ALL that is of the nature of blessing must come from God, divine Mind, and, consequently, must be mentally received. Moses understood this fact when he spoke about the laws of God: he recognized that these directions were given us "for our good always;" and acknowledging his own position as lawgiver, he spoke of the divine requirement that men should walk in divine ways, love God with all the heart, and "keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good." In further instruction he made it clear to the people that if they should wander out of these right ways, they could nevertheless return and obey; and he gave them this encouragement: "The Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers."
In one of the Commandments thus intended for human good it is stated, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Reminding ourselves that good flows from Mind to man, but that it must be accepted by men before they can find themselves blessed, is it not curious that there is so much mental resistance to what might be called mental good? There is all too often a tendency to prevent the Sabbath from being a day of restoration, renewal, and revival of spiritual intuition. Undoubtedly, the commandments of the moral law are for the good of men always; and even as Moses perceived this, so did the prophets who followed him perceive it; and so also did the Messiah, whose coming they foretold.
Jesus took issue with the rabbinical theory that the Sabbath was not made for man. The scribes had thirty-nine rules which certainly laid heavy burdens on people with their various forbiddings; but the disciples, on passing through the fields, plucked some ears of grain and, rubbing them in their hands, began to eat because they were hungry. They were, according to the strict teaching of the law, breaking the third of these rules, which forbade harvesting on the Sabbath day. Jesus reminded the critics that on one occasion David had satisfied the hunger of himself and his followers by eating the shew-bread, which according to the ritual was to be kept only for the priests. He seemed to indicate that mercy to men was of more importance than ritual; and he formulated his own rule by saying, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." Jesus definitely held that the law was not an end in itself, but was intended to be a help towards the realization of love for God and love for man, and that such a mental attitude illustrates true religion. By the multiplication of their rules—rules which the common people could not possibly obey—in their endeavor to bring out legal restraint, the scribes aroused perpetual arguments and contentions regarding separate acts, and so lost the religious value of the Sabbath rest which should have produced attitudes, motives, and activities connecting themselves with divine Love.
