of Mary,
Martha and their brother Lazarus. The cha
racters of the sisters are brought out in some
delicate touches of St. John's pencil, and in the
records left us by the other Evangelists. Mary,
who seems to have been the mistress of the
house and dispensed its hospitalities, was of a
gentle, loving, contemplative cast of mind.

298 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Anxious to drink in the gracious words of life
/which fell from Jesus' lips, she sat at his feet,
and chose, as our Lord himself told us, " that
good part which shall not be taken from her."
Martha was of a more active temperament, full
of housewifely cares and bustling with all the
energies of a hospitable nature : in the words
of St. Luke, "she was cumbered about much
serving," was impatient at the meditative cha
racter of her sister, and hence asked Jesus,
with words of haste and censure, "Lord, dost
thou not care that my sister hath left me to
serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me." To this querulous request, showing how
completely worldly things had gained an ascend
ency over her — it being in her estimate more
important to serve tables, than sit at Jesus' feet
and listen to his words — Jesus, who read hei
through and through, replied, not by doing as
she wanted him to do, send Mary to her help,
and thus countenance her undue secularity, but
he gently reproves her, saying, " Martha !
Martha ! thou art careful and troubled about
many things, but one thing is needful" — viz.,
that "good part" which Mary had chosen, im
plying thereby that Martha had it not.

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 299
The same traits come out again in the man
ner in which the bereaved sisters receive Jesus
after the death of the brother, Lazarus. Martha,
"as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming,
went to meet him ; but Mary sat still in the
house" until Martha brought her word, "The
Master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon
as she heard that she arose quickly and came
unto him." When Martha-went to Jesus, she
refrained from tears, and after giving way to
one burst of feeling in the exclamation, " Lord,
if thou- hadst been here my brother had not
died," intimates to him to ask of God to bring
him back to her; for it was not until after a
brief conference on the subject of the resurrec
tion, and Jesus' announcing himself as " the
resurrection and the life," that she was able to
say, " I believe that thou art the Christ." When
Mary went at Christ's call, she at once fell down
at Christ's feet; and though she greeted him
with the same hopeless and sad words as did
Martha, " Lord, if thou hadst been here my
brother had not died," yet she entered into no
argument, displayed no doubt, but burst into
tears, arid thus drew sympathetic tears from
the eyes of Jesus — "Jesus wept."

300 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
The Sabbath at Bethany, on which our minds
are now bent, was one after Lazarus had been
raised from the dead. We do not wonder at
the love, devotion and service of the sisters to
Jesus, after receiving not only such a boon in
the restored life of a beloved brother, but such
a sure indication and proof that he was, as
Martha said, "the Christ, the Son of God that
should come into the world." Gratitude and
religion, personal affection and spiritual rev
erence, combined to make him welcome to their
house, and love for their risen brother, and love
for the Master who raised him from the dead,
united to offer joint homage to Him who had
so sublimely announced himself to Martha as
" the Resurrection and the Life."
The supper, or dinner, was given on the Sab
bath. Jesus' disciples were with him. Other
guests were doubtless there, as this seems to
have been a thanksgiving feast for the recovery
of Lazarus from the grave. Lazarus is present,
and sits and eats at the table. Martha is there,
serving, as is her wont. Mary is there also,
but not serving in the sense that Martha is, nor
yet sitting at meat, as her brother did, but dur
ing the progress of the meal she comes in,

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 301
bringing with her " an alabaster box containing
a pound of spikenard ointment, very costly."
Approaching the table at which Jesus reclined
in such a manner as that his feet were projected
toward the wall, and thus rendered easily ac
cessible, she goes behind him, breaks the beau
tiful vase in which this most celebrated and
most precious of all odoriferous ointments was
contained, and pours it out upon his head and
feet in such lavish profusion that all "the house
was filled with the odor of the ointment." Not
content with this loving tribute, she bends over
his sacred feet and wipes them dry "with the
hair of her head," as if to show by this unusual
service her intense gratitude and devotion to
her Lord and Master. She had sat at Jesus'
feet as a learner; she now stood there as his
loving servant. She had received from him
" that better part," that heavenly portion, more
costly and precious than any earthly gift ; and
now she seeks to show her sense of its worth
by that costly offering of spikenard, and that
servant-like act of anointing his head and feet,
and that still more unusual wiping of his feet
with her hair, which in the aggregate evinced
the most intense self-consecration to his service.
26

302 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Jesus quietly accepted this fragrant tribute of
Mary's love. He knew what prompted it, its
perfect purity and its full significance, and we
may imagine that he did not fail to express his
emotions in language befitting the occasion.
In the account of this transaction by St. Mat
thew and St. Mark, Mary's name is not men
tioned. Perhaps she was living when they
wrote, and it was not deemed best to attract
attention to her at that time of persecution.
St. John wrote at a much later date; and as she
had then died, he made known her name, and
told us what the other writers omitted, that she
"anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with
the hair of her head" — two incidents, each pecu
liarly expressive and, in their minuteness of detail,
adding much to the interest of the narrative.
This act of Mary did not, however, escape
condemnation, and even " indignation," on the
part of some of the disciples, first " within them
selves" in secret conference, then outspoken
through the lips of Judas Iscariot, who, acting
as the mouth-piece of the disaffected ones,
asked, "Why was this waste of the ointment
made ? for it might have been sold for more
than three hundred pence, and have been given

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 303
to the poor;" and thus "they murmured
against " the loving Mary.
As it is St. John only who mentions the name
of the speaker, Judas Iscariot, and as he only
tells us the hidden motive of his indignation — viz.,
"not that he cared for the poor, but because he
was a thief and had the bag, and bare what was
put therein " — we are led to infer that he first
suggested the wastefulness of this anointing to
the other disciples, who thoughtlessly chimed in
with his ideas, led thereto by the unexampled
value and profusion of spending a pound of
spikenard on one person. As the common
treasurer of the band of the disciples, receiving
and expending what was put in and taken out
of the bag or purse for their daily expenses, he
had already proved himself a thief; and if the
three hundred denarii, equivalent to about fifty
dollars, which he says this ointment would have
brought had it been sold, had been also placed
in the bag, he would have had larger sums from
which to peculate, and thus more readily gratify
his lucre-loving heart. But Jesus rebuked the
murmurers, saying, " Let her alone ;" " why
trouble ye the woman ?" as if they were noisily
reprimanding and faulting her for her conduct,

304 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
and he then declares that her work was a
"good" one and met his approval. "The
poor," for whose relief you express such con
cern, "you always have with you, and when
soever ye will, ye may do good to them ; but
me," he touchingly adds, " ye have not always "
— a distinct allusion to his speedy departure
from them, the nearness of which no one but
himself knew.
In this rebuke of Jesus to these penurious
men, who were so indignant at what to them
was wasted wealth, do we not find a virtual ap
proval by him of every costly act which true
love prompts us to bestow upon him ? Is
there not an intimation that nothing is too valu
able to be expended on his person ? and that
genuine affection will ever lead to generous
gifts for his use and service ? And is there not
the further intimation that, while the poor are
ever to be objects of our compassion and
charity, yet no wrong is done to them when,
under the stress of some great mercy, temporal
or spiritual, the heart, stirred to its depths with
emotions of gratitude, seeks some outward and
costly way whereby to show its devotion, and
lavishes its wealth upon some work for Jesus in

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 305
a manner which the envious and the unloving-'
and the coldly calculating may denounce as
unnecessary and wasteful ?
We cannot now give personal gifts or person
al service to Jesus Christ, as Mary and Martha
did. But in the same spirit which prompted
Mary to spend so large a sum in an alabaster
box of ointment, which prompted Martha at the
same feast to serve — viz., the spirit of grateful
recognition of divine mercies — we can now
commemorate God's loving-kindness to us by
building a church, a parsonage, an asylum, an
orphan house, by endowing a scholarship or
a professorship in some school of the prophets
as love's offering, making it our alabaster box of
ointment to the risen and ascended Jesus.
Such gifts as these are often done, doubtless,
out of a desire to perpetuate a family name,
for mere ostentation, from a spirit of rivalry;
but when done because Christ is loved, and.the
love seeks to express itself in some costly way,
then will he approve the gift and accept the
service and bless the giver. Nothing is too
munificent for Christ if done out of real love
for Christ : love consecrates it all to Jesus.
Having thus vindicated Mary from the indig-
26* U

306 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
nation of these murmurers, Jesus proceeds . to
speak of the symbolical character of this act:
" She hath done what she could ;" " against the
day of my burying hath she kept this ;" " for in
that she hath poured this ointment on my body,
she did it for my burial."
There is great solemnity and significance in
these words. It was a noble commendation for
him to say of her, " She hath done what she
could ;" no woman could have a higher eulogy,
especially when spoken by Him who knows the
thoughts and hearts of men and what she had
done in his service. May not the words, " She
hath done what she could," looking at this act
of Mary from the point of view from which
Jesus seemed then to contemplate it, mean that
in his estimation, though undesignedly in hers,
she, who would be unable to be near him when
he died, had, almost in prevision of that burial,
come now to do what she could do, anoint while
living, the body which she could not see or
anoint at his death? or had there been given
to her that foresight, such'as was occasionally
given even to women at that day (as to the four
daughters of Philip the Evangelist), by which she
was able to discern the transaction of Calvary

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. y^7
and the sepulchre, and conscious that she could
not be with Jesus then, came now " beforehand
to anoint him for his burial"? It was thus at
least that our Lord accepted the unction and
blessed her for it. Nor would he have spoken
such unusually commendatory words had he
not fully approved the act itself in all its ap
parent prodigality of expense, and in all the
depth of its profound symbolism.
As an offset to his disciples' murmuring, Jesus
gives praise, and their momentary indignation
is set over against the declaration that the fame
of that act would be coincident with the progress
of the gospel, and ever redound to the honor
of Mary of Bethany.
Consequent on this Sabbath scene in Beth
any is Judas' visit to the chief priest for
the purpose of negotiating the terms for his
betrayal of Jesus. We do not know that he
went immediately after being rebuked to them,
though the language strongly implies it. St.
John tells us that "then entered Satan into
Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number
of the twelve." That, doubtless, was the hour
and place when, yielding to the temptation,
" Satan entered into him." As if from that

308 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
moment his body and soul had become Satan's
by right of occupancy and willingly conceded
possession. Satan entered that body as its
master, and kept possession of it till Judas,
under his instigation, "went and hanged him
self." We need not stop to speculate as to the
various motives which prompted his immediate
communing with the chief priests and captains
of the temple guard how he might betray him
unto them, for all is explained when we find
him yielding up his whole being to Satan, and
acting as his agent in this deed of crime. No
doubt these enemies of our Lord were glad to
find a betrayer, and chuckled with fiendish
delight over the fact that one of his own house
hold band — a professed disciple— voluntarily
came forward to do what they so much desired —
put him into their hands ; for " the chief priests
and Pharisees had given a commandment (or
proclamation) that if any man knew where he
were, he should show it, that they might take
him." Little did they imagine that such good
luck, as they would term it, would enable them
to secure, and that too without any public
tumult or rising of his friends, their victim.

gp
grail

" What will ye give me, and T will deliver him unto you?"

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 309
But indignant as Judas is, he wants to bargain
with them and gain advantage to himself, and
so he haggles with them for a price, saying,
"What will ye give me, and I will deliver him
unto you ?" Here his covetousness, his money-
loving heart, showed itself again with fearful
significance. It was with that key that Satan
unlocked Judas' heart, and went in and took
possession of it, already prepared by its love of
money for such a guest. Judas enters into
covenant with the rulers to betray him to them
" for thirty pieces of silver " (eighteen dollars !) ;
he thus sells the Lord of glory at the then
market-price of a slave, and in so doing uncon
sciously fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah (xi.
12, 13), "So they weighed for my price thirty
pieces of silver."
How little must he have valued Jesus, and
how much must he have valued the thirty
shekels, when he could barter the one for the
other, and accept the latter as an equivalent for
the former ! We cannot pause here to discuss
the many questions and points which arise out
of this transaction. The character of Judas is
still a mystery, and the fact that our Lord, with
his acknowledged and often manifested omni-

310 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
science, should select him to be one of the
twelve, is also a great mystery. It is wonderful
that he should have been for three years a
chosen companion of our Lord, seeing him in
public and in private, hearing him in the house
and in the Synagogue, witnessing his miracles
of power and of mercy, and yet be so base as
to betray him to his enemies. Jesus may well
term him "the son of perdition," one who is
moved by the spirit of Abaddon (Rev. ix. n),
the king of the bottomless pit, leading others
to destruction, and ending himself in perdition.
This history furnishes many forcible lessons
which it behooves all Christ's professing dis
ciples to learn to their souls' health. How, for
example, does his case tell us that outward
intimacy with Christ, professing to be his fol
lower, recognition by the world as one of his
disciples, do not ensure salvation ! " How does
it tell us also, that the most blessed privileges
of communion with Jesus may yet be perverted
to purposes of deadly crime, and, instead of
softening, harden the heart ! How does it. tell
us that the piqued pride or offended dignity
will bide its time of vengeance in. the hope of
more surely compassing its end ! How does it

THE SABBATH AT BETHANY. 3 T I
tell us the tempting power of money, and that
the "love" of it is indeed "the root of all evil"!
and how does it warn us with stentorian voice,
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall " ! These are some of the many
teachings of this traitor's life and doom. It is a
beacon set up on the ledge of covetousness
and disappointed ambition, whereon even an
apostle was wrecked, warning off others from
the treacherous rocks and heralding to all the
future, the fearful fate of one nominally Christ's
disciple, but really " a son of perdition." " Mark
the striking contrast," says Dr. Schaff, " between
the money-box of Judas and the alabaster box
of Mary ; his thirty pieces of silver and her
three hundred pence ; his love of money and
her liberality ; his hypocritical profession of
concern for the poor and her noble deed for
the Lord ; his wretched end and her blessed
memory throughout the Christian world to the
end of time."
The character and act of Mary teach us
lessons also of inestimable value. They show
us how love overcomes natural diffidence in her
anxiety to do something for Jesus. They show
us that nothing is too costly so long as by it

312 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
we anoint Jesus and make his name and his
person "as ointment poured forth." They show
us that Jesus appreciates and will reward such
service and worship, while sordid parsimony
or covetous longing, veiled under the pretence
of care for the poor, will receive his just rebuke.
And now this feast, " a life-feast over Lazarus,"
comes to an end. The guests disperse. The
crowd which had gathered to Bethany to see
Lazarus, the risen from the dead, as well as
Christ, the Raiser of the dead, has melted away.
The sacred hours are over, and Jesus has num
bered his last Jewish Sabbath. His first re
corded Sabbath was spent in Nazareth, the
"city of branches,"'the last in Bethany, the "city
of palms." His first Sabbath was marked by
the murderous attempt of his fellow-townsmen
to cast him headlong from the brow of the hill on
which their city was built ; his last was marked
by that anointing, which symbolized that diffu
sive fragrance of his grace which would event
ually fill the world, when the name, and work,
and glory, of Jesus should be known and loved,
as the true Messiah, the anointed One of God.

CHAPTER XVI.
OUR L ORD ' S SABBA TH IN THE SEPUL CHRP.
" When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea,
named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple : he went to Pilate
and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to
be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it
in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had
hewn out in the rock : and he rolled a great stone to the door of the
sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the
other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. Now the next day, that
followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees
came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver
said, while he was yet alive, After' three days I will rise again. Com
mand therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest
his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the
people, He is risen from the dead : so the last error shall bS worse than
the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch : go your way, make
it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, seal-
ing-the stone, and setting a watch." Matthew xxvii. 57-66.
"And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation,
that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable
counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went
in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate mar
veled if he were already dead : 'and calling unto him the centurion, he
asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew
it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he brought fine
linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him
in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto
the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother
of Joses beheld where he was laid." Mark xv. 42-47.
27 313

3 H THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
"And, behdld, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor; and he
was a good man, and a just : the same had not consented to the counsel
and deed of them : he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews ; who also
himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate,
and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it
in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the
sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from
Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body
was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments ; and
rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke xxiii.
50-56. "And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus : and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore,
and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus (which
at the first came to Jesus by night), and brought a mixture of myrrh
and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. Then took they the body
of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner
of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there
was a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never
man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews'
preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand." John xix. 38-42.
IE have just been contemplating a Sab
bath of our Lord's in which, at a
supper given to him at Bethany, he
had been anointed with "a pound of spikenard,
very precious," by the loving hands of Mary
the sister of Lazarus. On the next Sabbath
day He who was thus honored was lying dead
in a rock-hewn tomb. The Raiser up of the
dead was himself dead. The Lord who had
dispensed life to the daughter of Jairus, to the
son of the widow of Nain, to the brother of

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 315
Martha and Mary, was now himself lifeless,
bound hand and foot with grave-clothes. We
need not dwell on the crucifixion scene, nor on
the taking down of Jesus' body from the cross,
nor on the request of Joseph of Arimathea to
Pilate to grant him the corpse that he might
bury it in his own new sepulchre, for these
things belong to the day of preparation rather
than to the Sabbath.
Is it not something more than a- coincidence
that we find a Mary and a Joseph both connected
with his birth and his death, presiding as it were
at the Manger and at the Tomb?
" It may be noted," says Wordsworth, " that
one Joseph was appointed by God to be the
guardian of his body in the virgin womb, and
another Joseph was the guardian of his body in
the virgin tomb, and each Joseph is called a just
man in holy Scripture." The garden of Joseph
of Arimathea, that " honorable counselor who
also waited for the kingdom of God," was near
" the place where he was crucified," and " in the
garden was a new sepulchre wherein was never
man yet laid." As the bodies of malefactors
after death were at the disposal of the governor,
Joseph — one of the great council of the Sanhe-

316 THE SABBATHS. OF OUR LORD.
drim, rich, good, just, and one who, being "a
disciple of Jesus, but secretly," "had not con
sented to the counsel and deed of the" Sanhe
drim — "went in boldly unto Pilate and craved
the body of Jesus." Whatever may have been
his "fear of the Jews" before Jesus' death,
he had none now. He was willing to let the
Roman governor know how he esteemed the
crucified One, and was ready to give to the
sacred body the repose of his own new tomb.
Pilate, having first ascertained from the centu:
rion that Jesus was dead, granted his request.
Another ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus, " which
at the first came to Jesus by night," also came
to render such services as were in his power.
He came with an offering of a hundred weight
of spices (myrrh and aloes) ; and under the
direction of these two honorable men, the body
was removed from the cross, wrapped in "a
clean fine linen cloth with the spices, as the
manner of the Jews is to bury," and then they
laid him reverently in Joseph's new tomb
"hewn out in the rock, and rolled a great
stone to the door of the sepulchre."
This transaction had been carefully watched
by Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of

jgjg H

MH
O wRMEC

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 317
Joses, and the women also which came with him
from Galilee, as they " sat over against the sep
ulchre and beheld how the body was laid." So
soon as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
had departed, the women also returned to Jeru-
salemi and after preparing their spices and oint
ment for a more thorough embalming of the
sacred body, " they rested the Sabbath day ac
cording .to the commandment." Nothing could
have been more simple and unostentatious than <
the burial of Jesus. As his birth, in all its
earthly aspects, was one that was surrounded'
with no pomp or worldly display, so the burial
was the hurried carrying of him from the cross
to the tomb, without parade, without funeral
wailing, without any pageant of woe. He was
laid for his first earthly sleep in a borrowed
manger ; he was laid for his last earthly sleep
in a borrowed tomb.
We -cannot fail to note the^ contrast between
the way in which the holy women who attended
Christ's burial and the way in which the chief
priests and the Pharisees kept that Sabbath.
The Marys and the other women from Galilee
rested according to the commandment.' They
would not even anoint the dead body of their
27*

318 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Lord on that holy day. We can imagine with
what almost hopeless sorrow they spent its
sacred hours — how in the privacy of their
home they talked over the mournful scenes of
Calvary, and spoke with awe of the wondrous
signs in the sky and on the earth which had
marked his crucifixion. We can imagine how
they recalled one and another of his gracious
words and his gracious acts, until their hearts
glowed as they mused and spake. On the other
hand, the chief priests and Pharisees, notwith
standing that it was the Sabbath, and notwith
standing that they rendered themselves ceremo
nially unclean by so doing, " came together unto
Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that de
ceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three
days I will rise again. Command therefore that
the sepulchre be made sure until the third day,
lest his disciples come by night and steal him
away, and so the last error shall be worse than
the first." Here was a confession that he was
dead, as their language and purpose prove.
Here was still seen their obduracy, for they
style him " that deceiver." Here also was man
ifested a fear lest his prophecy might come
true, and hence they would take all human

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 319
means to prevent his rising again. Malignity,
hate, craft, fear, fill their minds, and make them
desecrate the Sabbath with unlawful deeds and
words and emotions.
That Sabbath, we are told, "was an high
day." It occurred in the midst of the Passover
festival, and hence was celebrated with unusual
solemnities and reverence. It was one of the
three great festivals of the Jews at which " all
the males were to appear before the Lord."
It was kept in honor of the deliverance of the
children of Israel from the destroying angel ;
when, in consequence of the sprinkling of the
blood of the paschal lamb on the lintel and
doorposts of their houses, he passed over the
houses thus blood marked ; and while " there
was not an house in Egypt where there was
not one dead," there was not a house in
Goshen where there were any dead. Jerusalem
on this " high day " was full of people who had
come up to this holy festival. Many hundred
thousand had gathered there to commemorate
their national deliverance and fulfill the com
mands of Jehovah.
Yet how few were interested in the trans
actions of Golgotha, or comprehended the im-

320 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
port of the wondrous scenes of that day — the
darkened sun, the quaking earth, the rended'
veil of the temple ! They furnished subjects
of talk at the Sabbath feast, in the family cir
cle, in the groups at the Synagogue, among
the visitors in the courts of the temple, and
then the festive hours rolled on as usual, and
the Sabbath sun sunk to rest in the waters
of the Mediterranean.
During the whole of this Sabbath our Lord
lay in the tomb of Joseph; the sepulchre had
been visited, however, by soldiers and officials ;
the latter, to affix seals to the stone that was
rolled to the door of the tomb, so that it could
not be opened without breaking" them ;* and
the former, to guard the place from any in
trusion, and thus defeat the attempt, should
such be made, to steal away his body and
then say that it was raised from the dead.
With these exceptions, we read of no one
visiting the sepulchre on that Sabbath day.
Malignant hate pursued him to the tomb, and
planted sentinels at his grave to defeat his
predicted resurrection, and keep the so-called
impostor in his rock-hewn prison.
Such was the condition of things on that

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 32 1
Sabbath day. It was a period of suspense
and awe in the moral universe. There was
something sublime in the hush of expectation
that filled the hearts of apostles and holy
women and angels as the hours of that "high
day" slowly rolled on, and the Roman guards
paced up and down before the sealed and
silent sepulchre.
He whom prophecy had foretold should rise
from the dead ; he who had predicted his own
resurrection ; he who had declared himself to
be "the resurrection and the life;" he who
had proved that he was such, by calling back
to life the dead lying on the bed, on the bier,
in the grave, — was himself dead and buried.
He upon whose return to life hung all the
issues of man's salvation was lying in his grave-
clothes "with his face bound about with a nap
kin. Earth and hell and heaven bent as it
were over his tomb in mute expectancy, for
that sepulchre wherein he lay as death's great
est victim, and the grave's proudest trophy, was
the last stronghold of Satan, and that must
be conquered before his atoning work would
be completed.
There is something very solemn in consid-

322 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
ering Jesus, not only as dead, but ioiried — as
lying for a time under the power of death, as
making his grave in an earthly sepulchre. Yet
as it was necessary that he should die — for thus
only could he bear the penalty due to our sins —
so also was it necessary that he should be
buried. This was requisite, not only as giv
ing additional proof of his death by increasing
the number of witnesses to the fact — not only
to fulfill the types of the Old Testament which
foreshadowed this burial, as that of Isaac, bound
for a time to, the altar and then released by
divine interposition ; and Jonah, entombed for
a season in the whale, to be rendered back
to the land on the third day ; not only to fulfill
the prophecies which predicted that the Messiah
should " make his grave with the wicked and
with the rich in his aeath," — but it was espe
cially necessary that he should go down to the
grave, so that there, in death's own dominion, he
might conquer death and the grave and lead
them captive at his chariot wheels. As it was
only by taking upon him the form of a servant,
and coming under all the outward conditions
of humanity, that he was able as a man in
human form to work out for us redemption

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 323
from sin, so only by going down to the state
and condition Of the dead, and coming under
all the conditions of deceased humanity, could
he " destroy him who had the power of death"
and break the bars of the grave.
The dead of the earth are to rise from their
graves, and Christ, as the " first fruit," must be
in a grave before he can rise, as the "wave-
sheaf" of the buried generations of men. The
final conflict of Christ with the powers of' dark
ness was to be made by the buried Christ, and
the tomb of Joseph was to be the scene of the
struggle. In vain would have been the holy
life and divine teachings of Jesus, in vain his
many miracles and wondrous works, in vain the
agony of Gethsemane, in vain even the blood
of Calvary, if once in the grave, death could hold
him there. If, voluntarily coming under the
power and dominion of death, he had been
involuntarily detained there', it would have
shown that there was a power there • stronger
than he to which he must submit. But death
gets all its power from sin, sin all its activity
frojji the prince of evil, so that if Jesus had
been held in the grave against his will, it would-
have proved that he was not divine, was not

324 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the Messiah, and inferior in power even to a
fallen angel. It was necessary, therefore, not
only that Jesus should die on the cross, but that
he should enter into the house of this strong-
armed death and spoil him in his own domain,
and bind him there as his conquered foe. It
was the last fortress of sin, and it must be
broken down before there could be the cry of
triumph; for if Jesus had been held captive in
the grave, all his followers would have been held
there also, and no Easter morning, with its shout
of gladness, would ever have risen upon that
dark valley. And how striking is the thought,
that as in the garden of Eden "the first man,
Adam," lost, by the conquest of him by Satan,
original innocence and perfect bliss and com
munion with God, so also in the garden of
Joseph, " the second Adam, the Lord from
heaven," by his conquest of Satan, gained back
our lost inheritance, securing to us thereby an
innocence purer than Adam's, a bliss more
heavenly, and a union with the divine nature
beyond anything that ever could have been in
an unsinning and an unredeemed humanity.
In the garden of Eden, Satan conquered, and
"brought death into the world and all our

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 325
woes." In the garden of Joseph, Jesus con
quered Satan, and "brought life and immor
tality to light."
The two gardens have been the two greatest
battle-grounds of the moral world. The fall
and the recovery of our race date from these
two points ; and had not the garden of Joseph
reversed the victory of the garden of Eden, the
whole world would for ever lie in the region
and shadow of death ; the great stone which
lay against the door of the world's sepulchre
would never have been rolled away, and the
whole race, in all its generations, as they went
down to the grave, would have lain there with
no hope of a resurrection to eternal life and
eternal bliss.
And this brings before us another, and the
only other, fact we shall now mention in con
nection with the scenes of this Sabbath day —
viz., the comfort which it gives to the Christian
that his dear Lord has himself lain in the tomb.
As we look at the grave, in connection with our
friends or in reference to ourselves, there is an
instinctive shrinking back from its coldness, its
darkness, its decay. It is so desolate to put the
bodies of our dear ones into the deep vault and
28

326 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
leave them there all alone — to go away and
abandon them, as it were, to the dank earth and
the crawling worm. It is painful to think that
we ourselves must soon lie down in the dust
and turn to corruption ; that this body will be
but a handful of ashes ; that all its "beauty will
be consumed out of its dwelling-place." We
do not wonder, as we look at these things in the
light of natural religion, that the ancients, and
all who know not the gospel,'1 should depict
death as " the king of terrors " and the grave
as a devouring monster. But, blessed be God !
we do not feel thus, now that Jesus has been
buried. By lying in the tomb he has; as our
forerunner, gone before to show, us the way-
he has turned its darkness into light, its despair
into hope, its' gorgon horrors into brightest joys.
He has shown us, by hi£ occupancy of a grave,
that we need not dread to lie. where he lay. He
has shown us, by his brief stay there, that we
also are to rise to newness of life ; and as he
passed through the grave to his final glory, so
will the grave be to us the gateway to our bliss
ful immortality. The call of Jesus to each one
of his disciples is, "Follow thou me ;" and that
following 'will conduct us to the tomb before it

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 327
conducts us to heaven. Death may be bitter to
the flesh, but it will only usher the Christian
into " the joy of his Lord." The grave may be
repulsive to the natural sensitiveness of the
heart, but we only enter there to change our
dress, for there we are to put off this body of
flesh and corruption and put on the resurrection
body, for Jesus " shall change our vile bodies,
that they may be fashioned like unto his own
glorious body, according to the mighty working
whereby he is able to subdue all things unto
himself." When such joy is before us, who will com
plain that he must reach it by passing through
the grave? Who would refuse to enter the
palace of the king because the portal was low
and dark and dismal, and he had to wait there a
moment before he could be conducted into the
throne-room, bright with imperial glory? and
who will grieve that he must pass through the
grave and gate of death before he can enter the
palace of the great King eternal in the heavens ?
Our only thought should be to fit ourselves for
the hour of death by having our life hid in
Christ, for we can die in the Lord only as we
live in the Lord; and unless we die in the Lord,

328 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
there will be for us no rest, no hope, in the
grave, and no resurrection to eternal bliss
beyond. But the soul that trusts its all on
Jesus, that rests satisfied on his finished work,
that pleads nothing for itself but that Christ
died for its sins and rose again for its justifica
tion,— such a soul cares not for what may inter
vene between this life and its joyful resurrection,
but goes down into the dark valley undaunted,
and crosses fearlessly the cold stream, singing
as it goes, "Thanks be unto God who giveth
us- the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.''
With what touching simplicity does Bunyan,
in the Pilgrim's Progress, speak of this when
he describes the death of Mr. Standfast!
"When Mr. Standfast had thus set things in
order, and the time being come for him to haste
him away, he also went down. to the river. Now,
there was a great calm at that time in the river;
wherefore Mr. Standfast, when he" was about
halfway in, stood a while and talked with his
companions that had waited upon him thither.
And he said, The river has been a terror to
many ; yea, the thoughts of it have also fright
ened me ; but now methinks I stand easy ; my
foot is fixed upon, that on which the feet of the

THE SABBATH IN THE SEPULCHRE. 329
priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood
while Israel went over Jordan. The waters
indeed are to the palate bitter, and to the
stomach cold, yet the thoughts of what I am
going to, and of the conduct that waits for me
on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at
my heart. I see myself now at the end of my
journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am
going to see that head that was crowned with
thorns, and that face that was spit upon, for me.
I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but
now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall
be with Him in whose company I delight myself.
I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and
wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the
earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too.
His name has been to me as a civet-box ; yea,
sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has
been most sweet, and his countenance I have
more desired than they that have most desired
the light of the sun. His words I did use
to gather for my food, and for antidotes against
my faintings. He has held me and hath kept
me from mine iniquities ; yea, my steps hath he
strengthened in his way. Now while he was
thus in discourse, his countenance changed, his

33° * THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
strong man bowed under him, and after he had
said, Take me, for I come unto thee, he ceased
to be seen of them.
" But glorious it was to see how the open
region was filled with horses and chariots, with
trumpeters and pipers, with buglers and players
upon stringed instruments, to welcome the
pilgrims as they went up and followed one
another in at the beautiful gate of the city. . . .
And, lo ! as they entered they were transfigured,
and they had raiment put on them that shone
like gold. Then I heard in my dream that all
the bells in the city rang again for joy, and that
it was said unto them, Enter ye into the joy of
your Lord."

CHAPTER XVII.
THE FIRST LORDS DAY.
I.— THE MORNING HOURS.
" In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day
of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake : for the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the
stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like light
ning, and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of him the keepers
did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and
"said unto the women, Fear not ye : for I know that ye seek Jesus,
which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his
disciples that he is risen from the dead ; and, behold, he goeth before
you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him : lo, I have told you. And
they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy ; and
did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his dis
ciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and
held him by the feet, and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them,
Be not afraid : go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there
shall they see me." St. Matthew xxviii. l-io.
" And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the
mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might
come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of
the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And
they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the
door of the sepulchre ? And when they looked, they saw that the stone
was rolled away : for it was very great. And entering into the sep
ulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a
331

332 ' THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he said unto them,
Be n^t affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : he
is risen ; he is not here : behold the place where they laid him. But go
your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into
Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went
out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre ; for they trembled and were
amazed : neither said they anything to any man ; for they were afraid.
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared
first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And
she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and
wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had
been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another
form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And
they went and told it unto the residue : neither believed they them.
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and up
braided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they
believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." St. Mark
xvi. 1-14.
" The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it
was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from
the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to
the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have
taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they
have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and
came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together : and the other dis
ciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stoop
ing down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he
not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the
sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was
about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in
a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came
first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew
not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood
without at the sepulchre weeping : and as she wept, she stooped down,
and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting,
the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus
had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She
saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was
Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, whyweepest thou ? whom seekest

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 333
thou ? She supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if
thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I
will take him away. Jesus said unto her, Mary. She turned herself,
and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith
unto her, Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but
go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and
your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came
and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had
spoken these things unto her. Then the same day at evening, being
the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the
midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the
disciples glad, when they saw the Lord." St. John xx. 1-20.
|HE Jewish Sabbath is passed. The
holy women have scrupulously kept
its sacred hours, patiently waiting
until the morning light of the first day of the
week would permit them to go to the sepulchre.
"Very early," therefore, "as it began to dawn,"
three women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of James and Joses, and Salome, " hav
ing bought sweet spices, that they might anoint
the body of Jesus," went thither to do that work
of grateful yet sorrowing love. As they walked
on, they said among themselves, "Who shall
roll us away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre ?" They had seen this "very great"
stone rolled on Friday to the door of the
tomb, and they knew, therefore, that their
united strength would not suffice to remove

334 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
it. They knew not, however, that the stone
had been sealed with the seal of the Sanhedrim,
nor that the tomb was guarded by a band of
Roman soldiers. Had they known these things,
they would not have ventured into the garden
of Joseph. When they reached the spot, how
ever, .they found the stone rolled away ; " for
an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
and came and rolled back the stone from the
door and sat upon it. His countenance was
like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.
And for fear of him the keepers did shake,
and became as dead men." The stone beinof
thus taken away, they were at once enabled
to enter into the sepulchre, but when there,
" they found not the body of Jesus." They
saw, however, two angels in shining, raiment,
"sitting, the one at the head, and the other at
the foot, where the body of Jesus had lain,"
who told them, " Be not affrighted : ye seek
Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is
risen ; he is not here : behold the place where
they laid him. Go quickly, and tell his dis
ciples that he is risen from the. dead; and,
behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there
shall ye see him." Hurrying back to the eleven

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 335
apostles, the women told them what they had
seen and heard, and Peter and John ran to the
sepulchre. John reached it first, and " stoop
ing down and looking in, saw the linen clothes
lying ; yet went he not In. Then. cometh Simon
Peter following him, and went into the sep
ulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and
the napkin, that was about his head, not lying
with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself." After this evidence of the
truth of what the women had told them, " the
disciples went away again to their own house,"
wondering at that which was come to pass.
Mary Magdalene, who had gone back to the
sepulchre, did not now return with them, but
remained. Her mind was perturbed with grief
and she did not take in the full meaning of the
transaction. She only seemed to realize that
the body of Jesus was gone, and so she lingered
there, weeping and stooping to look into the
vacant sepulchre. The angels there gently
asked, "Woman, why weepest thou?" She
saith unto them, Because " they have taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they
have laid him." Turning back from the tomb,
she saw a person whom she took to be Joseph's

336 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
gardener; and when this supposed gardener
asked her the same question that the angels
had done, "Woman, why weepest thou?" she
answered, " Sir, if thou hast borne him hence,
tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take
him away." Jesus said unto her — for he it was
to whom she was speaking — " Mary !" That
one word, uttered in his well-known tone, dis
closed to her who it was, and she at once —
exclaiming " Rabboni !" i. e., my Teacher —
sought to embrace him, by casting herself at
his feet; but he said unto her, "Touch me not,"
cling not to me, "for I have not yet ascended
to my Father, but go to my brethren and say
unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your
Father, and to my God and your God." She
then went back to Jerusalem " and told the dis
ciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he
had spoken these things unto her."
As soon as the Roman guard at the sepulchre
had recovered from their fright, which for a time
almost palsied body and mind, they " went into
the city and showed unto the chief priests all
the things that were done." A council was im
mediately called, the facts stated, and the neces
sity of checking their being known at once

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 337
became apparent. They could not meet this new
and strange emergency, and so they resorted to
bribery and falsehood, and " gave large money
to the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came
by night and stole him away while we slept ; and
if this come to the governor's ears we will per
suade him and secure you. So they took the
money and did as they were taught."
This is a simple record of the events of the
early morning of this first Lord's day, How
many subjects of deepest interest do they
set before us ! Only a few, however, can be
noticed. Never did men more thoroughly over
reach themselves than did the chief priests and
Pharisees, when they asked Pilate to give them
a watch at the sepulchre to prevent " that de
ceiver," as they called him, from rising from the
dead. For the very means by which they hoped
to prevent the resurrection were made the occa
sion of more firmly establishing it, and we
should have lost some of the most striking and
irrefragable proofs of this miracle, had not this
request been made by the Jews and been
granted by Pilate. But for this Roman guard,
and the sealed stone, and the bribery of the
soldiers by the council to propagate a lie, the
29 w

338 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
testimony to the resurrection would have been
wholly from the friends of Jesus, and liable of
course to the charge of partisan complicity and
design. But now, Roman soldiers and Jewish
enemies are made to bear unwilling witness to
this event.
The guard mounted at the sepulchre was
probably the usual detachment of sixteen sol
diers, detailed from the castle of Antonio for
this special purpose. It is well known that the
military discipline of the Romans was severe
and exacting. To desert a post, or sleep upon
a watch, was punished with death. This, these
soldiers well knew, and such was the anxiety of
the scribes and Pharisees in this matter that
they had doubtless received- instructions to be
specially vigilant at so important a crisis. How
impossible, then, to regard as true the assertion
of the chief priests that his disciples came by
night and stole him away while the guard slept !
for while the body was gone on the morning of
that first day of the week, yet the linen clothes
and the spices which had been wound around him
were still there, and the napkin that was about
his head was folded together or carefully ar
ranged in a place by itself. Had the body been

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 339
stolen, the thieves would, in their haste, have
taken the body just as they found it, and se
creted it just as it was; they would scarcely
have had leisure to carefully unwrap it of its
bandages, the myrrh and aloes in which would
make them stick so closely to the flesh that
only with great care and washing could they be
removed ; nor would they have deliberately
folded up the napkin that bound his head and
laid it in a place by itself. The interior of the
sepulchre showed no signs of haste or theft; on
the contrary, there were marks of deliberation
and thoughtful care, and proved that the dis
ciples did not come by night and steal him
away. As to the other assertion, that Jesus w^as
taken while the soldiers slept, the thing is so pre
posterous as scarcely to deserve an answer.
The answer to the statement is, if they all
slept (a thing impossible in itself, considering
the severe discipline of the Roman soldier and
the extreme vigilance required for this service),
how could they know that his disciples came
and stole him away ? Can a man testify as to
what took place when he was asleep ? Go to
any court of justice, and offer there the testi-

340 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
mony of sleeping men' for what took place when
they were confessedly asleep, would their state
ments be received? There is not a court on
earth that would accept or believe such wit
nesses. Yet confessedly, the body of Jesus is
gone, and this is their only explanation of the
removal. Now, either the soldiers were asleep
or they were not asleep. If they were asleep,
as they were taught to say, then their testimony
is worthless, because they could not know what
transpired in their slumber. If they were not
asleep, then a few timid disciples, who had all
forsaken Jesus and fled two days before, could
not have ventured to assail a band of -well-
armed soldiers, placed for the very purpose of
guarding the tomb of Jesus from spoliation, and
could not have stolen the body from their spe
cial guardianship. Thus did God cause the
wrath of man to praise him, and the plottings
of the enemies of Christ to become some of the
strongest props to the doctrine of the resur
rection. That the great council of the Jews, the San
hedrim, knew that the disciples not only did not
come by night and steal him away, as they
bribed the soldiers to say, but that they in their

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 34I
hearts believed that Christ had come to life
again, is evident from the fact, that in less than
two months after the resurrection Peter and
John were arrested in the temple for preaching
"Jesus and the resurrection," and after a night's
imprisonment were arraigned before the high
priests and the council as to the power and
name by which they had wrought the miracle
of healing on the lame man at the Beautiful
Gate of the temple. They replied : " Be it
known unto you all, and to all the people of
Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Naz
areth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him does this man stand here
before you whole." A few days after, Peter and
the other apostles were again arrested by the
authority of the Sanhedrim and put in the com
mon prison. When brought before the council,
the high priest asked- them, " Did we not
straightly command you that ye should not
teach in this name ? and behold ye have filled
Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to
bring this man's blood upon us." To which
the apostles replied: "The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a
tree. Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and
29*

342 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
a Saviour, and we are his witnesses of these
things." Now, on the theory that his disciples had
stolen the body, would they have thus spoken
to the council ? or, speaking thus, would not the
council at. once charge it upon them now that
they had them in their grasp, and prove them
guilty of the theft? But not a word do we
hear from • any of the Sanhedrim of any such
thing. They commanded them to be silent,
they beat them, and were so cut to the heart
by what they heard that they took counsel to
slay them,, but not a word is lisped about
their stealing the body,, though the apostles
on each occasion challenged them to the issue,
by declaring that God had raised up Jesus
from the dead, and that they were witnesses
of the fact. Had the council believed their
own story, now was the time to verify it and
prove the apostles false. But. no ; they knew
that their own statement was false, and never
even attempted to deny or refute the declara
tion of the apostles.
Then, again, behold the wonder-working
power of God in the circumstances connected
with the rolling away of the stone from the

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 343
door of the sepulchre ! Had our Lord rolled
away the stone, it might have been said that he
was not dead, but had only swooned, away, and
was in a state of asphyxia or trance, and that,
reviving under the stimulus of the spices where
with he was swathed, he had by the exercise of
desperate strength removed the " very great
stone" which guarded the mouth of his tomb.
But by the earthquake, which evidently was
local, and by the descending angel with "his
countenance like lightning" and his snow-white
raiment, there were proofs conclusive o^" super
natural interference. Had there not been these
prodigies and angelic interpositions, we should
have been tempted to doubt the truth of the
resurrection, as making it exceptional to all the
other great feats of Jesus' life. If when he was
conceived by a virgin, it was announced by an
angel ; if when he was born, a multitude of the
heavenly host sung his advent hymn over the
plains of Bethlehem and a new star shone in
the east ; if when he was baptized, the heavens
opened and the Spirit like a dove lighted upon
him ; if after his temptation in the wilderness,
aqgels ministered unto him ; if at his transfig
uration, his very garments and body shone with

344 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
resplendent lustre and a voice from heaven said
"This is my beloved Son, hear ye him;" if in
his agony in Gethsemane, an angel appeared
strengthening him ; if at his death on the cross,
the sun was darkened and the earth quaked
and the rocks were rent, — surely it was but in
harmony with all these miraculous interposi
tions, that his resurrection should be signalized
by angelic visits, and be accompanied by por
tentous signs. Had there been none, the grand
climax of Christ's work would have wanted
those authenticating seals, which marked the
other epochs of his life as marvelous and
divine. There is something suggestive, also, in the
incident that the manifestations of the risen
Saviour on the morning of the' resurrection day
were to women only. It was by a woman's
disobedience, that sin was introduced into Para
dise ; it was to a woman, that the first prophecy
was given — that on which the hopes of the world
hung for thousands of years, "The Seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent's head ;" it was
to a woman, that the announcement of the con
ception of the Messiah was first made ; it was
to a woman, that Jesus declared the gracious

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 345
truth, " I am the Resurrection and the Life ;"
and now to Mary Magdalene and two -others
the risen Christ first presents himself on the
morning of this first Lord's day. He thus ever
recognized the moral and social power of woman.
He placed her in her true position as a wife, a
mother, a daughter, a friend. No one has done
so much to elevate and refine woman as Jesus
Christ has. His teachings and his Spirit have
lifted her up from the degradation into which
sin and man, and even the so-called religions of
the world, had depressed her. Christianity has
reinvested her with her original dignity as she
came forth from the hand of God in Eden — to
be man's companion in body, mind and soul.
Not to be the slave of his power, the creature
of his lust, but the handmaid of the Lord in all
the high and holy service of a loving heart, and
the intelligent companion of man in all the do
mestic and social arrangements of the family
organization. The homage paid to woman in
civilized nations, the contrasts which mark her
position in the scale of heathen and Christian
people, the protection which human law and
sound education and a healthful public opinion
throw around her, are all due to the religion of

34^ THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
lesus Christ and his own line of action and
thought in reference to that long-humbled sex.
This work of Christ in behalf of woman has
been recognized by her in all the ways and
offices by which holy love could express itself
for a holy Saviour. The history of Christianity
shows how its largest fields of triumph have
been among women — how some of the grandest
heroines of earth and some of the noblest in the
army of martyrs have been women. When .men
have doubted, women have believed ; when men
have fled from Jesus,. women have, fled to him;
when men have sold him for money, women
have washed his feet with tears. She has truly
won for herself the tribute of the poet :
" Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him with unholy tongue :
She, when apostles shrank, could dangers brave,
Last at the cross and earliest at the grave."

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FIRST LORD'S DAY.
II.— EVENING.
JHE appearances of our Lord after his
resurrection thus far related, took
place early in the morning of the
first day of the week. Several hours passed
before he next presented himself. In the mean
time the word had passed from one disciple to
another, "The Lord is risen." "The angels
have told us so." " The women have seen and
worshiped him." As the news spread, the
hearts of the apostles were stirred with unu
sual emotion. The believing few who still clung
to Jesus, despite his crucifixion, were reassured
in faith and hope. The despondency and almost
despair which brooded over the followers of our
Lord on Friday evening, as they learned that
he was indeed dead and buried, gave way to the
exciting expectation of soon seeing him again
347

348 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
alive. The rebound of their minds from gloom
and sadness to the assurance that he had risen
from the dead was great, and produced intense
surprise and joy.
How they must have eagerly talked together,
questioning one with another how it had hap
pened ! How they must have thronged around
the women as they returned from the sepulchre
to learn the truth of what they had . seen and
heard ! How the unbelieving Jews would shake
their heads and deny the facts, and perhaps de
ride their words ! When the soldiers returned
and told to the council what they knew about
the earthquake, the angels, the rolled away
stone, the empty tomb, the chief priests and
scribes hastily summoned the council, brought
before them the still trembling and excited
soldiers, saw at a glance that their well-laid
plans had been all thwarted, and that they must
resort to prompt measures to prevent the sol
diers from telling the truth as to the scenes
which had transpired at the tomb. Their con
sternation and rage at their baffled schemes,
and their hopeless attempts to destroy Jesus,
formed a. marked contrast to the exulting glad
ness, and the palpitating hopes, and the exciting

is
I¦a s

so
w

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 349
suspense of his friends, as they waited and
watched for new developments in the wondrous
scenes then unfolding before them. Between
the true narrative of the friends of Jesus, and
the false stories of his enemies, the fact, that
Jesus' body was not in the tomb, was soon
noised abroad, and all Jerusalem listened with
mingled incredulity and belief. The angel
whom the women had seen at the sepulchre
had specially charged them, " Go your way ; tell
his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you
into Galilee : there shall ye see him." It was a
touching act of divine favor that Peter, who
had thrice denied our Lord, and that too with
oaths and cursing, should have been singled out
by name as one to whom the fact of Christ's
resurrection should be immediately communi
cated. Our Lord, who knew'that he had wept
bitter tears of repentance, was thus tenderly
anxious to assure him of forgiveness, and not
let him give way, as he might otherwise have
done, to despair. Accordingly, we find that the
next appearance of Jesus, and the first to any
of the apostles, was to Simon Peter, as is dis
tinctly stated by St. Luke, who says that he
" appeared unto Simon," and by St. Paul in his

350 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
discourse on the resurrection, who says, "He
was seen of Cephas (the Syriac form of Peter),
then of the twelve" (i Cor. xv. 5), implying that
before Christ appeared to the apostles in a
body, called here collefctjvely by the term " the
twelve," he did show himself to Simon Peter.
This accords with the special message of the
angel to Peter, and with our blessed Lord's
conduct to him by the Sea of Galilee. How
this tender treatment of this grievously sinning
apostle, and his gracious words to Mary Mag
dalene, another grievous sinner, proved Jesus to
be "the friend of sinners" — "that he came"
" to seek and to save that which was lost " ! and
what assurance is thus given to the vilest and
the most degraded, that he is ready to receive
into his favor even the very " chief of sinners " !
This showing *of himself to Peter, which is
supposed to have taken place in the afternoon,
was followed by his appearing "in another
form unto two" of the disciples "as they
walked and went into the country." The
words, "another form," imply that he seemed
to them not in the familiar aspect under which
they usually knew him, but as a stranger.
These two disciples were on their way to a

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 35 1
village called Emmaus, seven or eight miles
distant from Jerusalem, and they talked to
gether of all these things which had happened.
While thus communing, Jesus drew near, " but
their eyes were holden, that they should not
know him " — i. e., the appearance of Jesus " in
another form," as St. Mark records, put, as it
were, a constraint on their eyes, so that they
did not recognize him, and regarded him only
as a stranger who had come up to Jerusalem
to the Passover festival. Perceiving their sad
ness he said to them, "What manner of
communications are these that ye have one to
another as ye walk and are sad?" They re
plied, " Art thou only a stranger at Jerusalem-,
and hast not known the things which are come
to pass there in these days?" thus showing that
all Jerusalem was filled with the exciting topics,
and they wondered that, even though but a
stranger there, he had not heard of the won
drous events of the past three days. Asking
them, for the purpose of drawing out their
hearts still more upon the subject, "What
things ?" they told him the current story of the
crucifixion and the resurrection. They spoke
to him of their hopes and their fears — what the

352 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
women at the sepulchre saw and said, and
what some of their own number witnessed
there. Then he said unto them, " O fools and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken !"¦ — " fools " not in the offensive
sense of the English word " fool," but as if he
had said, " O men lacking spiritual understand
ing and discernment, and slow to receive into
your mind the deep truths uttered by the pro
phets !" Then he adds — " Ought not Christ to
have suffered these things and to enter into his
glory ?" Was it not in accordance with the very
teachings of the prophets, that Messiah should
thus suffer before his exaltation to glory ?— and
then, " beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself." Instinctively
there bursts from our lips the exclamation, " Oh
that we had been there, to hear ' the Messiah '
explain the Messianic prophecies ! and the pro
phet ' greater than Moses ' expound Moses !
and the one to whom 'all Scripture' testified,
open to them their whole meaning concerning
himself!" What a teacher ! What teaching ! The risen
Jesus explaining the necessity of his own death

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 353
and resurrection ! No wonder that they said
afterward, " Did not our heart burn within us
while he talked with us by the way, and while
he opened to us the scriptures ?" It was a
rare and gracious privilege, and their glowing
hearts, heated with intense affection, warmed
up their whole souls with wonder and joy.
Emmaus was soon reached — too soon for
the ravished travelers, who sought to prolong
the pleasing talk ; and hence, when the stranger
"made as though he would go farther," they
constrained him, saying, "Abide with us; for it
is toward evening, and the day is far spent."
Having sufficiently tested their earnestness to
enjoy still further communion with him, he
yielded to their request, and sat down with
them to their evening meal. It is a rule of
the Jews that where three eat together a
thanksgiving shall be pronounced by one. To
Jesus, as the honored guest, was accorded this
service, and in the performance of it "he took
bread and blessed it, and brake and gave to
them." Whether in the act of prayer, or in
the manner of blessing the bread, or in the
lifting up of his hands, whereby the prints of
the nails were seen in their pa|ms, or by some
30* X

354 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
marked word or tone of voice, he made him
self known, we cannot tell. Suffice it to say
that "he was made known to them in the
breaking of the bread." For then their eyes,
which, had been "holden" before, were now
"opened" — they recognized Jesus, but, alas!
he was gone ; " he vanished out of their, sight."
Astounded by the whole scene, which had pass
ed away like a glorious vision, the disciples,
recalling the glow in their hearts at Jesus' dis
course by the way, rise up "the same hour"
and retrace their steps to Jerusalem. There
was no abiding in Emmaus that night. What
they had heard, what they had seen, must be
told to the other disciples. There was no mis
take now. The eyes of their bodies and the
eyes of their minds were now fully open.
They saw the Scripture in the light in which
Jesus saw it; they had seen him also, and had
walked with him, and sat with him and talked
with him, and there was doubt no longer. The
threescore furlongs that lay between Emmaus
and Jerusalem were soon passed over — not, as
an hour or two ago, in sadness arid almost
hopelessness, but with the quick step of earn-

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 355
est, glad-hearted men anxious to carry happy
news to heavy hearts.
It was night when they got back. They
found the apostles and disciples assembled to
gether, but with closed doors, " for fear of
the Jews." Knocking and telling who they
were, they were soon admitted ; but instead of
seeing sorrow on the faces of the assembly,
as they expected to do, the two disciples were
greeted with the jubilant exclamation, "The
Lord has risen indeed, and hath appeared unto
Simon !" It was joy meeting joy, hope clasp
ing hope ; and as "they told their own simple
story of the walk to Emmaus, and how Jesus
was known of them in the breaking of bread,
we can imagine that the two currents of holy
joy, meeting and commingling, would swell
high the tide of holy gladness and make the
room vocal with their ecstatic praise.
While thus engaged, "Jesus himself stood in
the midst of them, and said, Peace be unto you !"
The closed doors could not keep out the resur
rection body of the divine Jesus, and so, unan
nounced, he stood suddenly before them with
the blessing of peace upon his lips. Prepared
as they in some measure were for this appari-

356 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
tion by knowing that he was alive, they were
yet unprepared for the manner of his entrance,
and perhaps for his peculiar appearance.
Hence they "were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed that they had seen a spirit." He
gently quieted their fears, and sought to re
assure them by telling them not only, "It is I
myself," but added, " Handle me and see, for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me
have." He then showed them his hands, his
feet, his side, bearing the marks of the nails and
the spear, as if to say, The same body that was
nailed to the cross and pierced by the soldier is
here before you. In describing the effect of
this exhibition of himself to his disciples, St.
Luke uses an expression which brings out with
much emphasis the tumultuous emotions which
then filled the hearts of his followers. His
words are, "While they yet believed not for
joy" — words which somewhat find their parallel
in the homely phrase, "It is too good to be
true," spoken of something earnestly desired,
but yet hardly expected. The fact that our
Lord had risen, and that he stood before them,
was overpowering to all their emotional feel
ings ; they could scarcely credit their senses.

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 357
The reaction of their minds from the almost
despair in which they were in a few hours be
fore nearly unbalanced their minds, and hence
the shadows of incredulity still lingered, while
yet a full belief had not gained the ascendant.
It was just this state which our Lord upbraided
them with — "their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they believed not them which
had seen him after he was risen." To give
still further evidence that it was he, he said to
them, " Have ye here any meat ? and they
gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of an
honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat be
fore them." This act seemed to remove all
doubt, and " then were the distiples glad when
they saw the Lord."
Again does he enter into discourse with
those present as to the "things written in the
law of Moses and in the prophets and in the
Psalms concerning him," thus conclusively
showing the Messianic bearing of these por
tions of holy writ. Gladly do they listen as he
"opened their understanding, that they might
understand the Scriptures." The whole scheme
of Christian doctrine seems to have been set
before them, as he showed how "it behooved

358 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the
third day," and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, "beginning at Jerusalem." He then,
as it were, turns to his selected disciples, and
says, "Ye are witnesses of these things," the
chosen men to testify to the facts and truths-
I have now taught. He told them, however,
that they were to remain in Jerusalem until
they received " the promise of the Father " —
viz., the baptism of the Holy Ghost — and thus
-be " endued with power from on high."
During this interview, also, as St. Mark informs
us, Jesus gave them their great commission, pre
mising it with the solemn benediction, " Peace
be unto you ! As my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you." The terms of this commission
were, " Go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." The signs
or credentials which were to attest their mis
sion and certify to its authority were these.
"In my name," says Jesus, "shall they cast
out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ;
they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 359
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall re
cover." Thus their commission was as broad
as the world, as lasting as time, as authoritative
as Christ's own mission from the Father. The
evening wore on as these memorable words
and scenes were spoken and done. At its close
he called the eleven apostles close to him,
and separating them from the rest, " He breath
ed on them" as a symbol of the divine Spirit
which he was to bestow, and said, "Receive
ye the Holy Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever
sins ye retain, they are retained."
By this mysterious act Christ prepared his
apostles for " the promise of the Father," and
made them receptive of the gift which fifty
days after was to descend in Pentecostal full
ness, amidst the sound of "a mighty rushing
wind " and the " tongue like flames," indicative
of the viewlessness, the resistlessness, and the
illuminating character of the operations of the
Holy Ghost.
With this act of Jesus, and with these words,
-by which he put into the hands of the apostles
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, closed

360 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
the first Lord's day on earth. Unlike the Jew
ish Sabbath, which began the evening before,
this day did not begin until "early in the morn
ing" when Christ rose from the dead. Unlike
the Jewish Sabbath, which ended at sunset, this
day did not end until after the evening interview
of Christ with his disciples in the closed room in
Jerusalem. Henceforth the Hebrew division
of days gives place to the Roman, and the
hours are to be' numbered as in the Roman
calendar; We cannot close the narrative of the events
of this first Lord's day without pausing a moment
upon their significance and influence.
The transactions of this day are second in
importance to those of no other day since the
world began. The nativity of Jesus Christ was
a great event, and was signalized by great won
ders, the appearance of an angel of the Lord —
a multitude of the heavenly host chanting glory
to God in the highest, and the shining out of a
new star in the east.
The death of Jesus Christ was a great event,
and was signalized by great wonders — the
mid-day darkness, the hiding sun, the rending
of the temple veil, the quaking earth, the

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 36 1
opening graves, the tokens of nature's mourn
ing when the Lord of nature died on the cross.
If the birth and death of Jesus were thus
accompanied by such miraculous portents, sure
ly the day on which he rose from the dead
ought, by analogy, to be alike signalized by
signs and wonders. And so it was, "for there
was a great earthquake," the angel of the Lord,
with countenance like lightning and raiment
like snow, rolled away the sealed and guarded
stone ; two" angels remained in the tomb ; and
angel lips uttered the first strophe of that an
them, " The Lord is risen," which has been the
Easter song of the Christian world for eighteen
centuries. The events of this day prove the divinity of
Christ's words, works and person ; for as the
raising of his own dead body was a greater
miracle than any he had performed in the flesh,
hence, this being proved, all the others are
proved thereby, inasmuch as the ability to do the
greater includes the ability to do the lesser. It
is said, indeed, that " God raised him from the
dead" (Acts ii. 24, 32; iii. 15 ; Gal. i. 1), that he
was " quickened (or made alive) by the Spirit "
(the Holy Ghost). 1 Pet. iii. 18. But in the
31

362 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
unity of will and act which exists in the Holy
Trinity, actions and affections are ascribed at
times to one and at times to another, according
to the phase of truth which the sacred writers
wish to present to our minds. And this is one
of the leading lines of argument by which we
prove the distinctive personality, yet divine
unity, of the three persons of the ever adorable
Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
In saying, then, that the resurrection was the
work of God the Father, the apostle means to
remove it from its merely human aspect, and to
assert it as being done in accordance with the
will and purpose of almighty God, so that it
should receive in the minds of the Jews the
sanction and endorsement of Jehovah.
In saying that Christ " was put to death in
the flesh, but quickened by the spirit" St. Peter
doubtless meant to convey the idea that, as he
was put to death by a carnal or fleshly power,
he was raised up by a divine or spiritual power,
of which spiritual power the Holy Ghost, " the.
Lord and Giver of life," is the divine embodi
ment and representative.
But when" we look at Christ's own words, we
shall see clearly that, though in the unity of the

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 363
Godhead, the resurrection was ascribed to God
the Father, and God the Holy Ghost, yet the ef
ficient and acting agent was God the Son.
" Destroy this temple," he said on one occa
sion (speaking of the temple of his body), and
" in three days I will raise it up ;" " I lay down
my life that I may take it again." "No man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself ;
I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again."
On another occasion he said, " As the Father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even
so the Son quickeneth whom he will." His decla
ration to Martha was, " I am the resurrection and
the life." " It remaineth, therefore," says Bishop
Pearson, " that Christ, by that power which he
had within himself, did take his life again, which
he had laid down, did reunite his soul unto his
body, from which he had separated it when he
gave up the ghost, and so did quicken and
revive himself." Thus, then, by this crowning
miracle, wrought in the tomb of Joseph, on this
Lord's day morning, did Jesus stamp with the
image and superscription of divinity all his
previous words and works, and attested as true
the glorious gospel of the Son of God. St,

364 • THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
Paul rests the whole superstructure of Chris
tianity on the foundation of the resurrection,
saying unqualifiedly, " If Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins."
Hence the efforts which" have been so often
made to overthrow the truth of the resurrection
by the enemies of our holy religion. If that
could be disproved, the whole superincumbent
mass of the Christian Church would topple down,
and the faith, and hope, and love, of the Chris
tian world, would become one world-wide ruin,
wrecking alike soul and body, for time and for
eternity. The events of this- first Lord's day prove
also that death and the grave are conquered
foes. - -
If death and the grave had detained Jesus in
the tomb, then would it have proved that he
was a sinner like other men, and came under
the conditions of our common humanity: "Dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Bat
"his soul was not left in hell (the grave), neither
did his flesh see corruption." He went down to
the domain of death, that in death's own region
he might " conquer him who had the power of
death." He lay down in the grave that there

THE FIRST LORD'S DAY. 365
he might wrest victory from the grave ; and
there indeed, single-handed, he encountered
man's last enemy ; and returning thence with
the trophies of his triumph, " leading captivity
captive," he puts into, our mouths the shout,
" Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Do not these facts give to this day a holy
pre-eminence and invest it with peculiar glory ?
31 * •

CHAPTER XIX.
THE CHANGE OF DAY FROM THE SEVENTH
TO THE FIRST.
SHE change of the day of the Sabbath
from the seventh day, observed by
the Jews, to the first, kept by the
Christians, does not affect the binding authority
of the command, " Remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy," if it can be shown, that the
change was made by competent authority, for
sufficient reasons, and without destroying or
infringing the two principles at the root of the
command, viz., to give one-seventh of our time
to God, and to keep this one-seventh portion
holy to his name. A change has been made.
The Christian world, with scarce an exception,
keeps as sacred the first day of the week. And
we ask, Was the change made by competent au
thority ?
The only competent authority would be Christ
366

THE CHANGE OF DA Y. 367
and his apostles : Christ as head over all things
to the Church, which is his body ; the apostles
as commissioned by him to set in order the
affairs of his kingdom on earth ; and hence the
Church of the living God is said to be "built
upon the foundation of the apostles and proph
ets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone."
Whatever ordinances we find, then, established
by Christ and his apostles, we hold to be binding
on us, as being established directly or indirectly
by competent authority. Now, we know that
there was no express command to change the
day from the seventh to the first, but the absence
. of an express command does not invalidate the
change. For be it remembered here that the
commandment does not read, Remember the
seventh day, to keep it holy, but, Remember the
Sabbath (the rest) day, to keep it holy. Hence,
as the essence of the law lay in the setting
apart a holy rest, which essence is still un
touched, it was not necessary to make any
formal legislation about a day which is, in its
very nature, a variable thing, changing with the
changing dispensations and shifting longitudes
of earth.
God, by raising Christ from the dead on the

368 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
first day of the week, set his seal to the change
of day.
Christ, by rising on that day, and by twice
specially meeting with his disciples on that day,
by imparting to them that day his " Peace," by
breathing on them that day and saying, "Re
ceive ye the Holy Ghost," and by giving to
them that day their marvelous commission as
heralds of the cross, set his seal to the change
of day.
- The Holy Ghost, by descending on that day
in tongue-like flames, and with a rushing mighty
wind, imparting to the apostles the promised
power of the Spirit, giving to them the gift of
tongues, converting three thousand souls, as
the "wave-sheaf" of "the feast of first fruits"
of the gospel dispensation, set his seal to the
change of day.
The apostles, instructed by our Lord during
the forty days which he was with them after his
resurrection, when it is recorded that " he spake
to them of the things pertaining to his king
dom," instituted the first day of the week as
their day of meeting, established this day as
the one on which to celebrate the Lord's
Supper, ordered it as a day for the special

THE CHANGE OF DA Y. 369
setting apart of benevolent contributions, and
so filled its hours with holy remembrances of
Jesus and holy doings for Jesus, as to set their
seal to the change of day.
The Church, acting upon apostolic precept
and example, established its most solemn and
permanent services on the first day of the
week, and thus set its seal to the change of the
day. While the Jews formed so large a part
of the Church, it did not ignore altogether the
seventh day, because the shock would have
been too great to Jewish prejudices, but it
gave pre-eminence to the first day, as we learn
from Ignatius, Pliny, Justin Martyr, the Apos
tolic Constitutions, Tertullian, Dionysius of
Corinth and other early writers. When, by
the expansion of the Church among the Gen
tiles, the Jewish element and Jewish obser
vances grew less and less, and when, after the
lapse of three centuries, the Christian element
had permeated and moulded the political world,
the observance of " the-first day " was enforced
by the imperial edicts of Constantine, Theodo-
sius, Valentinian and Honorius, and by the
synodal decrees of the councils of Carthage,
Illiberis, Sardica,, Trullo and Laodicea.

37° THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
There was, therefore, every reason why there
should be a change of day from the Mosaic to
the Christian dispensation, as the Bible leads us
to believe that there was from the Patriarchal
to the Mosaic. Nor was the change of day all
that marked the introduction of the gospel. It
has been well remarked " that the whole state
of the Church of God underwent a revolution.
Almost everything was changed in some way
and to some extent. The Mediator was
changed : Moses for Christ. The priesthood
was changed: the Aaronic for the Apostolic.
The law was changed : the Levitical for the
Evangelical. The .worship was changed: the
gorgeous ritual and bloody sacrifices of the
Temple, for the simple rites of" the House of
Prayer. The sacraments were changed : the
Passover for 'the Lord's Supper, and Circum
cision for Baptism. With all these changes,
then, with everything thus made new, is it
wonderful that the day of the Sabbath was also
changed?" Would it not have been a marvel
had it not been changed ? When we remember
how the Jewish Sabbath, like the Jewish worship,
had become gradually encrusted with the tradi-

THE CHANGE OF DAY. 371
tions of the elders, so that it was perverted
from its- original intent of mercy, and void of its
original end of holiness, do we not see the pro
priety of laying it and the temple both aside,
that the new wine of the gospel might be
poured, not into the old bottles, cracked and
shriveled in the smoke of Jewish sacrifices and
traditions, but into the new bottles of the
Christian Church and the Christian Sabbath,
untainted by superstition, uncorrupted by rab
binical glosses, and better fitted for the office
designed of making the Christian rest- day a
Sabbath, a Lord's day for all nations, whom the
Lord hath redeemed ?
Had there been no change from the seventh
to the first day, the Christian Church would
have kept its weekly festival on the day when
Christ lay buried in the tomb, that day of sad
ness and sorrow to the Lord's disciples — that
day of dark forebodings and sepulchral as
sociations, wherein we should have contem
plated death's power over Christ rather than
Christ's power over death ; death's victim in his
grave-clothes, rather than death's victor in his
resurrection robes ; and have passed over (or
else kept two days holy) the day of days

372 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
which commemorates Christ's rising from the
tomb as the conqueror of death and hell.
And if to this weight of testimony and au
thority, which can neither be reasonably gain-
sayed nor resisted, we add the remarkable fact
that the Church of Christ has kept this first day
of the week as the Lord's day for over eighteen
hundred years ; that with this Church Christ has
promised to be to the end of the world, and yet,
so far from reproving or condemning the set
ting aside of the seventh day, and the introduc
tion of the first as the Christian Sabbath, he has
more specially blessed, that day, has more pecu
liarly been present with his people on that day,
has made it more than any other, the birthday
of souls into spiritual life, and that these bless
ings have been vouchsafed, not only to the
Church on this day, but to the persons, the
families, the communities, the nations who have
kept this day,— does it not give to the first day
of the week the full sanction, as it has ever
been marked with the full blessing, of God ?
Can we need further evidence that the day
was changed — changed by competent authority,
changed for justifiable and appropriate circum
stances, changed without infringing upon, the

THE CHANGE OF DAY. 373
letter or spirit of the Mosaic law, and yet so
changed, that the two essential elements of the
original Sabbath in Eden and the Sabbath of
the Decalogue are strictly preserved — viz., the
giving of one-seventh of our time to God and
the keeping of this one-seventh time holy to the
Lord? This is the day, then, called " Sabbath," be
cause the word means rest, termed in the Chris
tian dispensation " the Lord's day," because
especially consecrated by and devoted to Christ,
of which God says, " Hallow the Sabbath day."
To hallow a thing is to sanctify or make it holy,
or to treat it as a holy thing and to use toward
it reverence and devotion. It is in this latter
way that we are to hallow God's name — a name
holy in itself as expressive of the essence and
attributes of a Holy God, but a name which
we are ever to treat as hallowed, and toward
which we are ever to conduct ourselves with
reverence and devotion. But the Sabbath is a
day that we can hallow or profane as we list,
and hence, when we are called upon to hallow
it, it is enjoined upon us to make it holy by
hallowing it with public worship, with private
devotion, with holy conduct and meditation,
32

374 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
with abstinence from secular work and duties,
and with an entire consecration of it to the
Lord. The care with which God legislated for
the Jewish Sabbath proves how jealous he was
of its sacred character. In it they were to do
no manner of work, " thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid ser
vant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates." No burdens were to be
borne on that day. No fire was to be kindled
on that day. In earing-time and in harvest
they were to rest on that day. Buying and sell
ing on that day were unlawful, and whosoever
did any work therein was to be put to death ;
and a case of this sort is recorded in the Book
of Numbers, where a man found gathering
sticks on the Sabbath was by the express
command of God stoned to death without the
camp. As if to give greater solemnity to this day,
additional sacrifices were offered on it, and holy
convocations, or assemblies for public worship,
were to be holden, especially when the Sabbath
was a high day, as at the feasts of Passover,
Pentecost and Tabernacles. The Jewish rab
bins had gradually so overlaid the law of the

THE CHANGE OF DA Y. 2>7S
Sabbath with glosses and traditions that our
Saviour truly stigmatized them as " teaching for
doctrine the commandments of men." Thus,
according to the Jerusalem -Gemara, "they must
not blow the fire with a pair of bellows, because
that was too much like the labor of smiths, but
they might blow it through a hollow cane."
They might make a fire and set on their pot,
but they must not lay on their wood like the
structure of a house — that is, too artificially.
They might wash their feet, but not their whole
body. Other rabbinical writers say that it is
not lawful to roast an apple, nor to climb a tree
lest they break a bough, nor to sing a lullaby to
a crying babe. He who took corn from his
field to the quantity of a fig was deemed guilty,
and he who plucked up anything growing was
regarded as reaping, and consequently guilty.
These, with many other puerile and senseless
additions, had been affixed to the observance
of the Sabbath, by which, so far from hallowing
it, they desecrated it, and made it a bondage
and a grievance rather, than a delight.
Our blessed Lord swept away many of these
glosses, both by his word and his example, and
restored the Sabbath to its legitimate end when

376 THE SABBATHS OF OUR LORD.
he declared that "the Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath ;" and he exer
cised his Lordship, not only by reclaiming it
from Jewish traditions under which it lay smoth
ered and distorted, but by showing us in his
life how we should regard the day — with what
works of love and mercy we should occupy its
sacred hours. As he kept the Sabbath holy
by meeting with the congregation for holy
worship ; by offices of holy benevolence and
mercy ; by seasons of holy meditation and de
votion ; by abstaining from all secular pursuits,
and by honoring the, day with the reverence
which it claimed; so should we. Then, like the
beloved disciple, shall we be in the Spirit on
the Lord's day, and thus fulfill the command,
Hallow the Sabbath day.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS VOLUME.

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