Mark 3:1-6 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Sabbath observance.

I. THE SABBATH MAY BE OBSERVED TO THE LETTER WHILE BROKEN IN THE SPIRIT . Here were men watching to see whether a man would dare to do a loving deed! The letter, which can never be more than the expression of the spirit, must be kept at all costs—except that of the literalists. There are pedants who will quarrel with a great writer because he departs from the "rules of grammar," forgetting that grammar is but a collection of observations of the best that has been written. So there are ritualists who will slander a good man because he neglects rites for the sake of going to the root of all rites.

II. CENSORIOUSNESS THE CERTAIN SYMPTOM OF SELF - DISCONTENT . Why do we want to find fault with others? Because we are not satisfied with ourselves. We must either feed on a good conscience or on the semblance of it. And it seems that we are better than others whenever we can put them in an unfavourable light.

III. EMULATION AND ENVY ARE NEAR AKIN . We are jealous of great successes. Jealousy is natural enough. It depends on the will whether the effects be good or evil on ourselves. A noble deed! let me seek to imitate it and share the blessedness of it: this is good. A noble deed! let me extinguish the author of it, who shames me: this of the devil, devilish; of hell, hellish. The ideal Christian and the ideal Pharisee are in eternal opposition. Goodness produces one of two effects in us—we long to embrace it and possess it, or to kill