The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-01

him. Compare Matt 9 ID and Hos.
6 g, and see Rom. g. We can only
say to people who are good enough in
their own estimation that while we are
sorry for them, we never heard of q
Saviour for them.
Then came up the question of fast
ing. on which these Pharisees counted
so much, which led the Lord Jesus to
speak of himself as the Bridegroom,
and his disciples as the children of the
bride-chamber, saying that they would
have occasion to fast in his absence,
but not while he was with them. These
PhariseeS were patchwork people, try
ing to put something new upon some
thing old, or something new into some
thing old, but such is not the Lords
method, for our old sinful natures are
incOrrigibly corrupt and can never be
improved or made any better. There
must be Il new nature by new birth
from above-Jesus Christ received
into our hearts and given full control,
while the old must be subdued, put off,
reckOned dead. Not reformation but
regeneration. If any man be in Christ
he is new creation, in no sense in
debted to the flesh or having anything
to do with it.
The Pharisees prided themselves
upon their dOings their fasts and
feasts, and religious Observances, their
holy days and Sabbath days, their long
prayers in public places, their COM
mendatiOn from men, while in Gods
sight who reads the heart, they were
hypocrites, whited sepulchres, a gen
GRAFTON of vipers Matt. % ST, IA, %,
81, %, So. That which the Lord had
given for the benefit of his people that
he might reveal himself unto them, the
Sabbath day, the Passover and other
feasts, they had appropriated, pervert-
ed, and taken credit to themselves for
being SO religious. We, as sinners,
cannot give God anything, or do any
thing to please him, until we have first
received from him the mercy and for
giveness he is ready to bestow, the
eternal redemption purchased and pro-
vided for us at such infinite cost. Sal
walton is only by grace and wholly I'M
merited on our part (Rom. 3 pa. The
Sabbath was made for man that the
Lord of the Sabbath might specially
on that day, when man ceases from
his own works, reveal himself, and
bless us CT, 2S). 1t is lawful to do
well on the Sabbath days Matt. II:
12), and all acts of necessity and
mercy are surely in order. His disci-
pies were hungry and he justified their
plucking corn by the story of David
and his men when they were hungry.
Healing the mans withered hand was
an act Of mercy at any time. If you
will notice the many times they found
fault with him for doing good on the
Sabbath day you can readily see what
a religious idol they had made it, and
wOrshiped it and not God. Again and
again it is written that because of his
disregard of their idol they determined
to kill him Is :6). Doctor Weston has
said that it is often a surprise when
ones attention is first called to the
fact, that the immediate occasion of
the determination by the Jewish rulers
to put Christ to death was his relation
to their Sabbath. The Sabbath might
be called the Jewish national flag, and
in it they claimed a peculiar relation
to God as their creator and redeemer,
but in reality they knew him not, and
through deceit refused to to know him
Ger. $3.50. Concerning the keeping
of the Sabbath, I know no more clear
and simple instruction than lisa. So :13,
Turn away thy foot from the Sab
bath, from doing thy pleasure on any
holy day-call the Sabbath a delight,
the holy of the Lord and honorable;
and honor him, not doing thine own
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words" AS to
the day Of the week, we keep the first
day rather than the seventh, because
the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on
the first day and repeatedly appeared
to his disciples on that day, and be-
levers are a resurrection people, who
are by faith risen with Christ and seat
ed with him in heaven. In this con-
nection see Col. 2:16.