p. 76 | BRIEF COMMENTS by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 6, 1861

BRIEF COMMENTS.

By Uriah Smith

DAVID in describing some of his afflictions, says in one place, "I am become like a bottle in the smoke," Ps. cxix, 83. From any experience which people in this country have in regard to bottles, it would not be apparent what effect smoke would have upon a bottle, or what David meant by this language. It is all plain, however, when we remember that in the eastern countries bottles are made of skins of animals. These being hung up in the smoke must soon be parched and shrivelled up. David uses this figure to represent the exhausted state of body and mind to which he had been reduced by bodily and mental distress. This fact in regard to bottles must be borne in mind also in our Saviour's parable, Matt. ix, 17. "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runneth out." By receiving the liquor poured into it, a skin bottle must be greatly swelled or distended; and still more, if the liquor be wine, by

its fermentation while advancing to ripeness; so that if no vent be given to it, the liquor may overpower the strength of the bottles and burst them, and thus the wine would run out and the bottles perish. New bottles on the contrary, being in the prime of their strength, may resist the expansion of the fermentation, and preserve the wine to maturity.

Luke vi, 38. "Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom." To understand what is meant by giving into the bosom, it must be recollected that the orientals generally wore long, wide, and loose garments; and when they wished to carry anything that their hands could not contain, they made a fold for that purpose in the bosom of their robe, above the girdle.

Ps. ciii, 5. David when gratefully reviewing the mercies of Jehovah, says, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." David does not mean here to say, of course, that the youth of the eagle is actually renewed, so that an old bird becomes young. He only alludes to the fact that eagles at certain times shed their feathers, which are supplied by a new growth, by which means even old age assumes the appearance of youth.

That oft-quoted text, Ps. lxxxiv, 10, seems to be improved by the marginal reading. The text reads, "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Now a door-keeper in some instances is quite an honorable, and withal a profitable position. But the margin reads, "I choose rather to sit at the threshold;" that is, he would choose the very lowest and humblest seat in the house of his God, rather than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

A Sabbath-Day's Journey. We often hear persons express the desire to make a Sabbath-day's journey toward the kingdom. Such persons express a wish, unconsciously no doubt, for very slow progress. A Sabbath-day's journey, as regulated by the traditions of the Jews, was only about two miles; while an ordinary day's journey was regarded by that people as about twenty. Of the limited distance which constituted a Sabbath-day's journey, we have an account in the New Testament. Luke [chap. xxiv, 50] says that our Saviour just previous to his ascension, led his disciples out as far as Bethany. Bethany is declared in John xi, 18, to be from Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs off. In Acts i, 12, we read that after the ascension of the Lord, the disciples returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, [on which Bethany was situated] which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day's journey. These three passages show that a Sabbath-day's journey was about fifteen furlongs. There are eight furlongs in a mile, which makes the distance to be about two miles. Desires for great and rapid advancement would be therefore better expressed by a day's journey, than Sabbath-day's journey, which was not more at most than one tenth as far.

U. Smith.