nitors of the Israelitish nation. The
declaration that Jehovah is not the God of the dead but of the living
was an unanswerable denunciation of the Sadducean perversion of
scripture; and with solemn finality the Lord added: "Ye therefore do
greatly err." Certain of the scribes present were impressed by the
incontrovertible demonstration of the truth, and exclaimed with
approbation: "Master, thou hast well said." The proud Sadducees were
confuted and silenced; "and after that they durst not ask him any
question at all."

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT.[1118]

The Pharisees, covertly rejoicing over the discomfiture of their rivals,
now summoned courage enough to plan another attack of their own. One of
their number, a lawyer, by which title we may understand one of the
scribes who was distinctively also a professor of ecclesiastical law,
asked: "Which is the first commandment of all?" or, as Matthew states
the question: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" The
reply was prompt, incisive, and so comprehensive as to cover the
requirements of the law in their entirety. With the imperative call to
attention with which Moses had summoned Israel to hear and heed,[1119]
the very words of which were written on the phylacteries[1120] which the
Pharisees wore as frontlets between their eyes, Jesus answered: "Hear, O
Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second
is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is
none other commandment greater than these." Matthew's wording of the
concluding declaration is: "On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets."

The philosophic soundness of the Lord's profound generalization and
comprehensive summarizing of the "law and the prophets"[1121] will
appeal to all students of human nature. It is a common tendency of man
to reach after, or at least to inquire after and marvel about, the
superlative. Who is the greatest poet, philosopher, scientist, preacher
or statesman? Who stands first and foremost in the community, the
nation, or even, as the apostles in their aspiring ignorance asked, in
the kingdom of heaven? Which mountain overtops all the rest? Which river
is the longest or the largest? Such queries are ever current. The Jews
had divided and subdivided the commandments of the l