The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 538

been chosen for no other end than to preserve it holy upon earth." The extent to which they carried their scruples excites one's ridicule and contempt, I. Tm: SABBATH AS A PBINOIPLE. It is well, in dealing with the snbbath, always to show first that it is a Divine arrangement for humanity, as such, and is not, in the first place, distinctively reUgious. For healthy life God provided the rest of night; f<?r healthy WO'l'k God provided the rest o_f th~ sabbath, But there is this important difference betw~en them. ?'he _rest of night IS c011~p~sory; the seventh-day rest ia voluntary. This at once bnngs m the element of prmc1ple and of religion. If a man is in the fear and love of God, as he should be, he will readily and cheerfully do what God suggests as well as what God commands. IL THE SABBATH AS A RULE, Voluntary things may not be done; then if God will not make certain things compnlsory, men think they can do God service by fixing ndu for their fellows, and so make them keep sabbath. And even good men cannot eee that thus they take all the glory of the sabbath away.-R. T. , Ver. 8.-17,,e sabbath an agency within Ohrisfs control. "For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." It would open up a most interesting subject if we were to inquire whether our Lord spoke these words in his personal .or in his repre- Bentative capacity-whether he meant, "I, as an individual, am Lord of the sabbath," or whether he meant, " Every man, if he is a true man, with right motives and pur~ poses, is lord of his sabbath, and has both the power and foe liberty to arrange it as he thinks may be for the best." . : I. CHRIST WAS LoRD OF HIS SABBATHS. It is familiar thonght that he was Lord because he was Divine-he was the Son of God; "all power was given unto him in heaven and in earth." But that is not his own ground of claim here. He was" Lord of the sabbath" because he was "the Son of man;" first of men-model Man. His manhood gave him his rights. Had he been a. man of wavering disposition, uncertaiu in his ideas of the right, ruled by self-plea.sing, or with a poor sense of loyalty to God, he conld not have managed his sabbaths. But, being the perfectly controlled, pious, cnltured Man he was, we all feel at once that we could have no hesitation whatever in fully committing to him the management of his sabbaths, for himself, for his hous~ hold, for his disciples. The perfect Divine Man can be "Lord of the sabbath;" he will do no wrong himself; he will let no wrong be done by those about him. If he permits his disciples to satisfy their hunger by plucking the ea.re of corn on the sab- bath, those disciples do no wrong. Character, sanctified character, is the lord of the sabbath; and this is perfectly shown in the claims of Jesus, the ideal Ma.Ii. II. CimrsTIANB ARE LORDS OF TREIB SABBATHS, Just in the degree in which they are Christians indeed, swayed by Christian principles, toned by the Christian spirit, moulded to the Christian model. We observe that we do, without thinking about it, fully permit established G'hristia.ns to arrange their sa.bbaths how they please~we easily let them be lords of the sa.bbath. Our anxiety concerns the ways in which the iuexperienced Christians, the mere. professors, and the worldly, keep the sabba.th. It is only for their sakes that we ever think of making sa.bbath rules. If all men were such men as the Lord .Jesus, we could banish every sal,bath rule, and let them be "lords of their sabba.ths; " and so it comes to view that what the world wants is the Divine life in sonls, the Divine culture in life, the perfecting of manhood so that every man may become lord of his sabbath.-R. T. Ver. 13.-Power allied to obedience. "Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other." The man did as he was bidden, and found himself able to do what he was bidden to do, And this illustrates a great, comprehensive, ever-working law. Every man can do what he ought to do. He who triea to obey will surely find himself able to obey, This man was bidden to do precisely what, to all appearance, he could not do, He did it, in obedience to a Divine command, and, to his owu surprise, aud every one else's surprise, he found he could do it. In a similar way our Lord said to the paralytic, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." How a paralyzed man was to do this did not. appear. But the man tried to obey, and found that power came with the obedieuoe. Bad he waited for coneciousness of strength he might have waited, helpless, for ever. ou. xu.1-50.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 535