The herald., 1897-09-13
CHRIST AS A TEACHER
His Manner Of Dealing With the Old
Scriptures

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Christ, a Constructive Teacher" was
the subject of Rev. Burt Estes Howards
discourse at the First Presbyterian
church yesterday morning, his text be-
ing Think not that l came to destroy
the law or the prophets. came not to
destroy, but to fulfill. For verify say
unto you, till heaven and earth pass
away one jot or one little shall in no
wise pass away from the law till all
things be accomplished" He said in
part:
1t would seem at first difficult to recon-
cile this positive and radical statement
of Jesus with his.frequent practice in
dealing with the scriptures of the old
testament. With superb assertion of
authority Jesus again and again sets
aside the old code both Of ritual and of
moral procedure. The law with refer
ence to the Sabbath he often ignores or
boldly transgresses. Ceremonial OBJ
servances, rigidly insisted on by the
scribes and Pharisees, he treats with
calm indifference or declares to be of
small worth in themselves Even Moses
is deprived of the pallium of infallibility
with which the Hebrew was wont to in
vest him, and is made to rank beneath
a larger truer principle by which Jesus
formed his spiritual judgments. The
sermon on the mount from which our
text is taken affords many striking
instance of apparent contradiction to the
statement therein made. He deals with
one commandment after another, not as
the word Of God" but as that which
was said to them Of old time" Some of
these he treats as insufficient and gives
them a larger extension Thou shall
not kill'' is transformed into an injunc-
ton against the anger or contempt
which may be the root of the murderous
passion. Thou shall not forswear thy
self but shall perform unto the Lord
thine oaths," becomes a prohibition
against swearing at all and an approval
of the simple speech of plain veracity.
Thou shalt not commit adultery" is
enlarged into principle of inward
purity. The law of divorce as laid down
in Deuteronomy is condemned as i'm
moral. The law Of retaliation, IAN eye
for an eye and tooth for TOOTH" is
condemned with equal emphasis.
In view of this apparent conflict be-
tween the practice of the master and the
principle which he asserted in the words
we are studying how shall we explain
his declaration therein made? The ex-
planation must be found in the thought
Of Jesus as to what constitutes the law
and the prophets. The key to the mat
ter lies in the definition of terms.
That by the law and the prophets Jesus
did not mean the written code that made
up their scriptures or the recorded ut
terances Of their prophets Is evident by
the bold way in which he treated these
writings. The revelation of divine truth
must not be confounded with the human
record of it, and it must always be borne
in mind that the truth itself Is something
infinitely greater and, more profound
than any conception of it at any time
or in any place. To the thought of Jesus
the world was full of God. From all
sides there flashed forth revelations of
Gods moral government and loving
providence. The spirit of God had not
shut, itself into book and once for all
reduced the sum Of divine truth to a
system Of ceremonial and moral pre-
cepts. Jesus was no hostile critic bur-
rowing with lancet and scalpel into the
sanctities and faiths of men. He was
not eager to dispute and argue over fine
points of dogma and Of ritual. Gently,
but with an unfiinching f1rmness he
stripped away from the truth they held
the husks and rubbish of human artifice,
and loosened the bonds of liberalism in
which the truth was prisoned. With a
passion for God he showed them the
divine in their own faiths and forms,
and led their minds back to the mere
phases of faith to the eternal verities for
which these stood. Then, when he had
shown them the old treasures that were
bedded in their religion, he brought out
the newer and higher truths that gleam-
ed in his own heart and lifted the souls
of men to a divine perception Of God and
of themselves and stimulated them to
life of loving sonship.