The Gospel of the Holy Twelve Comments of the Editors
LECTION XXXI. 4. -Iesus quoted from a more ancient version than we now possess.
LECTION XXXII. 4,5, 8. -The true significance of the bread and the wine in the Holy Eucharist is here taught by anticipation -the substance and life of the Eternal One given and shed for the sustenance of the universe, and this does not exclude, but contains, all other mystical significations which piety suggests, as good, beautiful, and true -each in its place.
LECTION XXXIII. 4.-Here is given the true significance of Ier. vii. 22, or as it should be rendered in that place, " Ye add burnt sacrifice to burnt offering and ye eat flesh. But I spake not to your fathers nor commanded them concerning these things," etc. Else, as translated in the A. V. it is inimical to the sense, see Numbers xi.
LECTION XXXIV. 2.-This beautiful incident does not stand alone in history, a similar story is related of Buddha, the Enlightener of India, the "Light of the East" ; nor is it by any means irreverent to suppose that similar things should happen to persons of similar minds.
LECTION XXXV. 2.-Although these words do not occur as they stand verbatim in any version of the Law of Moses as commonly received, the spirit of them certainly is there to be found, and in the original copy of the law (the best portion of which has been recovered by spiritual revelation) the very words also. And this original version was doubtless known to this young lawyer, as it evidently was to Iesus, when afterwards he gave the new law to his disciples on the holy Mount when he was transfigured before them in the company of Moses and Elias, the representatives of the old law, which was itself transfigured into the New.
v. 9.-" But one thing is needful "has been interpreted by some, not without reason or probability, as meaning that there were flesh and non-flesh food at the feast, and so he said to Martha, "but one thing (dishes or food) is needful, and Mary hath chosen the better portion." Meaning also, in the spiritual plane, the pure food of heavenly wisdom for the soul. It may have been spoken against luxurious multiplicity of dishes in general. (See Dr. A. Clarke i,1, loco.)
LECTION XXXVI. 2-6.-This beautiful story, so characteristic of Iesus, has been most unjustifiably pronounced by modern revisers as an interpolation. It is a parable of human life, ever true, never old. " Let him who is without sin amongst you cast the first stone."
LECTION XXXVII. 8, -That our Lord spoke here primarily of a physical rebirth as the great aid of the spiritual re-birth, there can be no doubt, for he distinctly declares he had been telling Nicodemus of "earthly things" in the preceding words, albeit as the analogies and correspondences of spiritual things, as his usual method was. To interpret this dialogue, even as in the A. V., exclusively of the spiritual re-birth, is contrary to the plain meaning of the words.
LECTION XXXVIII. -"Death" here, as in other cases, is a state of trance or suspended animation, not easily distinguishable from death even by the physician. A circumstance often leading to the revolting fact of burial alive -a fate, however, not so utterly hopeless in the East, where the dead are buried earth to earth in their shrouds, as in the countries of the West, with the modern and barbarous custom of closed coffins, with covers fastened down, and seven feet of earth over them. It is now ascertained by the more advanced and enlightened medical men, and others, and their official reports, that five per 1,000 must, in these English countries, come to this terrible fate, as there are yet no efforts made to prevent it, as in France, Holland, and other countries, where more rational and civilized practices prevail, and where it is found that five per 1,000 come to life, before actual interment, or show signs of premature burial after, when exhumed.
Transcribed and Edited by Rev. Mark Wilcox, D.D.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
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