This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ...in this long course of thought, meanings the most various have been put upon it. It is sometimes the weightiest, and sometimes the lightest, of terms. Its sense varies with him who uses it. Jesus employs the name without any explanation, as prophets and psalmists had employed it before Him. He presupposes in ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ...in this long course of thought, meanings the most various have been put upon it. It is sometimes the weightiest, and sometimes the lightest, of terms. Its sense varies with him who uses it. Jesus employs the name without any explanation, as prophets and psalmists had employed it before Him. He presupposes in his listeners the conceptions of Jews. Again, He presupposed, as a part of Jewish faith, the sanctity of the Mosaic law. All the Evangelists alike represent Him as reverencing its precepts. Matthew reports Him as declaring emphatically that he had not come to destroy but to fulfil it. Its observance was only condemned by Him when the weightier claims of justice and mercy were sacrificed to it. It was not loyal obedience to the Law which aroused His anger, but the making of it of none effect by tradition, the putting of ceremonial before moral obedience. It has been truly pointed out that the great controversy of the apostolic age regarding the obligation of the Law could not have arisen had His teaching in this matter been quite free from ambiguity. Had He expressed himself decisively either on the one side or the other, the conflict which filled St. Paul's life would not have taken place. It was because Jesus reverenced the Law that the original apostles hesitated about its relaxation. It was because His teaching implied that the ceremonial part of it was superfluous, if only the moral part could be preserved and completed, that St. Paul fought and won his good fight. Once more, our Lord lived and died in a province of the Roman Empire. Around Him was the social order, established after centuries of political experience, by a race born to rule. This established order He assumes in His teaching. He does not direct any part of His attention...
Read Less
