the very thing it represents. "My Father worked hitherto, and I work." The sustaining mercy and power which upholds a universe-the loving kindness of God, which continues to us our life, and all its blessings, is not intermitted upon the Sabbath. The power of the Gospel of the Son of God is not suspended on one day in seven. The merit of the atoning blood is not diminished, the spirit of God which worketh in us, to will and to do of his good pleasure, is not silent.

When the Pharisees complained that the disciples did that which was not lawful on the Sabbath, in plucking the corn, Jesus reminded them of the example of David, who when he was an hungered, and they that were with him, ate of the shew-bread, which it was lawful only for the priests to eat. And he instanced the priests who profaned the Sabbath and were blameless. "But I say unto you," he added, "that in this place is one greater than the Temple. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day." Again, in the Synagogue on the Sabbathday, he accompanied the healing of the withered hand with the question whether a sheep would be left to perish on the Sabbath if fallen into a pit: is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? And the man with the withered hand, who had been commanded to stand forth in the midst, was directed to stretch

forth his hand. And he did so, and it was restored whole as the other.

The Pharisees held that a chronic or permanent disease, or an infirmity which had been for months, or perhaps for years endured, might better be endured for one day more, than to break the rest of the Seventh-day to remove it. And yet, such is the inconsistency of minute ceremonial rules, putting the letter for the spirit-they gave feasts to the well upon the Sabbath. And to such a feast, at a later period in his ministry, Jesus was invited by a Pharisee-and there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. Jesus knew he was watched, and asked the Pharisees, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day?” As he had performed many other miracles on the Sabbath, he did this also.

Straightway after the healing of the withered hand, the Pharisees took counsel, on the Sabbath, how they might destroy Jesus. He had perceived this murder in their hearts, when he asked is it lawful to save life or to kill. He saw how their punctilious observance would lead them to forget, that God will have mercy and not sacrifice, and to lose sight of the truth that the Sabbath was made for man, that the cares and vexations of this world may be laid aside, and envy, hatred, and malice, overmastered in the love of God. No act of brotherly kindness and mercy, for which a fit occasion presents itself, is therefore an Sabbath, which was made for man. A Temple, the Lord of the Sabbath, is

infraction of the

greater than the

everywhere present: those who worship in spirit and in truth, are found of him who seeketh such: found and accepted, wherever his providence may cast them—on the mountain billow, or in the sanctuary-in the silent forest, or the crowded thoroughfare-by the bedside of the sickby the bier of the dead, or kneeling before the altar.

Sloth is never spoken of as rest in Holy Scripture. As the Father and the Son work-as the Comforter imparts his blessed influences upon the Sabbath, so was the Sabbath made for man to work out his own salvation, and to follow the law of Christ, which is the law of love.

XII.

Che Answer to Persecution.

When the Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians, how they might destroy Jesus, he withdrew himself from them, and repaired to the side of the sea, where a boat might wait upon him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. The Pharisees and Herodians were at constant variance: for the Herodians held that the law of Moses, that a stranger should not be set as king over Israel, referred to the voluntary choice of the people, and not to submission to a conqueror; and that it was the duty of the Jews to submit to the authority of the Romans. And being thus subject, they held also that they might lawfully follow many heathen usages. Commencing probably as a political, the Herodians became a religious sect; and though directly opposed to the Pharisees, the latter stooped to seek their alliance, that they might destroy him whose purity of life, and whose spiritual religion, was at once opposed to the vices of the courtier, and to the formalism and hypocrisy of the Pharisee.

From Jerusalem and Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and from about Tyre and Sidon, when they heard what great things he had done, the people came to Jesus. As

many as had plagues pressed upon him for to touch him. And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and cried, saying, "Thou art the Son of God." And he straightly charged them that they should not make him known. He had withdrawn to teach the Pharisees and Herodians meekness and love, and avoidance of contention, as contrasting with their persecuting and vindictive spirit. He healed the multitudes who followed him, but lest their praises should aggravate the malice of his persecutors, he charged them to hold their peace: that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, "Behold my servant whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets." Without strife shall he exercise his office, "with meekness, gentleness and humility, without contention and noise, without tumult and disturbance." And farther saith the prophet: “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.' That is as an eminent writer paraphrases the words of the prophet-He will not bear hard upon a wounded and contrite and truly humble heart, bowed down, as a broken reed, with a sense of his infirmity. "And smoking flax he shall not quench ;"-flax among the Jews was put with the oil in their lamps-the faintest spark of returning virtue he will not extinguish by severity; but will cherish