National Baptist world., 1894-11-02
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Especially arranged from Peloubct's notes.l
GOLDEN TExT-The Son of Man is Lord also
of the Sabbath.-Mark 2:28.
PLACE IN THE LIFE OF CHRIsT-Toward the
middle of the second year of His ministry, the
year of development. There has SO far been
development of His fields of preaching, of
training His disciples of His power and teach
ing through miracles
LESSON NOTES.
A Question of Sabbath Keeping. The
Scene. 23. "He went through the
corn fields" Through the grain fields
of wheat and barley. The English
call all grain corn. Our corn, Indian
corn, was probably unknown in Pal
estine. ION the Sabbath day" They
were doubtless on their way to or
from the morning service in the syn
agogue, for His disciples were an hun
gercd (Matt.). The rabbinical law al
lowed no eating on the Sabbath, ex-
cept in case of sickness, prior to the
morning prayers of the synagogue. A
similar canon in the ritualistic churches
of to-day forbids breaking the fast be-
fore partal1ing of the communiOn.-Ab-
bot. Began, as they went, to pluck
the ears of corn Luke adds; Rub
bing them in their hands," in order to
separate the kernel from the cha1f.
There was no road with fences, but a
mere path through the fields of stand
ing grain, so that they did not have to
go out of their way
We see Jesus walking along by the
margins of extensive stretches of stand
ing grain. These stretches, spreading
far and wide over the plain of Genesa-
reth, come down, on either side, close
to the path on which our Lord was
walking. His disciples are with Him,
and group of others, inclusive of
band of disputatious and censorious
Pharisees. They are on their way to
! or from some adjoining synagogue.
Conversation and lively disputation go
on all along the way. At a certain
! point the Lords disciples began to
advance. They began to go ahead of
our Lord, plucking the corn as they
went. ."-Morison.
: Note. - The narrative carefully
avoids saying that Jesus plucked the
! grain and ate. He simply defended the
right of His disciples to do SO. Jesus
had a perfect right not to pluck the
grain, if thereby He could remove any
obstacles in the way of the success of
His work. He gave the Pharisees no
ground for personal accusati On
against Himself Teachers thus may
often refrain from using their rights
with the same object.
False Critics "a "And the Phari
secs said" These Pharisees were accom-
paning Jesus, not to learn the truth,
good or bad, but for the one purpose
of finding some fault with Him. They
hated Him because they were wrong,
and His teaching reproved them; He
swept away many OF their false rules
and customs, and they must either
change their lives, or prove the teach
er to be in some wrong. Therefore
they found every fault possible; they
perverted His acts and His words; they
measured them by a false standard;
they were pitilessly unfair. There can
scarcely be any habit more injurious to
the character than that of looking for
faults in others, putting the worst pos.
5ible construction on what they say
and do, and shutting their eyes to the
good in them, Why do they on the
Sabbath day that which is not lawful!
There was no harm whatever in pluck
ing the ears; that was not only sane
toned by custom, but even distinctly
permitted by the Mosaic law. But the
heinous fact was that this should be
done on a Sabbath!-Earrar. The law
and practice of Palestine continue tC
be this day what they were SO many
thousand years ago, Oeut. 23:25.j
The law allowed them to pluck tbs
grain toappease hunger, but not to APP
ply the sickle to another mans stand
ing grain.
The unlawfulness, in the opinion OF
the Pharisees, was that what they
did broke the law of the Sabbath.
1t was doing work, namely,
harvesting on the Sabbath. Ihe
disciples really transgressed, not the
Divine law of the Sabbath, but the
Pharisaical Interpretation of that law.
The Phariaees' Interpretation OF tho
Sabbath Law. There are two ways OF
destroying the Sabbath; one by di5rc-
garding it's principles, the other, quite
as etfectual, by smothering them
under an immense number of artificial
interpretations and prohibitions, which
keep the letter Of the law, but utterly
destroy it's spirit The Pharisees took
this latter course with the utmost in
genuity, almost satanic shrewdness OF
folly 1t was impossible to keep the
Sabbath on their plan. The conscience
was continually bound with fetters.
There could be no true, loving Sabbath
spirit.
The law commanded them to do nc
work on the Sabbath day. The Phari,
sees based on this thirty-nine principal
prohibitions. Then they made rnul'
titude of decisions as to the definite
things these thirty-nine permitted OF
forbade For instance, reaping and
threshing were forbidden, hence ii
was asserted that plucling grain was
wrong because it was kind of reap
ing, and rubbing off the huslzs was a
sin because it was a kind of threshing'
Grass was not to be trodden, as
being akin to harvest work. Shoes
with nails were not to be worn, as the
nails would be burden and
burden must not be carried. tailor
must not have his needle about him
towards sunset on the Friday for feaI