The Sabbath School by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1881

The Sabbath School.

By Editor

LESSON COMMENTS.

The lesson for schools on the Pacific coast for Sabbath, July 2, includes a review of the miracles and teachings of Christ, from the time of the sermon on the mount, to the open conflict with the Pharisees, when they accused him of casting out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of devils. The manner in which our Lord's mother and brethren sought to draw him away from the exciting scene which followed, is thus spoken of by Rev. Wm. Hanna, D. D., in his "Life of Christ":

"The exciting intelligence that in the presence of a vast multitude Jesus had been accused by the Pharisees of being nothing else than an emissary and ally of the devil; that, not satisfied with defending himself against the charge, he had in turn become their accuser, and broken out into the most open and unrestrained denunciation of their whole order; that the feud which for months past had been secretly gathering strength had ended at last in an open rupture, was carried to the house in which Mary and the Lord's brothers were dwelling. A fatal thing it seems to them for him to have plunged into such a deadly strife with the most powerful party in the country. They will try what they can to draw him out of it. They hasten to the spot, and find the crowd so large, the press so great, that they cannot get near him. They send their message in to him. 'Behold,' says one who is standing next to Jesus, 'thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.'

"A mother who, if fond enough, was yet so fearful, who once before had tried to dictate to him, and had been checked at Cana; brethren who thought that he was beside himself, none of whom as yet believed on him—what right had they to interrupt him at his work—to move him from his purpose? 'Who is my mother?' said he to the man who conveyed to him the message, 'and who are my brethren?' Then pausing, looking 'round about on them which sat about him,' stretching forth his hands towards his disciples, 'Behold,' he exclaimed, 'my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.' A woman in the crowd, who has been standing lost in a mere human admiration of him, hears his mother spoken of, and cannot in the fullness of her womanly emotion but call her blessed. 'Yea, rather blessed,' said Jesus to her, 'are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.'

"So, when in the very heart of his mission-work on earth they spake to him about the closest human ties, his nearest earthly relatives—close as these were, and willing as he was in their own mode and sphere to acknowledge them, so resolutely did Jesus waive them aside, so sublimely did he rise above them, setting himself forth as the elder Brother of that whole family in heaven and earth named by his name, and who are followers in the footsteps of Him who came not to do his own will, but the will of Him that sent him. The earthly and heavenly bonds, the common and the Christian ties, do not always coincide, neither are they always in harmony. If ever they interfere—if mother, or brother, or sister, or dearest friend, should once tempt us away from him in nearness to whom standeth our eternal life—then let us remember the scene in Capernaum, and ask our Lord to give us of his own Spirit, here as everywhere to follow him."