LECT. VI. whole moral law. This is not abrogation. The argument applies to the permanent element of the Fourth but to the moral parts also. He would have said of the whole second table also, if the point had distinctly come before him, that in a sense it too was shadow, of which the substance was Christ. For when a man lives in Christ he has no more need, say, of the law "Thou shalt not steal," since his whole desire must be to be so full of honesty as a chief good that he even thinks it more blessed to give than to receive. But to treat the law "Thou shalt not steal" thus as shadow is certainly not to abrogate it. It remains, in so far as it is fact, where it was and what it was as a truth of life. What has been . altered is the relationship of the believer to it morally. His view of it and his feeling towards it are changed, but not the law in itself. It is as if an enemy had become a friend. And equally so I argue that the law of the Sabbath has not been abrogated by becoming a shadow of Christ. Whatever the permanent element of this law is it remains what it was, and is Command- just as much as ever considered in itself a principle of true life. The believer receives it from a different point of view, and with a different feeling from that of the Jew, but still acknowledges and realizes the substance, or ideal of it. ment. This distinction excludes This distinction between becoming “a shadow of Christ" and being "abolished" is one of the unbelievers believers' "" contro versy. greatest importance. It removes the argument LECT. VI. of St. Paul entirely out of the hands of unbelief. St. Paul's contention is only for a Christian, the from the whole assumption of it is "oneness with Christ; without this condition it has no meaning. To contend that the law is a shadow without allowing that it assumes a higher form in Christ is therefore to play fast and loose with words. So again, to urge that if we maintain a permanent element in the fourth commandment we must also maintain it as a Judaic whole is absurd. The argument does not Decessitate the defence of the Judaic element as Are we obliged to accept all the special Mosaic laws on theft if we assert that the command, permanent. "Thou shalt not steal," is permanently binding? manent element passes into a higher form. Is it not easy to see that a permanent element This permay be embodied in a temporary form for a special purpose, but that when the special purpose is accomplished the temporary form falls away, and leaves the permanent element to be adjusted to ́ new conditions? My main 'contention is indeed. just this, that the old principles of Mosaism are doing duty still under higher forms in the new life in Christ. They are not abolished, only transformed. This idea of transformation seems to furnish the key which unlocks the difficulty. We see transformation to be the Christian process in other things, and it is not unreasonable, therefore, The key of the difficulty is the idea formation. of trans LECT. VI. Circumcision and baptism. to see it in this matter also. The idea cision-the covenant badge in the flesh elevated and spiritualized into Divine by faith, and into membership of th Christ with baptism as the sign and se that the whole sacrificial system has figured into the sacrifice of praise a giving in the Lord's Supper, into th offering of the whole self to God thro and the feeding on Him as the La "that was slain." It seems, therefor expect that so prominent and importa the law as the principle of devoting t would reappear also in a higher but into Lord's form as these parts have done, that is the form of the Lord's day. Sacrifices So the "Sabbath" Day. There are two considerations whi support this expectation. Because there is a physical law in the Fourth ment.. than a Jewish ordinance. It express law-a law of nature-and it does so m Command- It might even be fairly urged that command was not so obviously moral nine, and might be looked upon as trary in its requirement of a portion therefore God has been careful to lay tions in Himself. Perhaps this expl unusually solemn word "Remembe it is introduced. The basis of the law is His own LECT. VI. action in creation. The proportions of work and Its basis. rest which it lays down, viz. six to one, arise out of the fact that "in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day." In this reason the argument does not depend upon the words as a scientific, geological statement, but as the ideal expression of a special relationship between God and man. God's proportionate action in the creation of man represents the law of man's being. Man is built on these lines: he needs one day's rest to six days' work. So he reflects the image of God in creation. "Six to scientifidistin- cally, with And it is a fact that these proportions are true physically. That they are a law of our nature is unhesitatingly asserted by the most guished physiologists and medical men. Owners of beasts of burden bear the same testimony on behalf of animals. There have been hostile efforts made to set aside this proportion, whose failure becomes its most striking argument. The French Atheists, during the progress of the Revolution, decreed that instead of one day in seven the day of rest should be every tenth day. In less than two years the "decameron" week was abandoned as involving too great a strain upon human nature. In 1850 a remarkable pamphlet illustrations. LECT. VI. Jehovah the God of science. The purpose of Sabbath was a beneficence which is also as necessary to-day. on the "Observance of Sunday" was by the French Socialist leader, Proudho he sets forth the advantages of the p portions of the fourth commandmentwork to one of rest-and points out venience of any other arrangement. How all this suggests the ben Jehovah! He gave that to the igno nation more than 3000 years ago, whi ing itself both to the experience and pl these latter days as a vital law of m Is it not a proof that the God of creat God of the fourth commandment, science and the God of Moses, are, i ticular at least, the same? 2. The second suggestive conside real purpose of the Sabbath as given nation. That purpose was beneficent, from the Jewish of view. A most erroneous impress that this law was only harsh restrict because it forbad not merely all la ployments, but such things as colle or wood, or kindling a fire for bakin But, passing by the great moral pu these restrictions were meant to sub ask, Who would benefit by this s manner of work"? Every one wou |