[Sept. 23d, 1866.]
The principle which underlies this passage is, that the end is more important than the means, and should not be sacrificed to it. The application of this principle to the Sabbath is plain. The Sabbath was designed to promote the best interests of man and beast. When an enlightened regard to those interests required a violation of the Sabbath, such violation was proper and obligatory. The Pharisees acted on that principle in relation to their animals. They led them away to watering; they extricated them from a pit into which they had fallen. Christ only acted on the same principle when he healed the sick on the Sabbath; when he allowed the disciples to pluck the ears of corn. We, therefore, may act on the same principle. It is the foundation of the exposition given as to the rule of observing the Sabbath, viz., that works of necessity and mercy are lawful on that day. The same principle is recognized in the Old Testament. Hosea says, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice;” that is, moral duties are of higher obligation than positive commands. God had commanded sacrifices, but he had also commanded the exercise of mercy. When the two came into conflict, so that the one must yield to the other, it was the positive that was to give way.
The soundness of the principle and its incalculable importance are plain from the innumerable evils which have resulted from its violation. 1. The whole apostacy of Judaism into formality and ritualism was simply the result of carrying out the idea that the outward was more important than the inward; that rites and ceremonies, observance of fasts and festivals, tithing mint, anise, &c., were more important than the weightier matters of the law. The Pharisees considered themselves holy, because they observed all these external prescriptions, although they were morally depraved in heart and life. 2. In like manner the Papal apostacy is the same subordination of the end to the means; what is positive, to what is moral. If a man conforms to the Church, he is saved; if he neglects these externals, he is lost. No matter how holy a man may be, he is rejected if he fails in these externals. Hence the utter perversion of religion in Papal countries. 3. The same is true of High-Churchmen of every class. If a man conforms to ecclesiastical rites and observances, he is allowed great latitude in more important matters. Thus a ceremonial and ritual religion takes the place of true godliness. 4. The same evil often manifests itself even among true Protestants. Some exalt baptism above religion; some, the use of a particular form of hymnology; some, the strict observance of the Sabbath, &c. It is of great importance, therefore, that we adhere to the principle which our Lord inculcated. This is the principle which governs the interpretation of the moral law. The opposite extreme, however, is to be guarded against. Because the end is more important than the means, we are not to infer, 1. That the means are not obligatory. Christ did not teach that the obligation to observe the Sabbath had ceased. Nor are we to infer from what he says that any divinely appointed means is not binding. “These ought ye to have done, and not to have left the others undone.” 2. The means are not to be neglected. They are not only obligatory as matters of duty, but they are important, and as a general rule greatly subservient of the end. It was well to keep the Sabbath, to offer sacrifices, to tithe mint and anise, and the wilful and uncalled-for neglect of these divine appointments was followed by the loss of the end proposed. So we are bound to use the word, the Sabbath, the ordinances of God’s house, and their neglect is fatal. This passage suggests that the rule for the observance of the Christian Sabbath is not the Jewish law, especially not that law as perverted by the Pharisees; but the design of its institution, whatever it may be, is to furnish the rule. “THEREFORE the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath;” i.e., because the Sabbath is subservient to his cause and subject to his will. The Son of man is Christ. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, that is, has supreme control over it; can abrogate it, or lay down the rule for its observance.