Love saith to me, " Eepent " ; Love saith to me, " Believe " ; Love sayeth ofttimes, "Grieve That thou hast little lent, That thou hast little given, To Him, thy Lord in heaven, And when He cometh what wilt thou receive?" 1 S. H. Tyng. " Hugh T. Kerr.
ST. MARK 89
Love sayeth to me, "Pray
That thou mayst meet that day Desired yet feared " ; and of ttimes Love again Eepeats these words, and oh ! my spirit then,
What sayest thou ? "I say
To all Love sayeth, Yea, Yea, evermore, and evermore Amen ! "
The Gift op the Sabbath.
Literature.
Allen (E.), The Words of Ch-ist, 231.
Ball (T. H.), Persuasions, 133.
Beecher (H. W.), Bible Studies, 229.
Bersier (E.), Sermons, i. 271.
Carroll (B. H.), Sermons, 426.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, Ist Ser., 217, 229, 248, 266.
Cook (F. C), Church Doctrine and Spiritual Life, 76.
Cooper (E.), Fifty-two Family Sermons (Doctrinal), 103.
Farrar (F. W.), Bells and Pomegranates, 117.
Fraser (J.), Scotch Sermons on the Old Lines, 101.
FuUer (M.), The Lord's Day, 164.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 303.
Kennett (R. H.), In Our Tongues, 130.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 181.
Parker (T.), Some Thoughts on the Most Christian Use of the Sunday.
Rawnsley (H. D.), Sayings of Jesus, 19.
Ridgeway (C. J.), Social Life, 150.
Spence (H. D. M.), Voices and Silences, 259.
Vincent (J. H.), in The Culture of Christian Manhood, 249.
Washburn (E. A.), The Social Law of God, 71.
American Pulpit of the Day, i. 258 (Vincent).
Biblical World, v. 269 (Stevens).
British Weekly Pulpit, ii. 63 (M'Cheyne).
Christian Age, xlv. 370 (Parkhurst).
Christian World Pulpit, xi. 103 (Taylor) ; xix. 228 (Beecher) ; xxi.
92 (Beecher); ixxii. 332 (Rowland); Ixxiv. 148 (Pickett);
Ixxv. 343 (Ross). Church Times, 1898, p. 273 (Cobb). Expositor, 4th Ser., vi. 440 ; x. 24 ; 5th Ser., iii. 109. Journal of Biblical Literature, 1904, Pt. ii. 195. Preacher^ Magazine, 1892, 125 (Spiers). Treasury (New York), xi. 855 (Williamson) ; xviii. 607 (Stone).
The Gift of the Sabbath.
The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. — ii. 27.
The innocent act of plucking corn and eating it as one went along, was regarded by the Pharisees as a breach of the commandment which forbade reaping on the Sabbath. This trivial formalism was a reductio ad dbsurdum of the Pharisaic method of interpreting the law. Our Lord defends the action of His disciples by a three-fold argument. First, He quotes the example of David at Nob, as a scriptural precedent for the breaking of a ceremonial law when necessity demands it (vers. 25, 26). Then, taking a wider ground, He shows the meaning of the institution of the Sabbath (ver. 27). It was a provision for man's benefit, and therefore was of relative, not absolute, obligation. Our Saviour here enunciates a principle with regard to religious observances which is valid for all time. They are means to an end, and are never to be regarded in such a way that the end is sacrificed to the means. Thirdly, He declares that He Himself, as man's Head and Kepresentative, has the right to control that which was made for the good of man (ver. 28). It was a tremendous claim, which, considering the Divine sanction of the ordinance in question, could without blasphemy have been made by no one but the God-Man Himself.^
Our immediate subject is God's gift to man of the Sabbath. It may be dealt with in two parts — •
I. The History of the Gift. XL The Use of the Gift.
* J. C. Du Buisson, The Gospel according to St. Mark, 24.
94 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
The History of the Gift.
i. The Sabbath of Creation.
On the sixth day of creation man appears. He is a higher creation. He is to be on earth the representative of God in dominion — one with God ; having knowledge, in his measure, like God's knowledge, life like God's life, authority like God's authority, and the possibility of righteousness Hke God's righteousness. And how shall man be helped to a true con- ception of a godlike life — a life, not of indolence, but of strength, repose, and peace ? How shall man, with this wealth of material resources, be reminded of his spiritual endowment, mission, and dependence ? How shall he be brought into a life of com- munion with God, his Maker, his Father — a life above the physical life ; a life for the development of his spiritual nature, 'derived from God ; a life nobler than a life of physical, commercial, social, political interest and activity ; a life of preparation for all other and lower relations and responsibihties ? And if man made innocent shall, when tested, fail of virtue and drop to lower levels, how shall he be brought up to righteousness and true holiness ? Therefore the inspired poet of the creation added to his time-scale another day — a seventh day, a Lord's day, a day of Divine rest and of human opportunity. It was not a day of God's withdrawal from His universe, a day of the suspension of Divine interest and activity. It was an impressive symbol of human need and of the true rest of the soul of man — (ijodlike only when in perfect harmony and communion with Him. Thus the primeval Sabbath was instituted as a reminder of man's high relationships, and as a help to his highest training for dominion on the earth and for the unutterable glories of his destiny beyond.^