Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-04-19
THE TWO COMMANDMENTS.
LESSON III, SECOND QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES, APRIL 81.


Text of the Lesson, Mark xii, 2S-34-Com-
nit Verses 80, 31-Golden Text, Rom.
xiii, 1O-Commentary by the Rev. ID. NJ.
Stearns.
Compiled from Lesson Helper Quarterly by per
mission Of IL S. Hoffman, publisher, Philadel-
phia.
Let us bear in mind that we are in these
lessons in the last week of our Saviour's life on
earth and only two or three days before His
cruciixion. He is speaking His last words to
them, and every word is weighter than they
imagined, and of more Importance than even
we have yet seen.
2S. "And one of the scribes came, and
having heard them reasoning together, and
perceiving that He had answered them well,
asked Him, Which is the first commandment
of all" From Matt. xxi, "a, 80, we learn
that this scribe was a lawyer and q Pharisee.
and that he came tempting Him. That any
man or company of men should think that
they could entangle Jesus in His talk. or
catch Him in His words, and to that end
feign themselves just men Matt. xxi, Is;
Mark xii, ID; Luke Xxx, 20, seems to us very
foolish indeed; but we must remember that
they did not know Jesus and were 5iincled be-
cause of their unbelief What seems more
strange is that even now in our day there is
just the same spirit that was manifest in
these unbelieving questioners Any one who
has much to do with teaching Bible classes
knows that there are everywhere men and
women who seem to delight in argument, and
in asking questions that have no profit in
l. a.
ply to each with "Thus saith the Lord"
Not only the Scribes and Pharisees, but also
the disciples, were often found reasoning
in their hearts Mark ii, 6, s; viii, lG, II in
stead of meekly sitting like Mary at Jesus
feet to hear and receive His word luke x,
80; Jas. i, 2D.
20. Jesus answered him, The first of all
the commandments is, Hear, o Israel: the
Lord our God is one Lord" In this and the
next verse of our lesson Jesus quotes from
Deut. vi, 4, 5: the word dwelt in Him richly
and lie had an answer for every one from it.
When tempted by Satan He overcame him by
quoting from this book of the law, and how
often we find Him saying ut is written,n or
Have We never read in the scriptures" 1t
is the sword of the Spirit with which we must
become familiar if we would be soldiers of
Christ, and use it sllillfully both for our own
defense and for the overthrow of the enemy.
80. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength
This is the first commandment. When God
spoke from the smoking, quaking, cloud COW
cred Mount Sinai out of the midst of the
fire, the words of the ten commandments, of
which the Saviour here gives the sum, He
prefaced them with these words: II am the
Lord thy God, which have brought thee out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage" Ex Xxx, |, 3, and more than eighty
times this fact is mentioned in the law, the
prophets and the psalms, either as an evidence
of His great love or as reason why they
should obey Him.
81 "And the second is like namely this,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as myself:
there is none other commandment greater
than these" AS love to God comprehends
the first four of the ten commandments, so
love to man comprehends the other six; and
as our golden text says Love is the fulfilling
Of the law In | Cor. xiii, ID, the Spirit
through Paul says, "Now obideth faith, hope,
love, these three; and the greatest of these
is love-" or paraphrased it reads:
Faith, Hope and Love now dwell on earth,
And earth by them is blest;
But Faith and Hope must yield to Love,
OF all the graces best.
Hope shall to full frution rise,
And Faith be sight above;
These are the means, but this the end,
For saints forever love.
These very words Thou shalt love thy
neiShbor as thyself," are another quotation
from the law of Moses, and are found in Lev.
xix, Is. When we think of the full signf-
canoe of this love as defined in Cor. xiii,
&c, -i,,1
Wanting itself, not pulled up nor behaving
unseemly, seeking not her own, not pro-
voked (R. W, thinking no evil, ETC., where
can we look for any illustration of it except
in Him who in our lesson has thus replied to
this scribei 1t is as if He said to him, In
Moses you find the law, but in me you find
the law fulfilled, for that law is in my heart,
and l came to fulfill all Righteousness; receive
me, poor, helpless sinner, and | will be to
you the end of the law for Righteousness; yea,
will be your Righteousness. Ps. xl, s; Matt.
iii, 10; Rom. X, 4; l Cor. i, 30)
32. And the scribe said unto Him, Well,
Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is
one God; and there is none other but He" The
scribe believed in one God and thus far ac-
cepted the truth, but he was blind to the
fact that the Truth stood before him in
human form, God manifest in the flesh He
knew that the God of Israel once tabernacled
in a tent III the wilderness, and also at Gilgal
and Shiloh in the Holy land, and afterwards
in Solomon's temple at Jerusalem but he did
not know that the same God had now come
and had already tabernacled among them
more than thirty years in the body prepared
for Him (John i, IA; Heb. X, 81 !; and that it
was He that talked with him. Oh if his
eyes could only have been opened, what
blessings eternal might have been his, and
all within his reach that moment
81. And to love Him with all the heart,
and with all the understanding, and with all
tho soul, and with all the strength, and to
love his neighbor as himself is more than
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" Truly
this man seems enlightened; he not only
knew the truth when he heard it, but be
seemed to understand it, and to know the
difference between outward, formal worship
and real heart service; he seemed to under
stand that no amount of burnt offering or
sacrifice would avail unless there was on the
! part of the offerer spirit of true obedience
and a grateful sense of the love of God.
81 And when Jesus saw that he answered