“Yes, he did,” replied Mary.

“Now, Mary, get your Bible, please,” said Robert.  “Turn to 2 Cor. 3, and begin reading with verse 7.”

“’But if the ministration of death, written and engraven with stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:’” read Mary.

“You need not read the rest of the chapter now,” said Robert, “but this verse and the verses following show beyond all question or argument that the Ten Commandments were a ‘ministration of death’ and were abolished in Christ.  That law was glorious, but that glory was eclipsed by the greater glory of the New Testament law.  Now turn to Gal. 4:21-31.  Read verse 24 first.”

“’Which things are an allegory:  for these are the two covenants; the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar,’” read Mary.

“This passage proves,” said Robert, “that Paul was showing by Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, Isaac by Sarah, and Ishmael by Hagar, that the covenant at Sinai was to be cast out, just as Hagar and Ishmael were cast out of Abraham’s home.  The verse you read declares that the Ten Commandments, covenant, law, and all from Sinai correspond with Hagar.  What happened to her?  She was cast out.  So the old Ten-Commandment law is cast out in favor of a better one.  Now turn to Hebrews 8 and read the last verse.”

“’In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old.  Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.’”

“Plain enough, isn’t it, Mary?” asked Robert.  “God found fault with the old covenant (see verse 7) and so he took it away.”

“But, Robert,” said Mary, “does this mean that it is right to lie, or steal, or kill?  If the Ten Commandments are done away with, how will these sins be condemned?” And Mary was really puzzled about it.

“Why, Mary,” said Robert, “the Ten Commandments did not make it wrong to lie and steal.  It was always wrong to lie and steal even before there were any Ten Commandments.  Wrong is wrong.  Now in Christ’s law every possible wrong is condemned.  Do you see the point?  Now, the Sabbath-day law is the Fourth Commandment of the Ten.  But that Sabbath law was given to the Jews only.  They could keep it where they lived, but everybody can’t keep it now at the same time even if they should want to.”

“You see we live on a round earth,” continued Robert, “and the sun shines somewhere all the time.  Now Israel could keep the seventh day all right in Palestine, but suppose that they had been scattered over all the earth?  Then a Jew in Australia would be keeping his Sabbath about eighteen hours before his brother in California.  The day begins out in the Pacific Ocean, not because it really begins there, but because for the sake of convenience it was fixed to begin there.  The whole arrangement is artificial.  Now, would God put so much emphasis on keeping a certain day under such circumstances?  Adventists think it is very wrong to work on the Sabbath-day, yet some of them work as much as twelve hours while their brethren on the other side of the earth are keeping their Sabbath.  It is impossible for all the earth to keep the Sabbath at the same time.”