r heart, he saith unto the man,
Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth; and his hand
was restored.--Mark 2:23-3:5.

The Mosaic law intended the Sabbath to be a haven of rest for all who were
driven, the slave, the immigrant, even the cattle. It was a precious
institution of social protection. But the strict religionists of Jesus'
time had made a yoke of tyranny of it, so that hungry men could not rub
the kernels from ears of grain without being charged with threshing, and
Jesus could not heal a poor paralytic without getting black looks. A fine
institution of social welfare and relief had been turned into an
anti-social regulation. Jesus fell back on the fundamental maxim of the
prophets, "I desire kindness and not sacrifice," and laid down the
principle that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath." The religious institution of the Sabbath must have social value;
this is the essential test even in religion.

Is the Sabbath more useful to society now than in Puritan times?

From which do we suffer more today, from excessive strictness or excessive
looseness in Sabbath observance?

How is the social value of the rest-day frustrated for the working class?

Third Day: Natural Duty above Artificial

And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy
disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their
bread with defiled hands? And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

This people honoreth me with their lips,
But their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of
men. And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment
of God, that ye may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy
father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or
mother, let him die the death: but ye say, If a man shall say to
his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been
profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; ye no
longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; making
void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered:
and many such like things ye do.--Mark 7:5-13.

Contemporary Jewish religion was full of taboos, defilements, and
purifications. Read Mark