The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 107

the word applies itself. The really" sick" may be the carping complainers. 'rhen, more precisely, he declares hie mission : " ' I came not to call the righteouR, but sinners. My dealings are with sinners, How can I reach them if I avoid them ? " Let every self-conscious sinner who, bruised and sick, desires healing, hear this word of the Lord, the Lord who comes to "call" and to "eat with" the sinner that ho may" heal" him. For all time he is to be known as the Seeker of the sinner and the Healer of the sick. But other murmurers are at hand. The feasting of Jesus and hie disciples contrasts with the sadness and fasting of John-then in prison-and his disciples, now left alone; and with the punctilious fasting of the Pharisees. How is this? The reply from the lips of the Master ie given in three parables, of which the first only, and but partially, is explained. The reply is not temporal and local merely, relating solely to the circum- stances of that hour. The true parable has always within it a principle of un:.versal application. The principle here embodied is- THE TRUE PURPOSE OF FASTING. This may be defined to be the honest expression of conditions proper to be represented by fasting, " There is a time to fast, and a time to feast;" and· the outward ordinance must correspond with the inward spirit. The symbols of sorrow must not be assumed when the heart is merry. The song, not the sackcloth; the wine of joy, not the ashes,-is the more becoming. It is a lesson on congruity, or the true harlfTl,()ny or fitness of things ; and the lesson• is enforced by three parables. 1. "Can the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?" These words se.y, as plainly as words can," Men must fast when there is occasion to fast." Is any sad? let the signs of sorrow appear; but if the heart within is merry, let him declare it in song. "Is any cheerful? let him sing praise," Fasting by order, whatever may be the state of the heart at the time, is not in accordance with Christ's teaching. It is not in harmony with itself. It becomes a species of hypocrisy. The day of loneliness and exposure and sadness will, come ; " and then will they fast in that day." 2. The patch upon the "old garment," while confirming the former lesson, declares the uselessness of patching up the old, dry, effete formalism with a piece of new, earnest, vigorous life. This wonld make the faults all the more obvious. Christ's work was not a patch upon the old; it was a new garment. How often men seem to be sewing a patch of Christian propriety on a faulty life-a mere mending of the tom and useless; and how impressively does this teach the need of a new garment altogether-the white robe of righteousness, a.n entire change of heart . and life, a new birth I 3. But yet more forcibly Christ would teach by another parable the need there was for outward ordinances suited to the new spirit which he came to infuse, The fervent, vital evangelical spirit would certainly rend the dry, hard formalities of legalism. The words seem to refer to the more elastic organization : which the expansive spirit would require. As to-day, when a new spirit enters the • Churches, it demands not the rigid, unyielding methods of the past, but new ones. Even the good and useful that have long ministered to the spiritual comfort and joy of the fathers, must give place to others which the fresh, vigorous, inventive life of the children demands. "New skins" for" new wine." Yet they must be skins-that which is suitable to the holding of wine that it may be preserved. If changes be made in organizations or methodll to suit the constantly fermenting times, they must be such as will conserve the true spirit of devotion and Christian brotherhood, What a striking comment on these words is found in the employment, by many even of the most rigid Churches in our day, of methods which the new spirit within them has demanded I Each may learn for himself: (1) The necessity fore.strict correspondence between his outward religious performance and his inward religious state, and between all ordinances and the truths to which they relate. (2) The insufficiency of merely mending the old life of sin by a Jfew patches of new manners. A whole new garment me.y be had for the asking. (3) The new reviving spirit should find its own appropriate means and ordinances, such as will preserve it from being dissipated and lost.-G. Ver, 23-ch. iii. 6.-The Lord and the law of the sabbath. Jesus passed" through the cornfields," in the course of fulfilling his great mission of.preaching, healing, and blessing. Bis "disciples began as they went" to pluck the ears of corn growing in abundance and probably lying across their path. It was the day of delights, a day hallowed and blessed. The plentifulness of the Divine beneficence, the quiet of the sabbath calm.  }04 TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MARK. [ou. u.1-28.