The Law of Christ and the Law of Moses. Read St. Matthew v. 17-20. Commentary and Explanation.-Our Lord came to teach men new truths, or old truths which they had forgotten. Those whom He first taught must have wished to know how this teaching stood with reference to that which had been set before them by their parents and religious instructors. Did Our Lord mean to do away with the teaching of Moses in the Law, and with that of the other writers of the Old Testament? To this He answered No! The Law of Moses came from GOD, and no jot or tittle [not the very smallest portion] could fail of its accomplishment. Our Lord did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it, i.e. to show its full and complete meaning. The Law as given by Moses [in the Ten Commandments, and in other places of Holy Scripture] was like an outline or a sketch; Our Lord came to fill in this outline, to complete the sketch, and so to show us, in a complete form, the will of God. The Scribes and Pharisees only attempted to keep the mere letter of the law; they did not think of its fuller meaning, and so their righteousness was a very poor and imperfect kind of obedience; and Our Lord said that His disciples must keep the law in a more complete way than they did, or else they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven. We shall see in the next section how Our Lord gave to the Commandments of Moses a fuller meaning than that which they had been supposed to have. The Full Meaning of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments. Read St. Matthew v. 21-32. Commentary and Explanation. -Our Lord takes two of the Commandments and uses them to illustrate or explain His meaning with reference to the fulfilling of the Law. (i) The Sixth Commandment is Thou shalt not kill. This was delivered to them of old time [i.e. to the ancient people of Israel] by Moses, and was understood to forbid murder, and every murderer was accordingly put to death. This was the first and plain meaning of the Commandment, but it was not its whole meaning. Our Lord showed that the Sixth Commandment might be broken by other sins than actual murder, as, for example, (a) by causeless or immoderate anger, (b) by the use of bitter, unkind, and contemptuous words [such as Raca, which means empty or worthless fellow, and Thou fool]. Compare with this the explanation of the Sixth Commandment in The Duty towards our Neighbour' [Church Catechism], which gives the fuller meaning of the Commandment My duty towards my neighbour is . to hurt nobody by word or deed. to bear no malice nor hatred in my heart.' (ii) The Seventh Commandment is Thou shalt not commit ; adultery; and Our Lord showed that the Commandment had a Other Illustrations showing how Our Lord fulfilled the Law. Commentary and Explanation.-Our Lord gave further illustrations of the way in which He came to fulfil the Law. (i) With reference to oaths. The Jewish law forbade the breaking of oaths; but Our Lord taught that there ought to be no necessity for oaths at all. If all men were what they ought to be as subjects of Christ's kingdom, then it would be quite enough for them to say 'Yea' or 'Nay' [i.e. to affirm or deny] without adding to this any form of oath. [This does not make it unlawful for men to take an oath when they are required to do so, as, for example, in a Court of Justice; but it teaches that this oath-taking comes of evil, i.e. is occasioned by men's want of truthfulness. A Christian man's word should be as good as his oath.] (ii) With reference to revenge. The Jewish Law allowed one who had received an injury from another to exact a punishment equivalent to the wrong which he had received; if, for example, a man's brother or son had been killed accidentally by any one, then he was allowed to take the life of the manslayer. [This was the meaning of the saying An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.] Our Lord taught the higher law-Resist not evil, which means that we should, in some cases at any rate, be willing to take wrong, to suffer injustice, rather than to retaliate upon those who have injured us. (iii) With reference to love of enemies. The Jewish Law commanded only love of neighbours, and it was generally understood that this allowed hatred of enemies. Our Lord taught the Christian duty of love even for enemies, of blessing in return for cursing, of kindness for hatred, of prayer for persecution. as Questions. How did Our Lord describe the influence which Christians ought to exercise on the world? [He spoke of them 'the salt of the earth' and as 'the light of the world.'] What did He mean by saying that they were the salt of the earth? [That they were to purify and save mankind, just as salt purifies and preserves meat.] What is the meaning of the words Let your light so shine before men? [Christians are bidden by Our Lord to let their good deeds shine forth as examples, and illumine the world, just as a candle lights up a room.] But ought not good deeds to be done as privately as possible? [We ought never to make a show of anything good we do, for our own glory, but sometimes we are called upon to do so, for the glory of GOD.] When is this verse, St. Matthew v. 16, read in Church? [It is one of the offertory sentences read during the collection of the offerings at the time of Holy Communion.] What did Our Lord say about His teaching in connection with the Law and the Prophets? [St. Matthew v. 17.] What is the meaning of the word fulfil? [To show the full meaning of:] What does the Sixth Commandment forbid? [Murder, i.e. the taking of the life of a fellow-creature.] How did Our Lord fulfil this Commandment? [By showing that it forbade many things besides murder.] What are these? [Unreasonable or immoderate anger; the use of bitter, unkind, contemptuous words.] What is the explanation of the Sixth Commandment in the Church Catechism? In what way did Our Lord show that the Seventh Commandment might be broken? [By impure thoughts.] What is the explanation of this Commandment in the Church Catechism? What is meant by an oath? [The calling of GOD to witness that something we say is true.] What was Our Lord's teaching about oaths? [That it would be well if we could do without oaths altogether.] Why was this? [Because a man's word ought to be enough, without an oath to support it.] What does this teach us? [That we should be content to use simple statements, and not support them by such expressions as I declare it's true; I'll take my oath to it, &c.] What was the Jewish Law with reference to the revenging of injuries? [St. Matthew v. 38.] What was Our Lord's higher teaching? [Resist not evil.] Does that mean that a Christian man must in all cases submit to unjust treatment? [No! for that would allow evil men to have it all their own way, which would be bad for them, and bad for the world at large.] What was the meaning of Our Lord's saying? [That we should not resent injury done to us, because done to us, rather than if done to any of our fellow-men.] What was the Jewish rule with reference to enemies? [St. Matthew v. 43.] What was Our Lord's higher teaching? [St. Matthew v. 44.] What does Our Lord's way of explaining the Commandments teach us? [How much wider they are in their scope than we at first sight might suppose.] What is the prayer which the Church teaches us to use at the end of the Commandments? [Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these Thy laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee.] HYMN. Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 191. 'Jesu, my Lord, my God, my All.' SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS. SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (continued). "Your Father which is in Heaven.' The Right Way of Giving Alms. Read St. Matthew vi. 1-4. Commentary and Explanation.-Our Lord in the previous chapter had shown (i) the character of those who were to be subjects of the kingdom of Heaven; (ii) the influence for good which they ought to exercise upon the world; (iii) the full meaning of the Divine Commandments in accordance with which they were to regulate their lives. Now He goes on to speak of certain parts of Christian duty, and the first of these is Almsgiving. GOD had commanded the Jewish people to give a tithe [i.e. a tenth part] of all their possessions for His service, and for the relief of their poor and needy brethren; the Pharisee in Our Lord's story said I give tithes of all that I possess (St. Luke xviii. 12) but many of those who lived in Our Lord's time spoilt their almsgiving by making a show of it; they sounded a trumpet before them in the synagogues and in the streets, that they might have glory of men, i.e. they made a great boast of their giving, both in their places of worship, and in other places of public resort; and so Our Lord calls them hypocrites, i.e., men pretending to be what they really are not, pretending that they are giving with a religious motive, when they are only giving for the sake of gaining glory from men; and He says They have their reward; they are seeking men's praise, and they get that, and must not look for any reward beyond. Our Lord told his disciples that they must do their almsi.e. give what they had to give for the relief of those that needed, in quite a different spirit and in quite a different manner from this. They were to give as quietly and secretly as possible, so that it might almost be said their one hand did not know what was done by the other; no man might see their good deeds, and they might miss the praise of men, but this was not what they ought to look to or expect: their heavenly Father would see their deeds, done out of love for Him, and would reward them openly. Thus Our Lord teaches us the duty of giving, but of giving as quietly and simply and secretly as we possibly can. And this is not opposed to what we learnt in the last Lesson that we should let our light shine before men (St. Matthew v. 16), i.e. that we should let our good deeds be seen and known; in that place Our Lord was speaking of the effect of our actions, to glorify Our Father in heaven; here He is speaking of the motive of these actions, that it should not be to glorify ourselves. Prayer. Read St. Matthew vi. 5-15. Commentary and Explanation. The next Christian duty of which Our Lord speaks is Prayer. With reference to this ; (i) He condemns praying for the sake of show, to be seen of men. The men whom He calls hypocrites loved to pray in the synagogues and in places, like the corners of streets, where they would be most likely to be observed; they prayed in order to get a reputation for piety, not because they really wished to pour out their hearts before GoD and to make their wants known to Him; Our Lord says of them, as he said of those hypocrites before mentioned, They have their reward: their aim is to make men think them pious, and if they succeed in this, it is all they can expect, they must not look for any reward from GOD. But Christ's disciples are taught to pray as secretly as possible, in the retirement of their own rooms, seen only of their Father which seeth in secret, and of Him they shall have their reward. (ii) He condemns vain repetitions. The heathens in Eastern lands made a great point of repeating the same prayers over and over again, and thought they should be heard for their much speaking; thus the worshippers of Baal in Elijah's day cried 0 Baal, hear us! from morning till noon (1 Kings xviii. 26), and the Ephesian worshippers of Diana cried out about the space of two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! (Acts xix. 34). But Our Lord taught us not to think that GOD can be moved by the mere number of our prayers. We must not think of Him, as we might think of some earthly benefactor, who requires to be informed what things we stand in need of, and to have our wants pressed upon him; Our Father in heaven knows what things we have need of before we ask Him. We are to pray not for the purpose of making GOD know our wants-for these He knows already-but to show our dependence upon Him, and our faith in Him. (iii) He gives us a form of Prayer which is to be the pattern or model for all our Prayers. In studying this prayer, we cannot have a better guide than the Church Catechism, which gives us an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, beginning 'I desire my Lord GOD... We shall find there are in this Prayer seven distinct petitions or requests; the first three of these are petitions for |