The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-07
INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL
 LESSON
second quarter. Lesssa n. .

. Maftkew 12, 1-14. Apri1 Ss ASV~
 Jesus and the sabhath.
 The Sabbath was the -bfoody angle' in The contest between the Pharisoes and Jesus. They had idolized the Sab bath---had converted 1t into yeritapie Juegernuat. whose ponderuns weight they were rolling over mens hearts and homes. Their rnicrology wouia exercised upon something so sacred. With his spirit destroying liberalism, Jtsus took strongest issue. Of set purpose He broke the tradi- ton. while he yet kept the sabbath. He wrought seven conspicuous cures unon as many Sabbaths, as if to show the mercifuI char lcter and uses or the day. But He could not expect to lay His hand thus :-dely ukon tlis Thar, isaic fetich without raising din ana cry. and being branded as secries- ions person. On this occasion the Pharisaic espionage followed Him in hopes that it would discover that He took one step more than the0fwo thousand cubits allowed for a sah- bath days journey. It congratuiated itself upon still greater tino; threw up it's r ids in well feigned horror at the dreadful infraction; for were not the disciples reaping and threshi on .N~ Sabb-.. al! According to the refinements of their traditions. plucLing the ripa wheat ears was
 
 between the hands and blowing the chaff away was a ind of winnowing. ' hat a sin. The reply of Jesus was a master stroke: David is your hero king. It is not possible you are ignorant of what he did i1 an emergency: how, flying from Saul and famishing. he took, not standing corn in the field, like my disciples hay but the shewbread from the golden table before the very presence 4k- --1. osa6 hnf had been freshly laid there, and there was none to replace it. David did thisi How is it that you find no fault in him2" The law of mercy in this instance supplanted the law of sac rifice. The scene shifts now from the wheat field to the syna- gogue, but the issue remains the same. The cripple is used as a bait to catch Jesus. Jesus called the unfortunate man to a conspicuous position. The alternative which he proposed put them to confusion: Which accorded better with the spirit of the Sabbath law--to do good. as he proposed, by setting this unfortunate free from his malady. or to do evil as they were do- ing when they .ertained jealous and inhuman spirit; to save life, as he soon would (making the poor mans life worth living), or to kill, as they were now (cherishing the spirit of murder in their hearts)? No wonder they were silent. JeSuS was undnSWer- able. m
 The Teachers Xantern.
 The technism of piety reached it's completest development under the hair-splitting genius of the Pharisees. They enumerated 365 prohibit tion, one for every day in the year PAS commands. equal to the number of bones in the body: SIS precepts. number of letters in the Decalogue. Their dialectical skill was especially busy in framing the casuis- try of the Sababth: determining wheth- CT 1t was right to eat an egg laid on Sabbath, and whether walking on the grass with hob-nailed shots was not an infraction of the Sabbath, being kind of threshing, and catching fleas was also. being of a kind of hunting. There was a serious side as we'll as ludicrous one In this excessive legalism. Hebrew pilots dropped the helm on approach of Sal bath Hebrew soldiers allowed themselves to be butchered rather than fight on the Sabbath. Jesus crushed these hollow traditions. and showed how the intent of the Sabbath was pervert-