Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy Volume I Part 16

???? ??? ?p??a???. A wonderful clause, surely.

Would that it were better understood! It demolishes a vast ma.s.s of human theology. It leaves the law in its own proper sphere; but takes the believer completely from under its power, and out of its range, by death. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto G.o.d" (which we never could do if under the law). "For when we were in the flesh"--a correlative term with being under the law--"the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Mark the melancholy combination--"under the law"--"in the flesh"--"motions of sins"--"fruit unto death"! Can any thing be more strongly marked? But there is another side, thank G.o.d, to this question--His own bright and blessed side. Here it is: "But now _we are delivered from the law_." How? Is it by another's having fulfilled it for us? Nay; but, "_Having died to that_ [?p??a???te? ?? ?] wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." How perfect and how lovely is the harmony of Romans vii. and Galatians ii.! "I through law am dead to law, that I might live unto G.o.d."]

Now, if it be true, and the apostle says it is, that we are _dead to law_, how can the law, by any possibility, be a rule of life to us? It proved _only_ a rule of death, curse, and condemnation to those who were under it--those who had received it by the disposition of angels.

Can it prove to be aught else to us? Did the law ever produce a single cl.u.s.ter of living fruit, or of the fruits of righteousness, in the history of any son or daughter of Adam? Hear the apostle's reply--"When we were in the flesh," that is, when we were viewed as men in our fallen nature, "the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."

It is very important for the reader to understand the real force of the expression, "in the flesh." It does not, in this pa.s.sage, mean "in the body." It simply sets forth the condition of unconverted men and women responsible to keep the law. Now, in this condition, all that was or ever could be produced was "fruit unto death"--"motions of sins." No life, no righteousness, no holiness, nothing for G.o.d, nothing right at all.[17]

[17] It is needful to bear in mind that although the Gentile was never, by the dispensational dealings of G.o.d, put under the law, yet, in point of fact, all baptized professors take that ground. Hence there is a vast difference between christendom and the heathen in reference to the question of the law. Thousands of unconverted people, every week, ask G.o.d to incline their hearts to keep the law. Surely, such persons stand on very different ground from the heathen who never heard of the law, and never heard of the Bible.

But where are we now, as Christians? Hear the reply--"I through law am dead to law, that I might live unto G.o.d. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh" (here it means in the body) "I live"--how? By the law, as a rule of life? Not a hint at such a thing, but "by the faith of the Son of G.o.d, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

This, and nothing else, is Christianity. Do we understand it? do we enter into it? are we in the power of it? There are two distinct evils from which we are completely delivered by the precious death of Christ, namely, legality on the one hand and licentiousness on the other. Instead of those terrible evils, it introduces us into the holy liberty of grace--liberty to serve G.o.d--liberty to "mortify our members which are upon the earth"--liberty to deny "unG.o.dliness and worldly l.u.s.ts"--liberty to "live soberly, righteously, and G.o.dly"--liberty to "keep under the body and bring it into subjection."

Yes, beloved Christian reader, let us remember this; let us deeply ponder the words, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The old "I" dead--crucified, buried: the new "I" alive in Christ. Let us not mistake this. We know of nothing more awful, nothing more dangerous, than for the old "I" to a.s.sume the new ground; or, in other words, the glorious doctrines of Christianity taken up in the flesh--unconverted people talking of being free from the law, and turning the grace of G.o.d into lasciviousness. We must confess we would rather, a thousand times, have legality than licentiousness. It is this latter that many of us have to watch against with all possible earnestness. It is growing around us with appalling rapidity, and paving the way for that dark and desolating tide of infidelity which shall, ere long, roll over the length and breadth of christendom.

To talk of being free from the law in any way save by being dead to it, and alive to G.o.d, is not Christianity at all, but licentiousness, from which every pious soul must shrink with holy horror. If we are dead to the law, we are dead to sin also; and hence we are not to do our own will, which is only another name for sin; but the will of G.o.d, which is true practical holiness.

Further, let us ever bear in mind that if we are dead to the law, we are dead to this present evil world also, and linked with a risen, ascended, and glorified Christ. Hence, we are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. To contend for position in the world is to deny that we are dead to the law; for we cannot be alive to the one and dead to the other. The death of Christ has delivered us from the law, from the power of sin, from this present evil world, and from the fear of death. But then all these things hang together, and we cannot be delivered from one without being delivered from all. To a.s.sert our freedom from the law, while pursuing a course of carnality, self-indulgence, and worldliness, is one of the darkest and deadliest evils of the last days.

The Christian is called to prove, in his daily life, that grace can produce results that law could never reach. It is one of the moral glories of Christianity to enable a man to surrender self and live for others. Law never could do this. It occupied a man with himself. Under its rule, every man had to do the best he could for himself. If he tried to love his neighbor, it was to work out a righteousness for himself. Under grace, all is blessedly and gloriously reversed--self is set aside as a thing crucified, dead, and buried; the old "I" is gone, and the new "I" is before G.o.d in all the acceptability and preciousness of Christ; He is our life, our righteousness, our holiness, our object, our model, our all; He is in us and we are in Him, and our daily practical life is to be simply Christ reproduced in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. Hence, we are not only called to love our neighbor, but our enemy; and this, not to work out a righteousness, for we have become the righteousness of G.o.d in Christ: it is simply the outflow of the life which we possess--which is in us, and this life is Christ. A Christian is a man who should live Christ.

He is neither a Jew "under law" nor a Gentile "without law," but "a man in Christ," standing in grace, called to the same character of obedience as that which was rendered by the Lord Jesus Himself.

We shall not pursue this subject further here, but we earnestly entreat the Christian reader to study attentively the fifteenth chapter of Acts and the epistle to the Galatians. Let him drink in the blessed teaching of these scriptures, and we feel a.s.sured he will arrive at a clear understanding of the great question of the law. He will see that the Christian is not under the law for any purpose whatsoever; that his life, his righteousness, his holiness, are on a different ground or principle altogether; that to place the Christian under law in any way is to deny the very foundations of Christianity and contradict the plainest statements of the Word. He will learn, from the third chapter of Galatians, that to put ourselves under the law is to give up Christ, to give up the Holy Ghost, to give up faith, to give up the promises.

Tremendous consequences! But there they are, plainly set forth before our eyes; and truly, when we contemplate the state of the professing church, we cannot but see how terribly those consequences are being realized.

May G.o.d the Holy Ghost open the eyes of all Christians to the truth of these things. May He lead them to study the Scriptures, and to submit themselves to their holy authority in all things. This is the special need of this our day. We do not study Scripture sufficiently; we are not governed by it; we do not see the absolute necessity of testing every thing by the light of Scripture, and rejecting all that will not stand the test; we go on with a quant.i.ty of things that have no foundation whatever in the Word--yea, that are positively opposed to it.

What must be the end of all this? We tremble to think of it. We know, blessed be G.o.d, that our Lord Jesus Christ will soon come and take His own beloved and blood-bought people home to the prepared place in the Father's house, to be forever with Himself, in the ineffable blessedness of that bright home; but what of those who shall be left behind? what of that vast ma.s.s of baptized worldly profession? These are solemn questions, which must be weighed in the immediate presence of G.o.d, in order to have the true, the divine answer. Let the reader ponder them there, in all tenderness of heart and teachableness of spirit, and the Holy Ghost will lead him to the true answer.

Having sought to set forth, from various parts of Scripture, the glorious truth that believers are not under law, but under grace, we may now pursue our study of this fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. In it we have the ten commandments, but not exactly as we have them in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. There are some characteristic touches which demand the reader's attention.

In Exodus xx, we have history; in Deuteronomy v, we have not only history, but commentary. In the latter, the lawgiver presents moral motives, and makes appeals which would be wholly out of place in the former. In the one, we have naked facts; in the other, facts and comments--facts and their practical application. In a word, there is not the slightest ground for imagining that Deuteronomy v. is intended to be a literal repet.i.tion of Exodus xx; and hence the miserable arguments which infidels ground upon their apparent divergence just crumble into dust beneath our feet. They are simply baseless, and utterly contemptible.

Let us, for instance, compare the two scriptures in reference to the subject of the Sabbath. In Exodus xx, we read, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: _for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is_, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."

In Deuteronomy v, we read, "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, _as the Lord thy G.o.d hath commanded thee_. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, _nor thine ox, nor thine a.s.s_, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. _And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy G.o.d brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy G.o.d commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day._" (Ver. 12-15.)

Now, the reader can see at a glance the difference between the two pa.s.sages. In Exodus xx, the command to keep the Sabbath is grounded on _creation_; in Deuteronomy v, it is grounded on _redemption_, without any allusion to creation at all. In short, the points of difference arise out of the distinct character of each book, and are perfectly plain to every spiritual mind.

With regard to the inst.i.tution of the Sabbath, we must remember that it rests wholly upon the direct authority of the word of G.o.d. Other commandments set forth plain moral duties. Every man knows it to be morally wrong to kill or steal; but as to the observance of the Sabbath, no one could possibly recognize it as a duty had it not been distinctly appointed by divine authority. Hence its immense importance and interest. Both in our chapter and in Exodus xx. it stands side by side with all those great moral duties which are universally recognized by the human conscience.

And not only so, but we find, in various other scriptures, that the Sabbath is singled out and presented, with special prominence, as a precious link between Jehovah and Israel, a seal of His covenant with them, and a powerful test of their devotedness to Him. Every one could recognize the moral wrong of theft and murder; only those who loved Jehovah and His word would love and honor His Sabbath.

Thus, in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, in connection with the giving of the manna, we read, "And it came to pa.s.s, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, 'This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is _the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord_: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you, to be kept until the morning.'... And Moses said, 'Eat that to-day; for to-day is _a Sabbath unto the Lord_; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.' And it came to pa.s.s,"--so little were they capable of appreciating the high and holy privilege of keeping Jehovah's Sabbath--"that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, 'How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?'" Their neglect of the Sabbath proved their moral condition to be all wrong--proved them to be astray as to all the commandments and laws of G.o.d. The Sabbath was the great touchstone--the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts toward Jehovah. "See, for that the Lord hath _given you_ the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." They found rest and food on the holy Sabbath.

Again, at the close of chapter x.x.xi, we have a very remarkable pa.s.sage in proof of the importance and interest attaching to the Sabbath in the mind of Jehovah. A full description of the tabernacle and its furniture had been given to Moses, and he was about to receive the two tables of testimony from the hand of Jehovah; but, as if to prove the prominent place which the holy Sabbath held in the divine mind, we read, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: _for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations_; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, _for a perpetual covenant_. _It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever_: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." (Exod. x.x.xi. 12-17.)

Now, this is a very important pa.s.sage. It proves very distinctly the abiding character of the Sabbath. The terms in which it is spoken of are quite sufficient to show that it was no mere temporary inst.i.tution.--"A sign between Me and you throughout your generations."--"A perpetual covenant."--"A sign forever."

Let the reader carefully mark these words. They prove, beyond all question, first, that the Sabbath was for Israel; secondly, that the Sabbath is, in the mind of G.o.d, a permanent inst.i.tution. It is needful to bear these things in mind in order to avoid all vagueness of thought and looseness of expression on this deeply interesting subject.

The Sabbath was distinctly and exclusively for the Jewish nation. It is spoken of emphatically as a sign between Jehovah and His people Israel. There is not the most remote hint of its being intended for the Gentiles. We shall see, further on, that it is a lovely type of the times of the rest.i.tution of all things, of which G.o.d has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began; but this in no wise touches the fact of its being an exclusively Jewish inst.i.tution. There is not so much as a single sentence of Scripture to show that the Sabbath had any reference whatever to the Gentiles.

Some would teach us that inasmuch as we read of the Sabbath day in the second chapter of Genesis, it must, of necessity, have a wider range than the Jewish nation. But let us turn to the pa.s.sage and see what it says.--"And on the seventh day G.o.d ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

And G.o.d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which G.o.d created and made."

This is simple enough. There is no mention here of man at all. We are not told that man rested on the seventh day. Men may infer, conclude, or imagine that he did so; but the second of Genesis says nothing about it. And not only so, but we look in vain for any allusion to the Sabbath throughout the entire book of Genesis. The very first notice we have of the Sabbath in connection with man, is in the sixteenth of Exodus, a pa.s.sage already quoted; and there we see, most distinctly, that it was given to Israel, as a people in recognized covenant-relationship with Jehovah. That they did not understand or appreciate it is perfectly plain; that they never entered into it is equally plain, according to psalm xcv. and Hebrews iv. But we are now speaking of what it was in the mind of G.o.d; and He tells us it was a sign between Him and His people Israel, and a powerful test of their moral condition and of the state of their heart as to Him. It was not only an integral part of the law, as given by Moses to the congregation of Israel, but it is specially referred to and singled out, again and again, as an inst.i.tution holding a very peculiar place in the mind of G.o.d.

Thus, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, we read, "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold I am a dry tree.

For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant; even unto them will I give in Mine house, and within My walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger," (here, of course, viewed in connection with Israel, as in Numbers xv. and other scriptures,) "that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar; for Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people."

Again, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah lviii. 13, 14.)

The foregoing quotations are amply sufficient to show the place which the Sabbath holds in the mind of G.o.d. It is needless to multiply pa.s.sages, but there is just one to which we must refer the reader, in connection with our present subject, namely, Leviticus xxiii.--"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Ver. 1-3.)

Here it stands at the head of all the feasts given in this marvelous chapter, in which we have foreshadowed the entire history of G.o.d's dealings with His people Israel. The Sabbath is the expression of G.o.d's eternal rest, into which it is His purpose yet to bring His people, when all their toils and sorrows, their trials and tribulations, shall have pa.s.sed away--that blessed "Sabbath-keeping [saat?s??]" which "remaineth for the people of G.o.d." In various ways He sought to keep this glorious rest before the hearts of His people; the seventh day, the seventh year, the year of jubilee--all these lovely sabbatic seasons were designed to set forth that blessed time when Israel shall be gathered back to their own beloved land, when the Sabbath shall be kept, in all its deep, divine blessedness, as it never has been kept yet.

And this leads us, naturally, to the second point in connection with the Sabbath, namely, its permanency. This is plainly proved by such expressions as, "perpetual," "a sign forever," "throughout your generations." Such words would never be applied to any merely temporary inst.i.tution. True it is, alas! that Israel never really kept the Sabbath according to G.o.d; they never understood its meaning, never entered into its blessedness, never drank into its spirit. They made it a badge of their own righteousness; they boasted in it as a national inst.i.tution, and used it for self-exaltation; but they never celebrated it in communion with G.o.d.

We speak of the nation as a whole. We doubt not there were precious souls who, in secret, enjoyed the Sabbath, and entered into the thoughts of G.o.d about it; but as a nation, Israel never kept the Sabbath according to G.o.d. Hear what Isaiah says, "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and _Sabbaths_, the calling of a.s.semblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." (Chap. i. 13.)

Here we see that the precious and beautiful inst.i.tution of the Sabbath which G.o.d had given as a sign of His covenant with His people, had, in their hands, become a positive abomination, perfectly intolerable to Him. And when we open the pages of the New Testament, we find the leaders and heads of the Jewish people continually at issue with our Lord Jesus Christ in reference to the Sabbath. Look, for example, at the opening verses of Luke vi.--"And it came to pa.s.s on the second Sabbath after the first, that He went through the corn-fields; and His disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, 'Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?' And Jesus answering them said, 'Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was a hungred, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of G.o.d, and did take and eat the show-bread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone?' And He said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath."

And again, we read, "It came to pa.s.s also on another Sabbath, that He entered into the synagogue and taught; and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees _watched Him_, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against Him." (Only conceive, an accusation for healing a poor, afflicted fellow-mortal!) "But He knew their thoughts"--yes, He read their hearts through to their very centre, "and said to the man which had the withered hand, 'Rise up, and stand forth in the midst.'

And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, 'I will ask you one thing, Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?' And looking round about upon them all, He said unto the man, 'Stretch forth thine hand.' And he did so; and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."

What an insight we have here into the hollowness and worthlessness of man's Sabbath-keeping! Those religious guides would rather let the disciples starve than have _their_ Sabbath interfered with; they would allow the man to carry his withered hand to the grave rather than have him healed on _their_ Sabbath. Alas! alas! it was indeed their Sabbath, and not G.o.d's. His rest could never comport with hunger and withered hands. They had never read aright the record of David's act in eating the show-bread. They did not understand that legal inst.i.tutions must give way in the presence of divine grace meeting human need. Grace rises, in its magnificence, above all legal barriers, and faith rejoices in its l.u.s.tre; but mere religiousness is offended by the activities of grace and the boldness of faith. The Pharisees did not see that the man with the withered hand was a striking commentary upon the nation's moral condition, a living proof of the fact that they were far away from G.o.d. If they were as they ought to be, there would have been no withered hands to heal; but they were not, and hence their Sabbath was an empty formality--a powerless, worthless ordinance--a hideous anomaly, hateful to G.o.d, and utterly inconsistent with the condition of man.

Take another instance, in Luke xiii.--"And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath." (a.s.suredly, the Sabbath was no day of rest to Him.) "And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, 'Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.' And He laid His hands on her, and _immediately she was made straight, and glorified G.o.d_." Beautiful ill.u.s.tration of the work of grace in the soul, and the practical result, in every case. All on whom Christ lays His blessed hands are "immediately made straight," and enabled to glorify G.o.d.

But man's Sabbath was touched. "The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day."

He was indignant at the gracious work of healing, though quite indifferent as to the humiliating case of infirmity; and he "said unto the people, 'There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.'" How little this poor hollow religionist knew that he was in the very presence of the Lord of the true Sabbath! How utterly insensible he was to the moral inconsistency of attempting to keep a Sabbath while man's condition called aloud for divine work! "The Lord then answered him, and said, 'Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his a.s.s from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?'"

What a withering rebuke! What an opening up of the hollowness and utter wretchedness of their whole system of Judaism! Only think of the glaring incongruity of a Sabbath and a daughter of Abraham bound by the cruel hand of Satan for eighteen years! There is nothing in all this world so blinding to the mind, so hardening to the heart, so deadening to the conscience, so demoralizing to the whole being, as religion without Christ. Its deceiving and degrading power can only be thoroughly judged in the light of the divine presence. For aught that the ruler of the synagogue cared, that poor woman might have gone on to the end of her days bowed together and unable to lift up herself.

He would have been well content to let her go on as a sad witness of the power of Satan, provided he could keep his Sabbath. His religious indignation was excited, not by the power of Satan as seen in the woman's condition, but by the power of Christ as seen in her complete deliverance.

But the Lord gave him his answer. "And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed" (as well they might); "and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him."

What a striking contrast! The advocates of a powerless, heartless, worthless religion unmasked and covered with shame and confusion on the one hand, and on the other, all the people rejoicing in the glorious actings of the Son of G.o.d, who had come into their midst to deliver them from the crushing power of Satan, and fill their hearts with the joy of G.o.d's salvation, and their mouths with His praise!

We must now ask the reader to turn to the gospel of John for further ill.u.s.tration of our subject. We earnestly desire that this vexed question of the Sabbath should be thoroughly examined in the light of Scripture. We are convinced that there is very much more involved in it than many professing Christians are aware.

At the opening of John v, we are introduced to a scene strikingly indicative of Israel's condition. We do not here attempt to go fully into the pa.s.sage, we merely refer to it in connection with the subject before us.

The pool of Bethesda, or "house of mercy"--while it was undoubtedly the expression of the mercy of G.o.d toward His people--afforded abundant evidence of the miserable condition of man in general, and of Israel in particular. Its five porches were thronged with "a great mult.i.tude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water." What a sample of the whole human family, and of the nation of Israel! What a striking ill.u.s.tration of their moral and spiritual condition as viewed from a divine stand-point. "Blind, halt, withered"--such is man's real state, if he only knew it.

But there was one man in the midst of this impotent throng so far gone--so feeble and helpless, that the pool of Bethesda could not meet his case. "A certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him, 'Wilt thou _be made_ whole?'" What grace and power in this question! It went far beyond the utmost stretch of the impotent man's thoughts. He thought only of human help, or of his own ability to get into the pool. He knew not that the speaker was above and beyond the pool, with its occasional movement--beyond angelic ministry--beyond all human help and effort, the Possessor of all power in heaven and on earth. "The impotent man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.'" What a true picture of all those who are seeking salvation by ordinances! Each one doing the best he could for himself. No care for others. No thought of helping them. "Jesus saith unto him, 'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.' And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: _and on the same day was the Sabbath_."