Matthew 12:1-8

"At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. (2) But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. (3) But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; (4) How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? (5) Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? (6) But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. (7) But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. (8) For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day."

I do not think it necessary to swell my Poor Man's Commentary, with making observations on whatever, is plain and obvious. Our Lord who is both the original institutor, and Lord of the Sabbath, hath clearly shown, how mercy is to supersede mere works of sacrifice. But if the Jews were so tenacious of the ordinary sanctity of the sabbath, as to prohibit everything but what was indispensible; what would those men have said, had they lived in the present hour, when reverence both for the sabbath, and the Lord of the Sabbath, is so generally set aside. Ye people of God, in whose hearts the fear of the Lord is! see to it that ye stand up, as Moses did in the gap, to turn away the Lord's wrath from what may be generally expected; the Lord avenging the breach of his sabbaths. Jesus! be thou the very sabbath of my soul! See Mark 2:23 .