IX. THE SoN OF lllAN's LORDSHIP WITH RESPECT TO THE SABBATH, The Son of man here mentioned is, in spite of all rationalistic quibbling, the Saviour, anJ. he is Lord of the sabbatb. In St. Mark and St. Luke rtczl stands before "sabbath ·" it is likewise inserted in St. Matthew by some, but excluded by others. It may ru~n even or also. In the first of these two significations it implies that much as they valued the ordi- nance of the sabbath above all the other commandments of the Decalogue, and super- stitious as was the veneration with which they regarded it, the Son of man was Lord even of the sa.bbatb; and so be could make it elastic as the exigencies of any particul!I.I' case might require; he could modify it according to any special emergen<:y; he cou!J. determine the mode of its observance between the two limits of man's benefit on the one ha.nd, and the Law's behest on the other. But if we take the meaning of the copu- lative to be also, then it signifies that, amid and in addition to his other lordships, the Son of man possesses this also-that he is Lord of the sabbath day. He is Lord of angels, for they worship him; he is the Lord from heaven, and all its hosts do a.cknow- ledge him ; he is Lord of earth, for by him it was maue, and through him it is upheld; he is the Lord of all creation, for he is the firstborn of every creature, that in all things he should have the pre-eminence; "he is Lord also of the sabbath." He vindicates his law from the lax observance of the worldling or pleasure-seeker on the one ha.nd, a.nd trom the narrowness of Pharisaic superstition on the other. He manifests its true nature for the rest and refreshment-the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual blessing of mankind. X. Tm: PERPETUAL OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. In proof of its perpetual obliga- tion we may refer to its Divine appointment, so long prior to the division of Adam's family into the two great sections of Jew and Gentile-before the call of Abram and the existence of the Jewish nation; before the promulgation of the Law from Sinai and the establishment of the Jewish polity. We may trace the proof of its observance in the division of time into weeks among almost all nations and from the remotest antiquity; in certain incidental notices afforded by the history of the period between creation and the publishing of the Law ; in the miraculous supply of a double portion of manna, which, even before the latter event, Israel received on the sixth day as a provision for the seventh; in the note of memory prefixed, implying at once its appointment and observance before the giving of the Law, and intimating not a new enactment merely national in its range, but the republication to a 11articular nation of an old one, that from the beginning had been binding on all. The latitude of its extent to the Gentile stranger, as well as to the Jew, may be argued from the terms of ihe co=a.nd itself, "Nor the stranger that is within thy gates." Some importance, too, may be attached to its central position in t~e Decalogue, linking together the duties we owe our Father in heaven, and those which we owe our brother man on earth; while it blends, moreover, the joint memorials of creation and Calvary, and combines at the same time the creature's comfort and the Creator's glory in the words, " To you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord." We must have in recollection, besides, that it was written, as well as the other precepts of the moral law, by the finger of God en the stone tablet, in token, it would seem, of its durability. Further, we may observe the tense of the verb used in the last verse of this chapter, viz. "the Son of man is "-that is, continues-"Lord of the sabbath;" consequently Lord, not of an obsolete or decaying erdinance, but of a present, ever-abiding institution. Thus, indeed, it appears that "the sabbath was made for man," for the species, coeval and coextensive with the race-" for man," as has been well observed, "from the beginning; for man till the end; for man generally, at all times, in all countries, and under all circumstances." And when, we may ask, or where, or how was this original sabbath law either repealed or relaxed?- J. J. G.
.EXPOSITION. nation of the Pha.rlsees with the Hemdia.111 CHAPTER m to briugabout the destruction of the Saviout This chapter begins with the record of We may observe that he again chose tb& another case of heaJina on the sabhntb day; salJbatb for a new miro.cle, thot be mi"'h& 1rnd u clo&e1 with tb; notice c,f a combi- again and again confute the error of th& ,(l]J, III. 1-35.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING ·ro ST. MARK.