The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 115

was festive and joyous, to enunciate e. maxim of deep import and great significance, as also of far-reaching tendency and manifold applications. The new patch on an old garment is e. sample of incongruity. The words in St. Mark rea.d thus: "No man also tieweth e. piece of unfulled cloth on an old garment: else the new patch ror ne,v piece that filled it up] to.keth a.way something from the old, and the rent becomes worse ; " or the second clause may be rendered as follows: " Else the patch ror piece that filled up] takes away the new from the old." Also in the Gospel of St. Luke the words as commonly read are," No man putteth a piece of new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old;" or if the reading ( uxfrras) oft(, A, B, D, L, :a, and the Syriao be adopted, the rendering may be," No man having rent a piece from a new garment putteth it upon e.n old ; if otherwise, he will both rend the new garment [i.e. by taking the l1rlfJA:11µa., or patch, out of it) and the piece from the riew garment will not agree with the old." The word "unfulled," used by St. Mark, makes the meaning plainer, and implies that the unfulled patch, from its nature being stronger or more liable to shrink, works the mischief. 6. lll effe.cts of such incongruity. The following ill effects are produced :-(1) The new garment is marred and rendered incom- plete; (2) the old is not made better, but worse, the rent becoming larger; (3) the entire want of suitability or consistency; in other words, obvious unseemliness, as well as unsuitability. The Latins called e. man "inept" (inept-us) who neglected what time, place, or circumstances demanded. Even a thing which may be proper enough in itself, if done out of season, is spoiled. On the contrary, everything that God makes is beautiful in its season; and everything that man does should aim at and imitate the same. Thus is it also when the proper requirements of place, and those of circumstances, are neglected. 7. Variety of applications. This parable or proverbial representation is capable of e. great variety of applications, all showing the necessity of duly attending to the fitness of things and the exceedingly inconvenient consequences sure to result from the opposite course. (1) The old dispensation and the new may not be mixed up together. Though they were one in essence, and though one vital principle pervaded them, yet the externals differed-the outward forms were distinct. (2) The gospel was never meant to be used as a patch on the old threadbare garment of the Law. The old economy was not to be repaired in this way ; it had to be renovated. The legal dispensa- tion was not to be patched up with gospel grace. Christianity was never intended to be e. patched-up Judaism; the old had served its day and died, the new came in to take its place. Nor is the new Christian life of individuals a purple patch here and there upon the old. (3) More directly still to the present instance, the young life of new disciple- ship was not to be forced into conjunction and so crushed into conformity with Pharisaic asceticism, nor was their moral freedom to be hampered by such unnatural and unwel- come restrictions. 8. .A close connection. Again, as the incompatibility of fasting with a time of feasting, of sorrow with a season of gladness, is exhibited by the comparison of a wedding feast, the wedding feast naturally suggested the wedding garment, and again, by a similar association of ideas, the wine in use at a wedding. 'l'hus, too, the garment as an outer garb refers to externals, and the wine to something internal; so the principles of true freedom infused by the gospel must burst through the narrowness of mere ceremonial swathing-bands.-J. J. G. Vers. 23-28. Parallel passages: Matt. xii. 1-8; Luke vi. 1-5.-Sabbath observ- ance. I. WORSHIP, NOT AMUSEMENT, SUITS THE SABBATH. The common beading of this section in the Gospels is," 'fhe disciples pluck the ears of corn on the sabbath day." On this occasion our Lord and his disciples were out walking on th< sabbath; but they were not walking for plea.sure or even for health. They were on their way to the house of God, as we learn from the parallel passage in St. Matthew, where we read that "when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue." The two main ideas associated with the sabbath are rest and worship; the former held the first place in the old dispensation, the latter the second. In the gospel dispensation their position seems reversed; for, while never sundered and never to be separated, worship comes more to the front, holding a primary, while rest holds a secondary place. On the sa.b- bath our Lord and his disciples attended the usual place of Jewish worship; on the 11abbath the apostles, after our Lord's death and resurrection, met for the service of  112 TUE G'JSPEL ACCOR.DING TO ST. ManK. [en. 1L 1-28.