acts of worship, now goes on to show, that, merely as a matter of self-interest, we should seek to live in brotherly love, and settle all difficulties immediately with our fellowcreatures. - Agree with thine adversary quickly, &c. Be, or make friends with him. This probably had reference to the Roman law concerning injuries, by which the plaintiff, the adversary, as it is here translated, could, without the formality of a summons or writ, drag the of fender with his own hand before the court. On the way he had however an opportunity of settling the affair, if he pleased, and of being set at liberty. But if the case were brought before the judge, a fine would be imposed, and, if unable to pay it, the prisoner would be held in confinement until the debt was discharged. It is a maxim of prudence, therefore, as well as a dictate of love, to seek reconciliation with those whom we have offended and injured, and to do it at the earliest opportunity. The ill consequences of not being reconciled to our fellow-men are pictured forth in judicial phraseology. The longer the difficulty was delayed, the harder it would be to be settled, the more aggravated its evil consequences. The passage is designed rather to point out the importance of early reparation and reconciliation in regard to our fellow-men, than to be violently construed as an admonition against delay in religion, in general, or in our duties more especially to our Maker. In the interpretation of Scripture, there is as much dan

ger of attributing a sense to a passage which was never in the writer or speaker's mind, as of mistaking the sense; as much danger of erring as to the degree, so to speak, as to the kind of meaning. At any time. These words are superfluous; not in the original. The officer. The one who executed the sentence; the sheriff, or prison-keeper. Reference is supposed to be made in this verse to the oppression of the Romans, which rendered it expedient to settle difficulties in private, rather than to resort to "hood-winked justice.'

26. He describes the evil of delaying to be reconciled, but the advantages of regaining peace and good-will are obvious, and therefore not mentioned. In this verse the language of the courts is still kept up.

There would be no deliverance from jail till the last farthing was paid. If reconciliation is not early sought and secured, irreparable troubles will befall the injurer. He will not escape until he has expiated fully the offence. He will be visited with unmitigated retribution, who seeks not by penitence and confession to avert it beforehand. - Paid the uttermost farthing, i. e. paid the whole debt. What is here called a farthing was a small brass coin, equal to about four mills of our money.

27. The last paragraph relates to the sixth commandment, to Murder, and the violation of social goodwill. This one treats of the seventh, of Adultery and Divorcement.

- By them of old time. Should be, to them of old time. But the words

are not considered genuine in this place, since they are not found in a large number of the most ancient versions and manuscripts. The distinguished critic Griesbach therefore rejects them as spurious. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Ex. xx. 14. Our Lord would not, by thus quoting the commandments, weaken their authority, but aims to prove that they should be kept in the spirit as well as the letter, and that the Jewish maxim, that the thoughts and desires were not sinful unless acted out, was false and dangerous. Our Father takes the will for the deed, both in the virtuous and the vicious.

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28. To lust after her. Or, more explicitly, in accordance with the original, in order to cherish impure wishes and feelings. Men, who can only judge by external actions, give the name of a crime merely to the last act; but in the estimation of God, who searches the heart, he hath committed the crime who hath intended to do it, or hath wished it done. The law of the ten commandments does not expressly prohibit all offences, but only such as are most atrocious of their kind. Thus it does not prohibit all falsehood to our neighbor, but false witnessing against him; nor every injury to his property, but theft; nor all unlawful commerce between the sexes, but only adultery. Christ, however, here informs us, that whoever indulges himself in any thing which may lead to that offence is guilty in a certain degree of the crime of adultery." The impure desire is therefore to be abhorred and shunned as being akin to the criminality of the actual deed. 2 Peter ii. 14. 'By obscene anecdotes

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and tales; by songs and jibes; by double meanings and innuendoes; by looks and gestures; by conversation and obscene books and pictures, this law of our Saviour is perpetually violated. If there be any one sentiment of most value for the comfort, the character, the virtuous sociability of the young, one that will shed the greatest charm over society, and make it the most pure, it is that which inculcates perfect delicacy and purity in the intercourse of the sexes. Virtue of any kind never blooms where this is not cherished. Modesty and purity once gone, every flower that would diffuse its fragrance over life withers and dies with it. There is no sin that so withers and blights every virtue, none that so enfeebles and prostrates every ennobling feeling of the soul, as to indulge in a life of impurity. How should purity dwell in the heart, breathe from the life, kindle in the eye, live in the imagination, and dwell in the intercourse of all the young!" - Barnes.

29. Right eye. The mention of the eye is naturally connected with the preceding verse, where it speaks of inflaming unlawful emotions by looking on an object of desire. The organ of vision might become an instrument of sin. The Hebrews were accustomed to compare lusts and evil passions, and also good affections, with different members of the human body. The bowels, heart, and eye, were thus used. 2 Cor. vi. 12, vii. 3; Mark vii. 21, 22; Rom. vi. 13, vii. 23.-Offend. Here is an instance where the meaning of the word has changed during two centuries, so that it does not now express what it did at the time our English version was made. It

then meant to cause to fall, or to sin; it now means to affront. The original clearly signifies to make to stumble, to seduce, to tempt to sin, or to ensnare. If the right eye, or hand, if the best member in the whole body, led its possessor into sin, it were better to lose it than to perish entirely as to the moral nature. It is said that the right eye was indispensable to a soldier, as war was then conducted, and that to lose it would be more than to part with the other. -Pluck it out. This cannot be understood with any propriety as an injunction to be literally performed, but as a strong mode of saying that the greatest loss was preferable to the loss of holiness; that any hardship was to be endured rather than that a sinful habit should be tolerated; that the dearest object was to be relinquished, if it was a stumbling-block to our virtue. By self-denial, though it be painful as the plucking out of a right eye, or the cutting off a hand, must the vicious propensities be restrained. The darling inclination, the easily besetting sin, must be renounced, however great the sacrifice. Matt. xviii. 8, 9; Mark ix. 43-47; Rom. viii. 13.

30. The same in substance as the last verse. Reiteration is one of the figures of good speaking and writing. The deeply moved mind overflows with powerful imagery. It is profitable, i. e. it is better, it is preferable. One of thy members should perish. Men with diseased limbs hesitate not to have them amputated

in order to save life. They willingly yield up a less good to retain a greater. So, is the reasoning of our Master, should men do in spiritual things. It is better to crucify the most cherished desires, if sinful, than by their indulgence to endanger the salvation of the soul itself, and lose eternal life. — Hell. This term, in the original, Gehenna, has already been commented on, verse 22. The main idea here conveyed is that of severe punishment, extreme suffering, and no intimation is given as to its place, or its duration, whatever may be said in other texts in relation to these points. Wickedness is its own hell. A wronged conscience, awakened to remorse, is more terrible than fire or worm. In this life and in the next, sin and woe are for ever coupled together. God has joined them, and man cannot put them asunder.

31. After showing that the laws of his religion included the heart, as well as the outward conduct, and that no sacrifice was too great to be made for virtue, he proceeds to contrast the practices and opinions of the times in relation to divorces, with the strictness of his principle.

It hath been said. Deut. xxiv. 1; Jer. iii. 1, 8; Matt. xix. 3–9; Luke xvi. 18; Mark x. 2-12. Moses had given a law in reference to divorcement, but it was designed for the then existing condition of the Jews; it was adapted to the hardness of their hearts. Mark x. 5. Jesus would inculcate a stricter principle. On the interpretation of

were those circumstances in the present case? The Jews were in the habit, as their learned men inform us, of dividing oaths into two classes, the lighter and the weightier. The lighter were those, which did not contain the name of God, and which, they held, might be broken with impunity, although there was some tacit reference made in them to the Deity. These were frequently made, according to Philo, in common conversation, amounting in fact to what we call profane swearing. An apocryphal writer refers to the custom, Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 9-13. They also allowed of mental prevarication, a swearing with the lips, and disavowing or annulling of the oath with the heart. That our Saviour did not refer to judicial oaths, or to solemn appeals to God upon important occasions in a reverent manner, as some believe, and prohibit them entirely, is apparent from the specimens he cites, which are unlike any that were ever used in any court of law; and from his own example in answering to an oath, Matt. xxvi. 64, when he did not answer to an ordinary interrogation, and from that of his Apostle Paul in calling God to witness, which is in spirit an oath, Rom. i. 9; Gal. i. 20; 1 Thess. ii. 5; 2 Cor. i. 18, 23. He aims to sweep away the minute and pernicious distinctions introduced into promissory oaths and bonds, and to inculcate greater simplicity and sincerity of conversation. -By them of old time. Rather, according to Griesbach, to them of old time. Thou shalt not forswear thyself. Lev. xix. 12; Num. xxx. 2; Deut. xxiii. 23. Thou shalt not perjure thyself; thou shalt not take an

oath in form, and do it with a mental reservation, so as to deceive the other party, and be guilty of trifling with the venerable majesty of God. But perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Deal honestly in the matter. Be true to the obligation assumedin making the oath. So much for what Moses taught. What does Jesus teach in commenting on this law in reference to the circumstances of his day?

34. But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven. That is to say, abolish this practice; abandon the common irreverent oaths, in which there is a tacit understanding and purpose to deceive. The sense is more clearly brought out by Griesbach, who leaves out the usual semicolon, and puts in only a comma. For, as the punctuation was determined, not by the original inspired writers, but by their fallible successors in the church, it is lawful to change it as the sense seems to require. Our Lord is not made to say, swear not at all, which would be plainly one sense; but swear not at all by heaven, and the other pernicious forms which he mentions, which is plainly quite a different sense. If it had been his object to prohibit oaths altogether, upon every occasion, he would certainly have said, swear not at all, swear not by God, and said no more; but, as he goes on to specify what they were not to swear by, he leaves it plainly to be inferred, that there is at least one oath, that by God himself, that established in the Mosaic code, which it is lawful to take upon solemn and important occasions. If a legislator prohibits the importation of certain articles of commerce, we conclude that the ar