"Will ye also go away?" Peter, always the spokesman, answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Whether he understood them as yet or not, of this the faithful Peter was clear, they were the words of eternal life, and none could be to him what JESUS was.

Yet even then the Lord shewed that He knew that only eleven out of those twelve went on with that true full love. There was one among them who was doing worse than those who had turned back because their faith would not carry them so far. They might yet come back. There is no doubt that great numbers of them did so return, but that one unhappy man, Iscariot, was pretending faith, pretending to acquiesce in Peter's loving speech when in heart he was unconvinced. Judas saw that our Lord saw through him, yet he went on, and so began the career of a very devil!

Some infer that our Lord went up to the Passover, the second of His ministry, and that there was an attempt at Jerusalem to kill Him; but it is more likely from what St. John says that He remained in Galilee during the Passover, because in Judea they were on the watch to kill Him. If the popular demonstration at Bethsaida were reported at Jerusalem it would seem to His enemies as if at last He had given an offence that could be prosecuted by the law of the State, and they would thus have the handle against Him which they had so long sought.

LESSON LV.

DEFILEMENT.

B.C. 36.-MARK vii. 1—13; MATT. xv. 10—20.

Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.*

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

* Couches.

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full weil ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:

But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?

Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies :

These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

COMMENT.-The scribes and Pharisees of Judea appear to have resolved to prevent our Lord from continuing to teach in Capernaum in the synagogue, and a party of them came down thither to watch Him, and find some occasion for compelling Jairus and the other elders to forbid His teaching there. The first fault they could find was in the matter of uncleanness. The law stood thus (Num. xix. 11—16) :—

He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him. This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent : all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean.

And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

But since the great revival under Ezra, and the beginning of the schools of the Pharisees, infinite details had been added. Lest any unclean person or thing should have been unwittingly touched, there was a perpetual washing—cups, cooking-vessels, measures, the couches on which people lay at meals, were all scrupulously washed. Indeed, the Rabbis taught that a demon lay in wait for those who did not wash before eating; and he who ventured to undervalue the custom might be excluded from the synagogue. Now, fishermen in a remote province were unlikely to be fully versed in such regulations, and their neglect of the practice caused the Pharisees to attack their Master, although He did not give the offence Himself. His answer was from the Prophet Isaiah, when speaking of the outward shows of piety in Hezekiah's time (Is. xxix. 13—14) :—

Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of

men :

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

It was the commands of men, the tradition of the elders, that they were enforcing, as if they were the doctrines of God; and that out of hatred, not out of zeal for God's honour and the true keeping of His commandments.

Nay, so far from these traditions being a careful observance of the law of God, they sometimes absolutely led to its transgression. The fifth is a great and holy law of God; and in two more sentences of the law (Ex. xxi. 15, and Lev. xx. 9), death had

been denounced on him who cursed his parents. Yet a custom had risen up of a son being allowed to make a gift to God of whatever was due from him for the maintenance of his parents. If he spoke the word "Corban," meaning "it is dedicated," he was thenceforth obliged to give to the temple all he would otherwise have spent on his father or mother, and nothing might henceforth be done for them by him. Even if he repented of what might have been said in a fit of anger, it was not at that time possible for him to go back from his word; though, by a rule made some centuries later, he was allowed to go to the Rabbis to dispense him from it. So it was that God's positive command was nullified by mischievous traditions.

While, as to these scruples about uncleanness, the whole system of the ceremonial law had been typical; and sin alone is true defilement. The food or drink does not carry defilement in itself, be it what it may. Not what is put into the mouth causes impu

rity, but that which comes out of it.

Of this He gave the further explanation, in St. Peter's house, to the apostles, showing how the words which are prompted by an evil heart are the real defilement. There is not one commandment that may not be broken by the tongue, and therefore an evil word is an infinitely greater defilement than the chance legal uncleanness that going to the market, &c., might occasion.

LESSON LVI.

THE SYRO-PHOENICIAN WOMAN.

MARK vii. 24-26; Matt. xv. 23-28; MARK vii. 30-37.

And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it but he could not be hid.

For a certain woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and he besought him and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

*

And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

COMMENT.- The Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem no doubt rebuked the rulers of Capernaum for permitting the teaching of One who placed the commandments of God above the traditions of men, for after this our Lord never seems to have taught again in the synagogue, and for the present they seem to have raised sufficient persecution to cause Him to withdraw from Galilee to a remote village on the Phoenician boundary. Like every other part of the civilized world, the great old merchant cities belonged to Rome, and they formed, like Palestine, part of the proconsulate of Syria, but the local government was republican, and out of the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrim and of Herod. Our Lord, however, entered the border village privately, as if to avoid being followed; but the report of His miraculous powers had spread everywhere; He could not be hid, and a woman came to entreat His mercy. St. Mark calls her a Greek, meaning that she was a heathen. Canaanite as St. Matthew terms her, and Syro-Phoenician as she is also termed by St. Mark, denote that she was of the old Canaanite stock, outside the pale of promise, like the widow of