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 tical body,  and  what  were  they  all  about? Matters of opinion,  for  the  most  part,  and  modes  of  worship. The means  were  ever  the  point  at  issue,  but  on  the ends in  view,  sanctification  and  salvation,  the  disputes had no  other  bearing  than  to  unwittingly  defeat  them. Alas! how many  times  has  the  history  recorded  in  the twelfth chapter  of  Judges  repeated  itself! How many times has  a  point  in  religion  as  unimportant  as  the  difference between  Schibboleth  and  Sibboleth  brought down social  ostracism  and  anathema  on  individuals and nations,  or  proved  for  them,  mayhap,  a  matter of life  and  death? Take, for  example,  the  incident of to-day's  Gospel. The Pharisees,  you  know,  were great sticklers  for  the  law;  to  expound  and  enforce it was  the  chief  business  of  their  lives. The ten  brief commands, or  "  words  "  handed  down  by  God  to Moses,  had  in  the  course  of  time  been so divided,  subdivided, and  multiplied,  and  canning  casuistry  had surrounded them  with  such  a  tangle  of  cases  and exceptions and  human  traditions,  that  the  service  of God  had  become  a  veritable  burden. Again and again God  had  signified  His  disapproval. " Bring  no more  vain  oblations,"  He  said  by  Isaias,  "  incense  is an  abomination  unto  Me,  and  your  feasts  My  soul abhorreth." " Hath  the  Lord,"  says  Samuel,  "  as great  delight  in  sacrifices  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of the  Lord?  Behold,  obedience  is  better  than  sacrifices, and  to  hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams." " Will the  Lord  "  asks  Micheas,  "  be  pleased  with  thousands of  rams  and  ten  thousand  rivers  of  oil,  and human  sacrifice?    No,  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,