Christ's Sermon MATTHEW, VI. middle of the second century, and the latter being a revision of it in the fourth century by JEROME, a most reverential and conservative as well as able and impartial critic. As might be expected from this, it is passed by in silence by the earliest Latin fathers; but even the Greek commentators, when expounding this Prayer, pass by the doxology. On the other hand, it is found in a majority of MSS., though not the oldest: it is found in all the Syriac versions, even the Peshito-dating probably as early as the second century - although this version wants the "Amen," which the doxology, if genuine, could hardly have wanted; it is found in the Sahidic or Thebaic version made for the Christians of Upper Egypt, possibly as early as the Old Latin; and it is found in perhaps most of the later versions. On a review of the evidence, the strong probability, we think, is that it was no part of the original text. 14. For if ye forgive men, &c.: 15. But if ye forgive not, &c. See on v. 12. on the Mount. fess to bow to the teaching of Christ is it practically disregarded! What a man loves,' says LUTHER, quoted by THOLUCK, 'that is his God. For he carries it in his heart, he goes about with it night and day. he sleeps and wakes with it; be it what it may wealth or pelf, pleasure or renown.' But because "laying up" is not in itself sinful, nay, in some cases enjoined (2 Corinthians, 12. 14), and honest industry and sagacious enterprise are usually rewarded with prosperity, many flatter themselves that all is right between them and God while their closest attention. anxiety, zeal, and time are exhausted upon these earthly pursuits. To put this right, our Lord adds what follows, in which there is profound practical wisdom. 22. The light-rather, The lamp-of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single-simple. 'clear.' As applied to the outward eye, this means general soundness; particularly, not looking two ways. Here, as also in classical Greek, it is used figuratively to denote the simplicity of the mind's eye, singleness of purpose, looking right at its object. as opposed to having two ends in view. (See Proverbs, 4. 25-27.) thy whole body shall be full of light'illuminated.' As with the bodily vision, the man who looks with a good, sound eye walks in light, see Fasting (v. 16-18). Having concluded His supplementary directions on the subject of Prayer with this divine Pattern, our Lord now returns to the subject of Unostentatiousness in our deeds of righteousness, in order to give one more illustration of it, in the matter of Fasting. 16. Moreover, when ye fasting every object clear; so a simple and persistent pur-referring, probably, to private and voluntary fasting, which was to be regulated by each individual for himself; though in spirit it would apply to any fast. be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces-lit., make unseen;' very well rendered "disfigure." They went about with a slovenly appearance, and ashes sprinkled on their head. that they may appear unto men to fast. It was not the deed, but reputation for the deed which they sought; and with this view those hypocrites multiplied their fasts. And are the exhausting fasts of the Church of Rome, and of Romanizing Protestants, free from this taint? Verily I say unto you. They have their reward. 17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face as the Jews did, except when mourning (Daniel, 10. 3; so that the meaning is, 'Appear as usual'-appear so as to attract no notice. 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee [openly! The "openly" seems evidently a later addition to the text of this verse from v. 4, 7, though of course the idea is implied. pose to serve and please God in everything will make the whole character consistent and bright. 23. But if thine eye be evil-'distempered,' or, as we should say, If we have got a bad eye. thy whole body shall be full of darkness-darkened.' As a vitiated eye, or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mind and heart divided be tween heaven and earth is all dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man's inward purpose, scope, aim in life, determines his character-if these be not simple and heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all the other faculties and principles of our nature be which take their direction and character from these, and what must the whole man and the whole life be, but a mass of darkness? In Luke (11. 36) the converse of this statement very strikingly expresses what pure, beautiful, broad perceptions the clarity of the inward eye imparts: "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle 19-34. CONCLUDING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE doth give thee light." But now for the application RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE KINGDOM - HEAVENLY of this. 24. No man can serve. The word means to MINDEDNESS AND FILIAL CONFIDENCE. 19. Lay not belong wholly and be entirely under command to." up for ourselves-or hoard not-treasures upon earth, two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the where moth-a' clothes-moth.' Eastern treasures, con- other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the sisting partly in costly dresses stored up (Job, 27. 16), other. Even if the two masters be of one character were liable to be consumed by moths (Job, 13. 28; and have but one object, the servant must take law Isaiah, 50, 9; 51. 8). In James, 5. 2 there is an evident from one or other; though he may do what is agreereference to our Lord's words here. and rust-any able to both, he cannot, in the nature of the thing, 'eating into' or 'consuming;' here, probably, 'wear- be servant to more than one. Much less if, as in the and-tear.' doth corrupt 'cause to disappear.' By present case, their interests are quite different, and this reference to moth and rust our Lord would teach even conflicting. In this case, if our affections be in how perishable are such earthly treasures. and where the service of the one-if we "love the one"-we must thieves break through and steal. Treasures these, how of necessity "hate the other;" if we determine resoprecarious! 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in lutely to "hold to the one," we must at the same heaven-The language in Luke (12. 33) is very bold-time disregard, and, if he insist on his claims upon Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not," &c. where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Treasures these, imperishable and unassailable! (Cf. Colossians, 3. 2) 21. For where your treasure is that which ye value most, there will your heart be also. Thy treasure-thy heart' is probably the true reading here: 'your,' in Luke, 12. 34, from which it seems to have come in here.] Obvious though this maxim be, by what multitudes who pro us, even "despise the other." Ye cannot serve God and mammon. The word "mamon"- better written with one m-is a foreign one, whose precise derivation cannot certainly be determined, though the most probable one gives it the sense of what one trusts in.' Here, there can be no doubt it is used for riches. considered as an idol-master, or god of the heart. The service of this god and the true God together is here, with a kind of indignant curtness, pronounced impossible. But since the teaching of the preceding verses might seem to endanger our falling short of Christ's Sermon MATTHEW. VI. on the Mount. what is requisite for the present life, and so being | is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven-wild flowers cut left destitute, our Lord now comes to speak to that point. 25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought'Be not solicitous.' The English word "thought," when our version was made, expressed this idea of 'solicitude.' 'anxious concern'- as may be seen in any old English classic; and in the same sense it is used in 1 Samuel, 9. 5, &c. But this sense of the word has now nearly gone out, and so the mere English reader is apt to be perplexed. Thought or forethought, for temporal things-in the sense of reflection, consideration-is required alike by Scripture and common sense. It is that anxious solicitude, that carking care, which springs from unbelieving doubts and Esavings, which alone is here condemned. (See Philippians, 4. 6. for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall Fat on. In Luke (12 29) our Lord adds, neither be ye settled-not "of doubtful mind," as in our version. When "careful (or 'full of care') about nothing," but committing all in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving unto God, the apostle assures us that "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians, 4. 6, 7); i.e., shall guard both our feelings and our thoughts from undue agitation, and keep them in a holy calm. But when we commit our whole temporal condition to the wit of our own minds, we get into that "unsettled" state against which our Lord exhorts His disciples. Is not the life more than meat-or 'food,' and the body than raiment? If God, then, give and keep up the greater-the life, the body-will He withhold the less, food to sustain life and raiment to clothe the body? 26. Behold the fowls of the air-in r. 28, observe well,' and in Luke, 12 24. "consider"- so as to learn wisdom from them. for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they 1-nobler in yourselves and dearer to God. The argument here is from the greater to the less; but how rich in detail! The brute creation-void of reason-are incapable of sowing, reaping, and storing: yet your heavenly Father suffers them not helplessly to perish, but sustains them without any of those processes: Will He see, then, His own children using all the means which reason dictates for procuring the things needful for the body -looking up to Himself at every step-and yet leave them to starve? 27. Which of you, by taking thought Canxious solicitude", can add one cubit unto his stature? Stature can hardly be the thing intended here: fint, because the subject is the prolongation of life, by the supply of its necessaries of food and clothing: and next, because no one would dream of adding a cubit-or a foot and a half-to his stature, while in the corresponding passage in Luke (12. 25, 26), the thing intended is represented as "that thing which 1s leer." But if we take the word in its primary sense of 'age' for 'stature' is but a secondary sense) the idea will be this, "Which of you, however anxiously you ver yourselves about it, can add so much as a step to the length of your life's journey? To compare the length of life to measures of this nature is not foreign to the language of Scripture (cf. Psalm 25.2 Timothy, 4. 7. &c.). So understood, the meaning is clear and the connection natural. In this the best critics now agree. 28. And why take ye thought for raiment Consider (observe well') the lilies of the feld, bow they grow: they toil not-as men, planting and preparing the flax. neither do they spin-as women: . And yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in all his giary was not arrayed like one of these. What incomparable teaching!-best left in its own transparent clearness and rich simplicity. 30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass-the 'herbage'-of the field, which to-day with the grass, withering by the heat, and used for fuel. (See James, 1. 11.) shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? The argument here is something fresh. Gorgeous as is the array of the flowers that deck the fields, surpassing all artificial human grandeur, it is for but a brief moment; you are ravished with it to-day, and to-morrow it is gone; your own hands have seized and cast it into the oven: Shall, then, God's children, so dear to Him, and instinct with a life that cannot die, be left naked? He does not say, Shall they not be more beauteously arrayed? but, Shall He not much more clothe them? that being all He will have them regard as secured to them (cf. Hebrews, 13. 5). The expression, 'Littlefaithed ones,' which our Lord applies once and again to His disciples (ch. 8. 26; 14. 31; 16. 8), can hardly be regarded as rebuking any actual manifestions of unbelief at that early period, and before such an audience. It is His way of gently chiding the spirit of unbelief, so natural even to the best, who are surrounded by a world of sense, and of kindling a generous desire to shake it off. 31. Therefore take no thought ('solicitude'), saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek)-rather, 'pursue.' Knowing nothing definitely beyond the present life to kindle their aspirations and engage their supreme attention, the heathen naturally pursue present objects as their chief, their only good. To what an elevation above these does Jesus here lift His disciples! for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. How precious this word! Food and raiment are pronounced needful to God's children; and He who could say, "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (ch. 11. 27), says with an authority which none but Himself could claim, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Will not that suffice you, O ye needy ones of the household of faith? 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. This is the great summing up. Strictly speaking, it has to do only with the subject of the present Section-the right state of the heart with reference to heavenly and earthly things; but being couched in the form of a brief general directory, it is so comprehensive in its grasp as to embrace the whole subject of this Discourse. And, as if to make this the more evident, the two key-notes of this great Sermon seem purposely struck in it-"the KINGDOM" and "the RIGHTEOUSNESS" of the kingdom-as the grand objects, in the supreme pursuit of which all things needful for the present life will be added to us. The precise sense of every word in this golden verse should be carefully weighed. "The kingdom of Goa" is the primary subject of the Sermon on the Mount-that kingdom which the God of heaven is erecting in this fallen world, within which are all the spiritually recovered and inwardly subject portion of the family of Adam, under Messiah as its divine Head and King. The righteousness thereof" is the character of all such, so amply described and variously illustrated in the foregoing portions of this Discourse. The "seeking" of these is the making them the object of supreme choice and pursuit; and the seeking of them "first" is the seeking of them before and above all else. The "all these things" which shall in that case be added to us are just the "all these things" which the last words of the preceding verse assured us our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of" i... all we require for the present life. And when our Lord says they shall be "added," it is implied, as a matter of course. that the seekers of the kingdom and its righteousness Christ's Sermon MATTHEW, VII, on the Mount shall have these as their proper and primary portion; | which we overlook in ourselves. 4. Or how wilt the u the rest being their gracious reward for not seeking them. (See an illustration of the principle of this in 2 Chronicles, 1. 11, 12.) What follows is but a reduction of this great general direction into a practical and ready form for daily use. 34. Take therefore no thought (anxious care') for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself or, according to other authorities, for itself')-shall have its own causes of anxiety. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. An admirable practical maxim, and better rendered in our version than in almost any other, not excepting the preceding English ones. Every day brings its own cares; and to anticipate is only to double them. CHAPTER VII. say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5. Thou hypocrite-'Hypocrite!' first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Our Lord uses a most hyperbolical, but not unfamiliar figure, to express the monstrous inconsistency of this conduct. The "hypocrisy" which, not without indignation. He charges it with, consists in the pretence of a zealous and compassionate charity, which cannot possibly be real in one who suffers worse faults to lie uncorrected in himself. He only is fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judges himself. Such persons will not only be slow to undertake the office of censor on their neighbours, but, when constrained in faithfulness to deal with them, will make it evident that they do it with reluctance and not satisfaction, with moderation and not exaggeration, with love and not harshness. Prostitution of Holy Things (v. 6). The opposite ex SERMON ON THE MOUNT-concluded. Ver. 1-12. MISCELLANEOUS SUPPLEMENTARY COUNSELS. That these verses are entirely supplementary is the simplest and most natural view of them. All attempts to make out any evident connection with the immediately preceding context are, in our judg-treme to that of censoriousness is here condemnedment, forced. But, though supplementary, these counsels are far from being of subordinate importance. On the contrary, they involve some of the most delicate and vital duties of the Christian life. In the vivid form in which they are here presented, perhaps they could not have been introduced with the same effect under any of the foregoing heads; but they spring out of the same great principles, and are but other forms and manifestations of the same evangelical "righteousness." want of discrimination of character. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs-savage or snarling haters of truth and righteousness. neither cast ye your pearls before swine-the impure or coarse, who are incapable of appreciating the priceless jewels of Christianity. In the East dogs are wilder and more gregarious, and. feeding on carrion and garbage, are coarser and fiercer than the same animals in the West. Dogs and swine, besides being ceremonially unclean, were peculiarly repulsive to the Jews, and indeed to the ancients generally. lest they trample them under their feet-as swine do-and turn again and rend ycu-as dogs do. Religion is brought into contempt, and its professors insulted, when it is forced upon those who cannot value it and will not have it. But while the indiscriminately zealous have need of this caution, let us be on our guard against too readily setting our neighbours down as dogs and swine, and excusing ourselves from endeavouring to do them good on this poor plea. Prayer (v. 7-11). Enough, one might think, had been said on this subject in ch. 6. 6-15. But the difficulty of the foregoing duties seems to have recalled the subject, and this gives it quite a new turn. How shall we ever be able to carry out such precepts as these, of tender, holy, yet discriminating love? might the humble disciple enquire. 'Go to God with it,' is our Lord's reply; but He expresses this with a fulness which leaves nothing to be desired, urging now not only confidence, but importunity in prayer. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Though there seems evidently a climax here, expressive of more and more importunity, yet each of these terms used presents what we desire of God in a different light. We ask for what we wish; we seek for what we miss; we knock for that from which we feel ourselves shut out. An Censorious Judgment (r. 1-5). 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged. To "judge" here does not exactly mean to pronounce condemnatory judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favourable or the reverse. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is that disposition to look unfavourably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, and unlovely judgments upon them. No doubt it is the judgments so pronounced which are here spoken of; but what our Lord aims at is the spirit out of which they spring. Provided we eschew this unlovely spirit, we are not only warranted to sit in judgment upon a brother's character and actions, but, in the exercise of a necessary discrimination, are often constrained to do so for our own guidance. It is the violation of the law of love involved in the exercise of a censorious disposition which alone is here condemned. And the argument against it-"that ye be not judged"-confirms this: 'that your own character and actions be not pronounced upon with the like severity:' i.e., at the great day. 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete-whatever standard of judgment ye apply to others, it shall be measured to you again. This proverbial maxim is used by our Lord in other connections-as in Mark, 4. 24, and with a slightly differ-swering to this threefold representation is the triple ent application in Luke, 6. 38-as a great principle in the divine administration. Untender judgment of others will be judicially returned upon ourselves, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. But, as in many other cases under the divine administation, such harsh judgment gets self-punished even here. For people shrink from contact with those who systematically deal out harsh judgment upon others- naturally concluding that they themselves may be the next victims-and feel impelled in self-defence, when exposed to it, to roll back upon the assailant his own censures. 3. And why beholdest thou the mote-splinter;' here very well rendered "mote," denoting any small fault. that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?-denoting the much greater fault assurance of success to our believing efforts. But ah!' might some humble disciple say, 'I cannot persuade myself that I have any interest with God." To meet this, our Lord repeats the triple assurance He had just given, but in such a form as to silence every such complaint. 8. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Of course, it is presumed that he asks aright-i.., in faith-and with an honest purpose to make use of what he receives. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (undecided whether to be altogether on the Lord's side. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord" (James, 1. 6-7). Christ's Sermon MATTHEW, VIL on the Mount. Ilence, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask | it is trodden and the abundance of company to be amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" James, 4. 3). 9. Or what man is there of you, whom if is son ask bread-'a loaf,' will he give him a stone?round and smooth like such a loaf or cake as was much in use, but only to mock him. 10. Or if he ask a fsh, will he give him a serpent?-like it, indeed, but caly to sting him. 11. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him! Bad as our fallen nature is, the jather in us is not extinguished. What a heart, then, must the Father of all fathers have towards His pleading children! In the corresponding passage in Luke se on 11. 13), instead of “good things," our Lord aiks whether He will not much more give the Hoy Sard to them that ask Him. At this early stage of His ministry, and before such an audience, He seems to avoid such sharp doctrinal teaching as was more secordant with His plan at the riper stage indicated in Lake, and in addressing His own disciples excluEvely. trolden Rule (v. 12). 12. Therefore-to say all in one word-all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so-the same thing and in the same way, to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets. This is the substance of all relative duty; all Scrip. tare in a nutshell.' Incomparable summary! How well called the royal law!" (James, 2. 8; cf. Romans, 13. 9 It is true that similar maxims are found foating in the writings of the cultivated Greeks and Romans, and naturally enough in the Rabbinical writms. But so expressed as it is here-in immediato connection with, and as the sum of such duties as had len just enjoined, and such principles as had been bcre taught-it is to be found nowhere else. And the best commentary upon this fact is, that never til our Lord came down thus to teach did men effectually and widely exemplify it in their practice. The precise sense of the maxim is best referred to common sense. It is not, of course, what-in our wayward, capricious, grasping moods-we should wish that men would do to us, that we are to hold ourecives bound to do to them; but only what-in the exercise of an impartial judgment, and putting ourselves in their place-we consider it reasonable that they should do to us, that we are to do to them. found in it. It is sailing with a fair wind and a 1.-29. CONCLUSION AND EFFECT OF THE SERMON GS THE MOUNT. We have here the application of the whole preceding Discourse. Conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount (r. 13-27). "The righteousness of the kingdom," so amply described, both in principle and in detail, would be seen to involve self-sacriJo at every step. Multitudes would never face this. Eat it must be faced, else the consequences will be fatal This would divide all within the sound of these truths into two classes: the many, who will follow the path of ease and self-indulgence-end where it might; and the few, who, bent on eternal safety above everything else, take the way that leads to it-at whatever cest. This gives occasion to the two opening verses of this application. 13. Enter ye in at the strait gate-teachers of divine truth. Here follows a wholesome as if hardly wide enough to admit one at all. This xpresses the difficulty of the first right step in reliBC, involving, as it does, a triumph over all our natural inclinations. Hence the still stronger expression in Luke 13. 24, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." for wide is the gate-easily entered-and broad is the way-easily trodden-that leadeth to destruction, and thus lured-many there be which go in thereat: 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life in other words, the whole course is as difficult as the first step; and (so it comes to pass that few there be that find it. The recommendation of the broad way is the ease with which digression. 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. See on ch. 3. 10. 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them:4.d., But the point I now press is not so much the end of such, as the means of detecting them; and this. as already said, is their fruits.' The hypocrisy of teachers now leads to a solemn warning against religious hypocrisy in general. 21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord-the reduplication of the title "Lord" denoting zeal in according it to Christ (see Mark, 14. 45). Yet our Lord claims and expects this of all His disciples, as when He washed their feet, "Ye call me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so Conclusion and Effect of the MATTHEW, VIII. Sermon on the Mount. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon-or struck against that house: and it fell: and great was the fall of it-terrible the ruin! How lively must this imagery have been to an audience accustomed to the fierceness of an Eastern tempest, and the suddenness and completeness with which it sweeps everything unsteady before it! Effect of the Sermon on the Mount (v. 28, 29). 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine- rather, 'His teaching,' for the reference is to the manner of it quite as much as to the matter, or rather more so. 29. For he taught them as [one] having authority. The word "one," which our translators have here inserted, only weakens the statement. and not as the scribes. The consciousness of divine authority, as Lawgiver, Expounder, and Judge, so beamed through His teaching. that the scribes' teaching could not but appear drivelling in such a light. CHAPTER VIII. I am" (John, 13. 13. shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven-that will which it had been the great object of this Discourse to set forth. Yet our Lord says warily, not the will of your Father,' but "of My Father" thus claiming a relationship to His Father with which His disciples might not intermeddle, and which He never lets down. And He so speaks here, to give authority to His asseverations. But now He rises higher still-not formally announcing Himself as the Judge, but intimating what men will say to Him, and He to them, when He sits as their final judge. 22. Many will say to me in that day-What day? It is emphatically unnamed. But it is the day to which He had just referred, when men shall "enter" or not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (See a similar way of speaking of "that day" in 2 Timothy, 1. 12; 4. 8.) Lord, Lord. The reiteration denotes surprise. What, Lord? How is this? Are we to be disowned? have we not prophesied-or 'publicly taught.' As one of the special gifts of the Spirit in the early Church, Ver. 1-4. HEALING OF A LEPER. (=Mark, 1. 40-45; it has the sense of inspired and authoritative teach-Luke, 5. 12-16.) The time of this miracle seems too ing.' and is ranked next to the apostleship. (See definitely fixed here to admit of our placing it where 1 Corinthians, 12. 28; Ephesians, 4. 11.) In this sense it stands in Mark and Luke, in whose Gospels no such it is used here, as appears from what follows. in thy precise note of time is given. 1. [And] When he was namel-or, to thy name,' and so in the two following come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed clauses-'having reference to Thy name as the sole him. 2. And, behold, there came a leper-"a man fuil power in which we did it.' and in thy name have cast of leprosy," says Luke, 5. 12. Much has been written out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? on this disease of leprosy, but certain points remain -or 'miracles.' These are selected as three examples still doubtful. All that needs be said here is, that of the highest services rendered to the Christian cause, it was a cutaneous disease, of a loathsome, diffusive. and through the power of Christ's own name, invoked and, there is reason to believe, when thoroughly profor that purpose; Himself, too, responding to the call.nounced, incurable character; that though in its disAnd the threefold repetition of the question, each time in the same form, expresses in the liveliest manner the astonishment of the speakers at the view now taken of them. 23. And then will I profess unto them -or, openly proclaim'-tearing off the mask-I never knew you. What they claimed-intimacy with Christ -is just what He repudiates, and with a certain scornful dignity. Our acquaintance was not broken off-there never was any.' depart from me (cf. ch. 25. 41. The connection here gives these words an awful significance. They claimed intimacy with Christ, and in the corresponding passage, Luke, 13. 26, are represented as having gone out and in with Him on familiar terms. So much the worse for you,' He replies: 'I bore with that long enough; but now-begone! ye that work iniquity- not that wrought iniquity for they are represented as fresh from the scenes and acts of it as they stand before the Judge. (See on the almost identical, but even more vivid and awful, description of the scene in Luke, 13. 24-27.) That the apostle alludes to these very words in 2 Timothy, 2. 19, there can hardly be any doubt-"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 24. Therefore-to bring this Discourse to a close, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. See James, 1. 22, which seems a plain allusion to these words; also Luke, 11. 28; Romans, 2. 13; 1 John, 3. 7. I will liken him unto a wise mana shrewd, prudent, provident man, which built his house upon a rock-the rock of true discipleship, or genuine subjection to Christ. 25. And the rain-from above-descended, and the floods-from below-came, and the winds-sweeping across-blew, and-thus from every direction-beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. See 1 John, 2. 17. 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine-in the attitude of discipleship, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand-denoting a loose foundation-that of an empty profession and mere external services. 27. tinctive features it is still found in several countries -as Arabia, Egypt, and South Africa-it prevailed, in the form of what is called white leprosy, to an unusual extent, and from a very early period, among the Hebrews; and that it thus furnished to the whole nation a familiar and affecting symbol of SIN, considered as (1) wathsome, (2) spreading, (3) incurable. And while the ceremonial ordinances for detection and cleansing prescribed in this case by the law of Moses (Leviticus, 13., 14.) held forth a coming remedy "for sin and for uncleanness" (Psalm 51. 7; 2 Kings, 5. 1, 7, 10, 13, 14), the numerous cases of leprosy with which our Lord came in contact, and the glorious cures of them which He wrought, were a fitting manifestation of the work which He came to accomplish. In this view, it deserves to be noticed that the first of our Lord's miracles of healing recorded by Matthew is this cure of a leper. and worshipped him-in what sense we shall presently see. Mark says (1. 40), he came, "beseeching and kneeling to Him." and Luke says (5. 12), he fell on his face." saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. As this is the only cure of leprosy recorded by all the three first Evangelists, it was probably the first case of the kind; and if so, this leper's faith in the power of Christ must have been formed in him by what he had heard of His other cures. And how striking a faith is it! He does not say he believed Him able, but with a brevity expressive of a confidence that knew no doubt, he says simply. Thou canst." But of Christ's willingness to heal him he was not so sure. It needed more knowledge of Jesus than he could be supposed to have to assure him of that. But one thing he was sure of, that He had but to "will" it. This shows with what "worship" of Christ this leper fell on his face before Him. Clear theological knowledge of the Person of Christ was not then possessed even by those who were most with Him and nearest to Him. Much less could full insight into all that we know of the Only begotten of the Father be expected of this leper. But he who at that moment felt and owned that to heal an incurable disease needed but the fiat of the |