. Then, changing the
figure, Jesus likened them to the light of the world, and enjoined upon
them the duty of keeping their light before the people, as prominently
as stands a city built upon a hill, to be seen from all directions, a
city that cannot be hid. Of what service would a lighted candle be if
hidden under a tub or a box? "Let your light so shine before men," said
He, "that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is
in heaven."

That they should make no error as to the relationship of the ancient law
and the gospel of the kingdom which He was elucidating, Jesus assured
them that He had not come to destroy the law nor to nullify the
teachings and predictions of the prophets, but to fulfil such and to
establish that for which the developments of the centuries gone had been
but preparatory. The gospel may be said to have destroyed the Mosaic law
only as the seed is destroyed in the growth of the new plant, only as
the bud is destroyed by the bursting forth of the rich, full, and
fragrant flowers, only as infancy and youth pass forever as the maturity
of years develops. Not a jot or a tittle of the law was to be void. A
more effective analogy than the last could scarcely have been conceived;
the jot or yod, and the tittle, were small literary marks in the Hebrew
script; for present purposes we may regard them as equivalent to the dot
of an "i" or the cross of a "t"; with the first, the jot, our English
word "iota," signifying a trifle, is related. Not even the least
commandment could be violated without penalty; but the disciples were
admonished to take heed that their keeping of the commandments was not
after the manner of the scribes and Pharisees, whose observance was that
of ceremonial externalism, lacking the essentials of genuine devotion;
for they were assured that by such an insincere course they could "in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

THE LAW SUPERSEDED BY THE GOSPEL.[527]

The next section of the sermon deals with the superiority of the gospel
of Christ over the law of Moses, and contrasts the requirements of the
two in particular instances. Whereas the law forbade murder, and
provided a just penalty for the crime, Christ taught that one's giving
way to anger, which might possibly lead to violence or even murder, was
of itself a sin. To maliciously use an offensive epithet such as "Raca"
laid one liable to punishment under the decree of the council, and to
call anoth