The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 120

Baptism (practised among the Jews before our Lord's time) takes the place of circumcision; the Lord's Supper of the Paschal Supper. Just as the rite of circumcision brought the Jewish child into the bond of the covenant, into the visible Clrnrch, so does baptism the Christian child ; otherwise our children would be worse off than the children of the Hebrews. And as for the Lord's Supper, it was instituted in the very midst of the Passover (Luke xxii. 1, 7, 15-20), and was cleai:ly designed to take its place. The rites of Judaism warrant our belief in a sa.cramental religion ; they help to explain how it was that ow- Lord incorporated into His new and spiritual dispensation two outward and visible signs. The Law was full of thesA: the Gospel could hardly discard them altogether. VI. The PRECEPTS and COMMANDMENTS of Judaism, again, "the law and the prophets," are not abolished, but fulfilled (Matt. v. 17; Rom. iii. 81) in Christianity, The Sermon on the l\fount has given a new meaning to the covenant of Mount Sinai, even the ten commandments (Dent. iv. 18). Out of foe law of the two tables has been developed the Christian law of love (Matt. xxii. 86-40 ; Luke x. 27 ; Rom. :xiii. 8-10). The " new commandment" of Christ (John xiii. 84) is practi- cally "the old commandment" which we had from the beginni.!lg (1 John iI. 7, &c.) VII. And-to descend to minor matters-we might show how even the FESTIVALS of Christendom follow the lines of the J ewisb feasts. True, Christianitv has one blessed festival peculiar to itself-Christmastide, the feast of the Holy Ince.rno.tion- bnt the rest-Easter, Whltsuntide,Harvest Festival-correspond severally with the Jewish Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The timeB themselves are, perhaps, of no great moment-though the synchronism is remarkable-but the principles on which they a.re based, the principle, e.g., of setting apart certain seasons for the commemoration of certain facts, or the acknowledgment of certain gifts, these are common to both dispensations. It is this principle which gave the Jew his sabbath: it is the same principle justifies, and indeed requires, the observance of tbe Lord's day. Christianity bas not discarded the day of rest, though it observes the sabbath no longer. It has changed the day of rest into a day of worship, the seventh day into the first, the memorial of the creation into a. memorial of the resurrection and redemption. VIII. But it will be said, Snrely Christianity is utterly unlike Judaism in one cardinal point, viz., it has no SACRIFICE. But is it so? Truly, we offer no longer either bullocks or goats. The Christian priest neither pours the blood nor burns the fat, but all the same be offers sacrifice (1 Peter ii 5), the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving (Heb. xiii. 15), the sacrifice of alms and oblations (Phil. iv. 18), the sacrifice of soul and body (Rom. xii 1). Nor is that all For observe: The Holy Supper in the Christian scheme, both as an offering, as a, feast, and as a memo~al, corresponds with the sacrifices of the law. For what, let us ask, was the meamng of all those sacrifices which the Jews " offered year by year continually"? They could not take away sin. They could not make the comers thereunto perfect. Why then were they offered ? One reason was, that they might serve as memorials before God of the death of Christ, They were silent, but eloquent, reminders of Him who should put a.way sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Perhaps the Jew knew it not. Perhaps the high priest himself did not realize it, but we know that o.11 those countless thousands of victims, offered year after year o.nd century o.fter century, were so many mute pleadings of the one priceless death. And as they spoke to the eternal Father of the Lamb who should die, precisely so do the breo,d and the wine of Christ's sacrament of love speak of the Lamb who has died. The fat and the blood were, the bread and the wine are, all avaµ.v~1m,: (Num. x. 10; cf. Levit. x:xiv. 7; Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 25; cf. Heb. x. 8). Our Lord Himself calls the wine "my blood of the new covenant" (ro aIµ.ci µ.ov rij,: 1<awij,: B,a0fi1<11,;), o.nd we are surely justified, with many divines-John Wesley among them-in calling the Holy Eucharist "the Christian sacrifice." But sacrifice and sacrament have another point of contact. For some at least of the J ewieh sacrifices, the peace offerings (see on eh. viii. 63-65) afforded a feaat to the worshippers. In like manDer, the sacra.mental species serve not only. as 11, memorial of Cbrist's death (1 Cor. xi. 26), but they are also food &o t.be faithful c,u, VI. 1-38.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 115