Matthew 12:14

Then the Pharisees... held. council... destroy him.

These hypocrites, who, in their superstitious zeal for the Sabbath, were unwilling that our Lord should work. cure on that day, had no scruple whatever to take counsel for the murder of the innocent, and with that view to form. league with the declared enemies of God's people. Their real motive was hatred of the Lord; while their pretext was that he had broken the Sabbath. While professing to be very religious they were really the servants of the evil one.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

Forms are of no avail, except as they express the right spirit. We are not to do away with forms; but they are not unchangeable, and they must ever be adopted to express the living spirit of the gospel.

An intolerant and censorious spirit in religion is one of the greatest curses. man can well fall under.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; hence any change that the good of man required could be made by the Lord of the Sabbath. It has been transformed into the Lord's day.

A religious observance of the Lord's day best rests the body, cultures the mind with the grandest thoughts on the noblest themes, and exalts and comforts the soul, and fits it for heaven.

It should be made. joy, especially to children, and its very method of keeping should be such as to impress its delight upon them. It should be. day of doing good.

A PRECIOUS GIFT.--Admiral Hall, of the British navy, says that while commanding. naval vessel at Hong-Kong, after divine service had been performed one Sunday on his ship, and the sailors were at rest, his intelligent Chinese pilot called his attention to the fact that work was going on on shore as usual, and said, "Your Joss [God] is better than our Joss; for he gives you holiday and rest one day in seven, and we have only one day in the year, on New Year's Day." The admiral, in. recent address to working-men, clinched the striking fact by adding, "And this is the case. Just picture working hard from, morning till night for 364 days, and only one day of rest; and then prize the Lord's day! " They who use the day of rest as. day of pleasure forget that when it ceases to be. day of rest it will soon become. day of toil; and then comes the ceaseless grind of care and labor which weakens the body and starves the soul.-- Rev. Mr. Hastings.

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

1. Point out the circumstances; the Sabbath day; en route to the synagogue worship; pathway through. ripened harvest; the acts of the hungry disciples. 2. Note the presence of the fault-finding Pharisees; glad of. pretext for accusation; their complaint to Jesus. 3. Bring out how they are silenced by the example of David, their national hero-king and inspired hymn-maker. 4. Observe the entrance into the synagogue; the maimed man; the eager looks of the scribes and Pharisees; their question. 5. Bring out how they are again silenced. They hold it right to do an act of mercy to. beast; why not then to. man? 6. The main truth in to-day's lesson is THE RIGHT WAY OF KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY. (1) First, there is exemplified a general principle of the relation between form and spirit. (2) Then the Sabbath question is brought up by the action of the disciples,--an illustration of the Sabbath law. (3) Christ lays down the great principles of Sabbath-keeping, that the Sabbath is to be used for the good of man,--the whole man, and all men. Apply these two principles to modern ways of Lord's day keeping, showing what they allow, and what they forbid. (4) An example by Christ of the right use of the Lord's day. He attended church, and did good to the needy. (5) As he is Lord of the Sabbath he had the right to transform it, change the day and give it. new name. 7. Show that in the New Testament the Lord's day is never called the Sabbath, but distinguished from it, and that we ought to use the New Testament name. 8. Draw lessons as to our duties on the Lord's day.