man first, Sabbath after. They had put the Sabbath first, man after. To them it was breaking the Sabbath to send for a physician, for to them the Sabbath was more than a man's life, but the new Teacher reversed this order of things, and placed man first and Sabbath after, and if a man wanted the physician on that day he was to have him, for both physician and Sabbath were 1 administer in their respective ways to the wants of man; and to show His authority over all the masters and teachers of the different schools of thought, He claimed to be the Son of man, who is Lord also of the sabbath." The claim of being "the Son of man gave our Saviour the legal right of being "the Lord of the Sabbath." This carries us back again to the primeval customs of the ancients in Egypt. The first begotten son of Pharaoh was "the man,” and was spoken of as such. "Have you captured the man," meaning the king, was the inquiry of those who went to meet the returning army after the battle. It was this title of being "the man" or king which carried with it the title of being "the firstborn Son of God" that gave David the right to enter the House of the Lord and eat the shewbread. "Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." Our word" parson" has come down to us from Egypt as meaning exactly the same thing, i.e. the parson as meaning the person or the priest of the parish. In Egypt, "Have you seen the man "would mean in English, "Have you seen the person or parson, this latter word according to the learned Selden, being but a later pronunciation of the former. Christ claiming to be "the Son of man" claims to be "the Parson." "the Person," ," "the High Priest," "the Lord of all the Sabs or Seers." It is this title of being "the Son of man that has given rise to Unitarianism.

The reaction in the strict observance of the Sabbath, brought about by the calamities they were suffering, was, however, limited. The Sabbath as a day of rest they undoubtedly restored, and pushed its observance to such extremes that they themselves were guilty of profaning that holy day. It is just the same with every virtue; push that virtue to extremes and it at once becomes a vice. It was just so with their Sabbath rest; they were perfectly justified in making that day one of rest, but when they carried it to the extreme the day ceased to be what God made it, i.e. a period of sanctified rest, they therefore were Sabbath breakers in not sanctify

ing that period of rest. The command is most explicit, "Remember to keep it holy," and because the day was holy they were to rest from all their toil and sanctify themselves by sanctifying that period of rest, because that period of rest was holy. Rest was but a secondary matter, and the Jews had made it the primary, and had carried it so far that one sect would never move from their place from the time the Sabbath began till it ended. They never restored that “sanctified day," for the idea of sanctification (the most important part) they had lost, and it was the mission of Christ to restore that important part of the institution, keeping the day holy; and when He set up His claim as being "Lord of the Sabbath," He was perfectly justified in saying, "Follow me, follow me." Well, let us follow Him, and see in what way He restored the sanctified Sabbath.

Jesus set aside altogether the foolish notions of all the schools of thought with reference to their views upon the observance of the Sabbath of the covenant. He set aside also the remedial laws of Moses with reference to the Sabbath, and their interpretation. These laws ceased to be binding, and therefore ceased to exist from a legal point of view as they were under Roman rule. When Christ came He came as the reformer-a teacher not having, or more correctly, not using his power to enforce obedience to His precepts. If He had come as a king, with kingly power, and asserted His right by exercising His power, He would have been compelled to have upheld the penal clauses in the Sabbatic laws of Moses as popularly taught; and in this case the Sabbatic laws would have been obeyed simply out of fear of punishment, hence His kingdom and government would have been like all other governments, only risen to fall; but Jesus came at a time when the civil power had been taken away from the Jews. He came as the end of all penal laws, and brought in the more excellent way, for He left it quite an open question. If ye love me, then keep my commandments." And the only form of government that can exist, or will exist throughout eternity, is that form which is based upon the principle of love, or the doing right because we love to do it, and not from fear of punishment for not doing right. His claiming to be the Lord of the Sabbath sets us an example as to how the Sabbath ought to be observed, at the same time claiming to be the great authority on the question, and saying. to the whole human race, Follow me; be ye holy, for I am holy."

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Well, let us follow this great authority to Capernaum, for this is the first place He teaches us how to observe the Sabbath. The

congregation had assembled for religious worship in the synagogue, and Jesus is among them. The covenant is read, and Jesus with the rest respond, "All that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient." One among the audience was possessed with an unclean spirit, which cried out, "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 this holy Jesus rebuked him, say ing, "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, inasmuch as they questioned among themselves, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." The service over, He accompanies James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew. Here Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and as soon as He learnt what was the matter He went to her bedside, took her hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and as soon as the Sabbath had ended, multitudes gathered round the door, bringing their sick and those who were possessed with devils, and He healed them all. This was quite a new doctrine -man first, Sabbath observance after. This was the first time they were taught how to keep the Sabbath. Hitherto it had been a day of rest, but that rest had given place to work; but it was work for the relief of pain and suffering, and not for pleasure or sport, amusement, or money making. Christ changed the rest into a period of sanctified rest, and that meant work for God, and this means work for God's creation, for "Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Six days' work for yourself, but the seventh work for God. This is the great lesson taught by Jesus. Yes, this great Physician, who never lost a case, never charged a penny, but did all His work for the glory of His Father. Would it not be Christlike for physicians to do the same at least one day in seven ?

On the next occasion, which is related in John vi. 18, Jesus not only heals the impotent man, but said unto him, "Take up thy bed and walk," and in His defence said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." The Sabbath of Jesus was a day of work, but that work was to undo the heavy burdens and let the captives go free. A period of sanctified rest from all secular work was necessary in order to do works of mercy and love. God had promised to be wherever they erected their altar, and if they met Him on the Sabbath, He would bestow His blessing on them, which meant that

the fruits of the earth would yield their increase, and that He would take away sickness from their midst. This was God's work, and this was how God had covenanted with the Israelites at Horeb to spend the Sabbath. They were taught the great lesson that it was absolutely necessary, in order to have a good harvest, to invoke the blessing of God on the Sabbath day upon what they had done during the six days' work, sowing seed, etc., and attending to it in order to secure a good crop. They were to do their work on six days, but had to rest on the seventh; and in response to the assembled tribe who had gathered around the house of the Lord, God would do His part in order to make the fruit yield their increase, and that part was in blessing it, hence it was His work. And as God works Jesus worked, not secular works, but heavenly works; for as God bestows His blessing in doing good, so Jesus bestowed His blessing in doing good; and if we follow Him our Sabbath will be a day in which we shall rest from all our worldly labours, repair to the house of the Lord, and, like Jesus, rehearse the covenant, and ask Him to bless us; and when we have received our blessing, then we are to bless others, for "the poor ye always have with you,” and "freely ye have received, freely give." Let us be the means of being a blessing to all around us, and to those with whom we are brought in contact; for we are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, that is, if we are the descendants of those upon which the blood of the covenant was sprinkled, our duty is clear, for we are to blossom, to bud, and to fill the face of the world with fruit. And this can only be done by our waiting upon the great Jehovah, when He stands upon His sapphire stone and ask, as a kingdom of priests on behalf of the human race, that He may bless the fruits of the earth, for whatever He bestows, He bestows through this kingdom of priests, His holy nation; therefore in Abraham's seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.

When about to restore the withered hand, He asked the bystanders this question, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath day, or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" They could not answer Him, and H healed the withered hand. At another time a poor afflicted woman, who had heard of Jesus, makes her way to the synagogue, and as His custom was He was teaching on the Sabbath. His eye alights upon that deformed child of Abraham, and without waiting to be asked, He laid His hands upon her, and she became whole. The ruler of the synagogue upbraids Him. Equal to the occasion, the Lord said unto him, "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?" His argument was conclusive; His adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him. It is clear that the guiding principle laid down by Jesus for us to observe the Sabbath is to repair to the house of God and rehearse the covenant, and so seek God's blessing, to devote what time we have in doing good, visiting the sick; and this is the keeping of the "Christ's Sabbath."

CHAPTER VIII.

ARE THE COMMANDMENTS ABOLISHED?

ONE among the many objections which is urged by the advocates of the Sunday Society is that the Ten Commandments contain both moral, positive, and ceremonial precepts; and that while some of the Commandments are binding, notably those which are moral, others are not such, as the law of the Sabbath, which they say is but a Jewish ritual, which had reference to the seventh day and not to the first, and therefore not binding upon Christians, and that they were never binding on Gentiles. Among the many who have advocated this view, none has done so with greater force than the late Archbishop Whateley in his essay "On the Abolition of the Law," from which we quote the following:

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"The very law itself indicates on the face of it that the whole of its precepts were intended for the Israelites exclusively (on which supposition they cannot of course be, by their own authority, binding upon Christians), not only from the intermixture of civil and ceremonial precepts with moral, but from the very terms in which these last are delivered. For instance, there cannot be any duties more clearly of universal obligation than that of the worship of the one true God alone, and that of honouring parents; yet the precepts for both of these are so delivered as to address them to the children of Israel exclusively; I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have have no other gods but me'; and again, Honour thy father and thy mother, that that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.'

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"The simplest and clearest way, then, of stating the case with respect to the present question is to lay down on the one hand that