_1< MMfNTARY! »..„.J YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIBRARY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW BY F. N. PELOUBET, D.D. AUTHOR OF SELECT NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSONS SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, ETC. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH New Yokk: 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue LONDON : HENRY EROWDE fate Divinity Library N6W HBVM( OBMfa Copyright, 1901, by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH Press of J. J. Little & Co. Astor Place, New York TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE vvi MATTHEW ' . vii Name.Descent. Home. Business.Call. Life Work. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW ,iii> ix Author. Date. Place of Writing. Language. Sources. Characteristics. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL x-xvi MAP OF PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, IN CONNECTION WITH MATTHEW'S GOSPEL xvii MAP OF JERUSALEM AND VICINITY xix PLAN OF THE TEMPLE BUILT BY HEROD xxi DIAGRAM OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST xxiii HARMONY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST xxiv-xxxi EXPLANATORY NOTE CONCERNING THE MARGINAL REFERENCES . . xxxiii THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 1-369 INDEX OF SUBJECTS : . . 371 INDEX OF GREEK WORDS 379 PREFACE Commentaries on the Gospels are already so many and so good, that it seems almost like presumption for me to add another to this great and growing and goodly company. But there is reason to believe that one part of the field is not completely occupied. New light, new methods, and new ways of presenting the truth have been developed since many of the best popular commentaries have been issued ; and the tendency of the later scholarly ones has been in a different direction and toward dif ferent aims from the one here proposed. The title, The Teachers' Commentary, indicates in some measure the scope and purpose of the present volume, and the persons for whom it is designed. The aim is to present in the light of the latest and best scholarship, and of the best modern methods, the Life, the Character, the Teachings, and the Mission of Jesus the Christ, as witnessed and recorded by the Apostle Matthew, so clearly, so simply, so practically, so suggestively, that people of even ordinary intelligence and culture may possess the best there is on the subject in the most attractive and helpful form ; and that teachers, leaders of prayer-meetings, pastors, heads of families, and Christian workers of all denominations may be aided in accomplishing their work. No one can know better than myself how imperfectly this will be done, or how very far this volume will come short of this ideal. But this purpose is kept steadily in view ; and an experience of more than a quarter of a century with commentaries of all kinds, and the success of the Select Notes on the International Lessons, which have the same general purpose in view, and of which more than a million copies have been sold, give a reason for the hope that this purpose may be accomplished in some useful degree. The limitations of the object in view, and the limitations of space so that the vol ume may not be too expensive for the general public for which it is intended, require the exclusion of a large amount of certain kinds of critical matter, and of the discus sion of subjects and questions of the deepest interest and greatest value to scholars. But they are treated in other works by the best scholars far better than would be pos sible here, even were there space enough ; and we can only refer interested readers to their works. On the other hand, many things are included within the scope of our purpose. Every kind of help is included that can throw light upon the text, — from scholarship, from literature, from history, from geography and travel, from new points of view, from pictures, from the original Greek. There will be practical applications, suggestive hints, statements of principles. The text will be the combined Authorized and Revised. The References are the new ones lately prepared with great care and expense under the auspices of the University Presses, for the Revised Version. vi PREFACE. There are maps, charts, and pictures so far as they can explain any obscure refer ences to oriental customs ; the time, place, and circumstances are noted in connection with events. The chronological order is in the main that of Andrews' Life of Christ, because some order must be followed, and that, on the whole, is the most satisfactory ; more over, it is the order of development, rather than exact dates, that is important. There are frequent quotations (i) when it is desirable to give some well-known authority for a statement ; and (2) when anything is said peculiarly well by another author, giving variety and flavor beyond what is possible to any one writer. In these ways it is hoped to promote a new and living interest in the Gospel ; to see Jesus more clearly as he lived among men "full of grace and truth," as presented to us by those who beheld his glory " as of the only begotten of the Father," in order that all may love and trust him, and may abide with him in his heavenly kingdom. Auburndale, Mass., January 1, 1901. MATTHEW Name. Matthew had two names, — Matthew, " The gift of God," the same as the Greek name Theodore, or possibly from the Aramaic Mattay, " Manly ; " and Levi, a common Jewish name from one of the patriarchs. Either he had originally the two names, as was common among the Jews, or to his name Levi there was added, when he became a Christian, the name Matthew, as Saul became Paul, and Simon was named Peter. He is always called Matthew in the lists of the Apostles. Descent. His father's name is given as Alphseus (Mark 2 : 14). He was a " Hebrew of the Hebrews," versed in the history and prophecy of his race, as his writings show. His Home was at Capernaum, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. His Business was that of a publican, or collector of customs, at Capernaum, which is on one of the great caravan-routes from the East to Egypt. Apparently he conducted his busi ness, unpopular as it was, and full of temptations, in an honest upright manner ; for there is no suggestion, as in the case of Zaccheus, of restoring dishonest gains (Luke 19 : 8) ; yet he seems to have been so successful in business as to have amassed some degree of wealth. Two advantages for the furtherance of his apostolic work came from his being a business man. (1) He was enabled to reach the large class of publicans and outcasts, and to bring them within the immediate circle of the teachings of Jesus. One of the first things he did after his call was to make a great feast, where Jesus and his disciples were invited to meet his former business associates. (2) We have the Gospel according to Matthew from his hand, written from a religious business man's point of view. It is a plain, orderly statement, in business-like fashion, of an eye-witness, an actual spectator ; not the chronological order of the practised historian, nor the brilliant picture of the literary artist ; but the record of facts as they most deeply impressed and moved a, plain but acute man of business. As a public collector of taxes he would be accustomed to keeping accurate records. His Call. How much previous preparation Matthew had received is not recorded. But he lived in the city where Jesus made his home, the centre of his Galilean ministry, and where many of his miracles were wrought, and where every one was discussing the claims and the teaching of the new prophet. Matthew must have known a great deal about Jesus, and come to some conclusions concerning him, before that eventful occasion when passing near the custom-house where Matthew was sitting, Jesus said to him, "Follow me" (Matt. 9 : 9), and he arose and followed him, and henceforth became one of the Twelve. His Life Work. Apparently Matthew held an humble position among the apostles, and his influence was exerted in quiet, unobtrusive ways. After his call, and the feast at his house, he is not mentioned once in the Gospels or the Acts, except in the lists of the Twelve. He names himself as the Publican, though none of the others attach this designation to his name. He is not among the favored three. No incident is connected with his name. No word or question of his to Jesus is recorded. But he wrote one of the four Gospels. He has been a helper to Christians all through the succeeding ages. His name and work are familiar wherever the Gospel is preached. Few persons in history, few even of the Twelve, have had an influence so great, a career so widely known, a usefulness so extended, as this silent, retiring business man, " swift to hear and slow to speak," who has left no record of his own life, nor did anything that was thought worthy viii THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. of notice by other writers " from the day that he rose from the publican's desk to follow Jesus." His personality was lost in his message. " Scarcely one famous picture has taught the lesson of his call." "None of the great churches have been called by his name." " Among the Evangelists, however, the publican stands first in order, and opens the banner of salvation, even as Mary Magdalene . . . was the first to bring tidings of the resurrec tion."! Little is known of his later life, except from fragmentary notices of early writers and some early traditions. It is supposed that he remained in Palestine longer than most of the Twelve. Some say for fifteen years. Then he went to foreign lands, among which have been named Egypt, Parthia, Ethiopia, and Macedonia. Eusebius says that St. Matthew, when about to depart for his mission field, " left as a memorial to his Palestinian converts the story of the New Covenant committed to writing in their own tongue, the Aramaic or Hebrew dialect which they used. This parting gift of the Evangelist was the origin of the written Gospels." 2 It is unknown where or when or how he died. " The traditions of the Greek Church and the pictures of the Greek artists represent him dying peacefully. But the Western Church has placed Matthew on the list of martyrs, and in the works of Italian painters he is portrayed perishing by the executioner's sword." But of him it can be said as of Mary of Bethany, " Wherever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." THE GOSPEL ACCOKDING TO MATTHEW Author. That Matthew was the author of this Gospel is the unanimous tradition of the ancient church, which there is no strong reason for doubting. The Date. Probably between a. d. 60 and 70. Prof. Sanday in his article in the new " Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible " expresses the conviction, which he believes that con tinued investigation will confirm, that the great mass of the Synoptic Gospels had assumed its permanent shape not later than the decade 60 to 70 A. D. The Place of Writing is unknown, but the probability is that it was written in Palestine, and very likely at Jerusalem. The Language. Matthew wrote this Gospel in Greek, although many contend that he also wrote one in Hebrew, or Aramaic, the Hebrew dialect then commonly spoken in Pales tine. The question is one in which critical scholars studying the sources of the Gospels have a deep interest. The Sources. It is evident that the story of the life and teachings of Christ by the different apostles and others who heard him, must have been familiar to the church long before any of the present Gospels were written. It was the common subject of preaching. It is also true (Luke 1 : 1) that more or less of this was committed to writing. But which of our Gospels was first written, and how much one depends upon the other,, or all upon some written sources common to all, is still under discussion. But Matthew reports largely what came under his own observation. As a business man accustomed to keep records, he may have kept written notes of what he saw and heard ; and his very style implies this. " It is not the contemporary and the eye-witness, but the historian of a succeeding age, who takes the keenest interest in minute detail and records with faithful accuracy the less prominent circumstances of a great event. It is the Herodotus or the Macaulay — the historian, the ' questioner ' — who gathers from every source materials for a minute aud brilliant picture, rather than the actual spectator, who is often too deeply absorbed 1 Lange. 2 Rev. A. Carr in Cambridge Bible. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. ix by the one point of supreme interest in a scene to notice the looks and acts of other bystanders, or so impressed by the speaker's glowing thoughts, as to deem them alone worthy of record." 1 Hence it is that Matthew records but little of the life of Jesus before his call, omitting the whole of his first year, the Judean Ministry, and touching lightly on the first months of the Galilean ministry. Characteristics. Three characteristics are especially noteworthy. 1. The fact referred to above that Matthew writes as an eye-witness, from the standpoint of an intelligent but plain man of business. 2. The arrangement of his book is topical rather than chronological. Only the general outline of the first part is given in the exact order of events. The latter part follows more nearly the order in which the events took place, but the selection is still in the form of grouping the teachings and the miracles. Thus he emphasizes and illustrates the instructions and truths about the kingdom of heaven, and shows their connection and meaning in the life and work of Christ. This method is especially apparent in the collection of teachings called the Sermon on the Mount, occupying three chapters; and the group of miracles in chapters eight and nine, proving the teacher's authority, and illustrating his teachings and his mission ; and in chapter ten, embodying his personal instructions to his disciples. 3. The other characteristic is the relation of this Gospel to the Old Testament scriptures. It is " almost a manual of Old Testament prophecy." It abounds in Old Testament refer ences. The Old Testament is always before his eyes as he writes. This Gospel takes the life of Jesus as it was lived on earth, and his character as it actually appeared, and places them alongside the life and character of the Messiah as sketched in the prophets, that the two may appear in their marvelous unity and in their perfect identity. Thus the kingdom of heaven foretold in the prophets is unfolded in its new meaning and development, a visible, spiritual kingdom of righteousness " on earth as it is in heaven." 1 Rev. A. Carr, M. A. Intro, to Cambridge Bible. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. SECTION I. THE HUMAN ANCESTRY OF JESUS. Chapter 1: 1-17. ( 1. From Abraham to David. The Three Periods : 1 2. From David to the Exile. ' 3. From the Exile to Jesus the Christ. Notes on the Genealogies. Practical Suggestions. SECTION II. THE BIRTH OF JESUS. HIS DIVINE ORIGIN. Chapter 1 : 18-25. Time. Spring, b. c. 5 to Jan., b. c. 4. Place. Nazareth and Bethlehem. Mary the Mother of Jesus. The Angelic Message to Joseph. The Name, Jesus. The Prophecy of Immanuel. The Birth of Jesus. Who he was before he came into the world. SECTION III. THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF JESUS. Chapter 2: 1-23. Time. Dec. 25, b. c. 5 to A. d. 26. Place. Bethlehem and Nazareth. 1. Eight Lines of Preparation of the World for the Coming of the Messiah. 2. The Date of the Birth of Jesus. 3. The Visit of the Wise Men. 4. The Star in the East. 5. The Flight into Egypt. 6. The Massacre of the Innocents. 7. The Return to Nazareth. 8. The Home Training of Jesus for his Great Work. SECTION IV. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND HIS MISSION. Chapter 3: 1-12. Time. Summer of A. d. 26 to March A. d. 28. Place. Wilderness of Judea. 1. The Hidden Years of John. 2. Preaching in the Wilderness. 3. How he prepared the Way for Jesus. SECTION V. PREPARATIONS OF JESUS FOR ENTERING UPON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. Chapter 3: 1-13; 4: 1-11. Time. January and February, A. D. 27. Place. Bethabara and the Wilderness of Judea. 1. By the Ministry of John. 2. By Baptism. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. xi 3. By the Coming upon him of the Holy Spirit. 4. By the Testimony of a Voice from his Heavenly Father. 5. By the Temptation in the Wilderness. (1) First Temptation. (2) Second Temptation. (3) Third Temptation. (4) Victory over Temptation. SECTION VI. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY. Chapter 4: 12-24. Time. Spring of a. d. 28. Place. Capernaum and Galilee. 1. A Beautiful Vision of the Prophet. 2. A Beautiful Picture of its Fulfilment. (1) Jesus changes his field of labor to Galilee. (2) The prophecy of better times. (3) The preaching that helped to fulfil it. (4) The summons of others to aid in its fulfilment. (5) A general view of Jesus' ministry. SECTION VII. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Chapter 5: 1-7: 29. Time. Midsummer, A. d. 28. Place. A mountain near the Sea of Galilee. 1. The Seven Beatitudes: The Inner Spirit. 2. The Eighth Beatitude : The Spirit Tested. 3. The Spirit Expressed. 4. The Truth made clear by the Old, and by Contrast with False Interpretation of the Old. 5. Applications to the Religious Life A Lesson on Almsgiving. A Lesson on Prayer. A Lesson on Forgiveness. A Lesson on Fasting. 6. Applications to the Aim and Purpose of Life. The supreme choice (1) of Treasure. (2) of a Master. Helps toward a right choice. 7. Guards against Insidious Dangers to the Religious Spirit. Judging Others. Motes and Beams. Pearls and Swine. 8. The Means of Obtaining and Sustaining the New Life. 9. The Golden Rule. The Sum of the Sermon. 10. An Exhortation to enter the New Life. 11. Tests, for Ourselves and Others. SECTION VIII. A GROUP OF MIRACLES PROVING JESUS' AUTHORITY AND ILLUSTRATING HIS TEACHINGS. Chapter 8: 1-9: 38. Time. Spring, Summer, and Autumn, A. d. 28. Place. Galilee. ' 1 . A Case of Leprosy. 2. A Case of Palsy ; the Centurion's Servant. 3. A Case of Fever ; Peter's Wife's Mother. 4. A Summary of Miraculous Works ; Great Multitudes. 5. Stilling the Tempest, and Associated Incidents. xii ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. 6. Evil Spirits cast out ; the Gadarene Demoniac. 7. A Case of Paralysis ; the Man borne of Four. 8. The Call of Matthew. 9. The Banquet and Reception at Matthew's House. 10. Restoration of the Dead ; Jairus' Daughter. 11. The Issue of Blood. 12. Blindness cured ; Two Blind Men. 13. Demons cast out ; the Dumb Possessed. 14. Many Diseases cured. 15. A Call for more Laborers. SECTION IX. A NEW STAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM ; A HIGHER COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. Chapter 10: 1-42. Time. Winter of A. d. 29. Place. Galilee. 1. The Twelve Apostles. 2. Their Field of Work. 3. Their Work in this Field. 4. How to deal with Opposers. 5. Encouragements with Instruction from Seven Points of View. SECTION X. JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. Chapter 11 : 1-19. Time. Summer of A. d. 28. Place. Somewhere in Galilee. 1. The Two Scenes : Jesus in Galilee, John in Macherus. 2. The Discouraged Prophet, An Eclipse of Faith. 3. How Jesus cured Discouragement and Doubt. 4. Discourse of Jesus concerning John. SECTION XI. WARNINGS AND INVITATIONS. Chapter 11 : 20-30. Time. Dec, a. t>. 29. Place. Somewhere in Perea. SECTION XII. FIVE SEPARATE ATTACKS; MARKING A DISTINCT EPOCH IN THE WORK OF CHRIST. Chapter 12: 1-50. Time. Autumn, A. d. 28 to Dee. A. d. 29. Place. Galilee and Perea. First Attack : Through Christ's Method of Keeping the Sabbath. Second Attack : A Council of the Rulers to Destroy Jesus- Third Attack : False Accusations, on Account of the Healing of a Demoniac. Fourth Attack : The Demand for a Sign. Fifth Attack : Interference from his own Family. SECTION XIII. A NEW METHOD OF TEACHING: BY PARABLES. Chapter 13 : 1-58. Time. Autumn, A. r>. 28. Place. Beside the Sea of Galilee. Seven Parables illustrating various aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven. 1. The Sowers. 2. The Tares. 3. The Mustard Seed. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. 4. The Leaven. 5. The Hid Treasure. 6. The Pearl of Great Price. 7. TheDrag-Net. SECTION XIV. VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY. Chapter 14 : 1-16 : 12. Time. Spring and Summer, A. d. 29. Place. Galilee. 1. The Martyrdom of John the Baptist. 2. Feeding the Five Thousand. 3. The Storm at Sea. Peter's Experience and Lesson in Faith. 4. Healing Great Numbers at Gennesaret. 5. Some False Traditions of the Elders exposed. 6. The Syrophenician Woman's Faith. 7. Multitudes healed. 8. Feeding of the Four Thousand. 9. The Signs of the Times. 10. The Leaven of the Pharisees. SECTION XV. REVELATION OF THE SUFFERING MESSIAH. A distinct stage of development in the teaching of Jesus, and the training of the Twelve. Chapter 16: 13-28. Time. Autumn a. d. 29. Place. Csesarea Philippi. 1. The Settled Faith of the Disciples that Jesus was the Messiah. 2- The Rock and the Keys. 3. A Further Revelation, — that the Messiah must die and be raised again. 4. The General Principle involved. SECTION XVI. THE TRANSFIGURATION. Chapter 17: 1-13. Time. Autumn, A. d. 29. Place. On Mount Hermon. 1. The Prayer-meeting on the Mountain. 2. Jesus Transfigured. 3. The Conference of the Three Glorified Ones. 4. The Three Witnesses. 5. The Divine Testimony to Jesus. 6. Lessons from the Transfiguration. SECTION XVII. FINAL INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY. Chapters 17: 14 — 18: 35. Time. Autumn, a. d. 29. Place. The foot of Mount Hermon, and in Galilee. 1. The Lunatic Child. 2. Lesson on Faith. 3. The Suffering Messiah (repeated). 4. The Tribute Money. 5. Some Great Truths a Little Child can teach us. (1) Greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven. (2) Concerning Offences. (3) Despising the Little Ones. 6. Saving the Lost. Illustrated by the Parable of the Lost Sheep. xiv ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. 7. The Treatment of those who injure us. 8. The Power of United Prayer. 9. Forgiving Others, seventy times seven times. Illustrated by the Parable of The Two Debtors. SECTION XVIII. THE PEREAN MINISTRY. Recorded chiefly by Luke, chapters 10 to 19, and Matthew, chapters 19, 20, and Mark, chapter 10. Chapter 19 : 1-20. Time. Nov. a. d. 29 to the last of April a. d. 30. Place. Perea. 1. Jesus leaves Galilee. End of the Galilean Ministry. 2. Questions concerning Divorce and the Family. 3. Jesus blessing Little Children. 4. A Young Ruler seeking Eternal Life- 5. Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. 6. Christ again foretells his Crucifixion and Resurrection. 7. The Ambition of James and John. 8. Two Blind Men receive Sight at Jericho. SECTION XIX. THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS' PUBLIC LIFE. Chapters 21 : 1-23: 39. Time- April, a. d- 30- Place- Bethany and Jerusalem. Friday, March 3. The Arrival at Bethany from Jericho. Saturday, April 1. The Supper at Bethany, and Anointing by Mary- Sunday, Apri 12. 1. The Triumphal Entry. 2. Return to Bethany. Monday, April 3. 1. Cursing the Barren Fig Tree on the Way to the City. 2. The Second Cleansing of the Temple. 3. Healing the Sick. 4. Educating the People in Religion- 5. The Children's Hosannas. Tuesday, April 4. The last day of the Public Teaching of Jesus- 1. Lesson from the Barren Fig-Tree. 2. The Authority of Jesus questioned. 3. Parable of the Two Sons- 4- Parable of the Vineyard. 5. The Rejected Stone. 6. Parable of the Marriage of the King's Son. Then followed a series of entangUng questions through which it was sought to entrap Jesus into say ing something on account of which they could bring charges against him. 7. Question by the Herodians concerning Paying Tribute. 8. Question by the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection. 9. Question by a Scribe of the Pharisees concerning the Greatest Commandment. 10. Jesus, having answered wisely, finally silences them by a question in return concerning the expected Messiah. 11. Jesus warns the People against the Example of the Scribes and Pharisees. 12. A Terrible Indictment of the Jewish Leaders. SECTION XX. DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND THE END OF THE WORLD. Chapter 24: 1-51. Place. On the Mount of Olives. Time. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. SECTION XXI. THREE PARABLES CONCERNING PREPARATION FOR THE LAST DAYS. Chapter 25 : 1-46. Place. On Mount Olivet. Time. Tuesday, April 4, A. d. 30. 1. The Ten Virgins. 2. The Talents. 3. The Judgment. SECTION XXII. LAST TWO DAYS OF JESUS WITH HIS DISCIPLES. Chapter 26 : 1-46. Time. Tuesday to Thursday, April 4-6, A. d. 30. 1. Conspiracy of the Rulers. 2. Supper at Bethany. 3. Conspiracy of Judas with the Rulers. 4. The Last Supper. 5. Farewell Discourses. 6. In the Garden of Gethsemane. SECTION XXIII. THE TRIAL OF JESUS. Chapters 26: 47-27: 26. Time. Friday morning, April 7, A. D. 30. 1. The Betrayal and Arrest. 2. The Trial before the Jewish Authorities. Before Annas. Before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim. The Charge. The Sentence. Mockeries. The Denials of Peter. The Repentance of Peter. The Legalized Sentence by the Sanhedrim. The End of Judas. 3. The Trial before Pilate. First Trial before Pilate. The Trial before Herod. The Second Trial before Pilate. Six Expedients of Pilate. The Verdict of Innocence. Delivered to be Crucified. 1. On the Way to the Cross. 2. The Crucifixion. 3. Scenes around the Cross. 4. The Death of Jesus the Christ. 5. Accompanying Signs. 6. The Burial. SECTION XXIV. THE CRUCIFIXION. Chapter 27 : 31-66. Time. Friday, April 7, A. d. 30. ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL. 1. The Resurrection of Jesus. 2. The Eleven Appearances. 3. The Great Commission. 4. The Ascension. 5. The Ever-living Saviour. SECTION XXV. THE RESURRECTION. Chapter 28: 1-20. Time. April, A. D. 30. THE HOLY LAND W THE TIME OF OUR SAVIOUR 35» THE ENVIRONS OF J ERUSALEM w$ m ' English MLUe O 1 ~. a •• a , Eataah,R- J,nnui.lwr -. '" ¦¦U^tL^v.ii.'llpp. C" -.1,'^ 'B-E>l J A IvJ Jith 1 T a \N &sff>; " 0' P. ~ : i-Wi i, i jffij KM riakfTempW Ij F. Pool of Silo am ¦".'¦' B.Bezetlia WewfifrJ LLofftrPoolofGikm. H.iWritf- F.R.G.S- THE TEMPLE REBUILT BY HEROD pip if •ay^^A-, £"g?C75 J u ' p •> u a J ¦* 'a -J-4 fl-w-ww-J- J ¦• ¦"• ¦¦ v ?-">¦ tt-^-b — r— — ?¦ 5 ; .• •. - f-1 ' /6,/4 ¦'« 6/-o tf--"-* « .« Ik/. o':* a » * ,¦& « o- o '»-«-',»' & a-' a .«'-* " a"o Sn tzj g s ^i Dee. HARMONY OP THE LIFE OP CHRIST. The order of events is in general according to Andrews' Life of Christ. Outline. Introduc tion. »uc- ( ¦ I Childhood B. C. 5 to A. D. 26. and Youth. Prepara tions. A. D. 26. First Year of Jesus' Ministry. A. D. 27. Year op Be ginnings. No. Events. Preexistence . Genealogies . Annunciation to Mary Birth of John the Baptist Birth of Jesus Song of the angels Visit of the wise men Flight into Egypt Childhood and youth at Nazareth, First Passover at Jerusalem, when 12 years old. Ministry of John the Baptist, six months before, and a year and three months parallel with Je sus' ministry. Baptism of Jesus Temptation of Jesus , First disciples First miracle. Wedding at Cana . First cleansing of the temple First recorded discourse, — to Nic- odemus. First great ministry in Judea Departure for Galilee First converts in Samaria at Ja cob's well. Healing of the nobleman's son A few weeks spent by Jesus in re tirement, or unrecorded. Passover Healing at the pool of Bethesda and discourses. Place. Nazareth. . . Judea Bethlehem . Egypt Nazareth .... Jerusalem . f Wilder- I ness I of [ Judea Jordan .... Wilderness of Judea. Bethabara. . Cana Jerusalem. . Judea . Sychar Capernaum . Jerusalem. . Date. March B. c. 5 June " Dec. Jan. B. c. 4 Feb.b.o. 2-26.... April A. D. 8 Fromsummer of A. D. 26 to March A. D. 28. January 27. . Jan.-Feb.27. A. D. 27. February.. . April 11-17. Summer and autumn. December . . . A. D. 28. Jan.-Mar.Mar.30-Apr.5 Matt. 1 : 1-17 1 : 18-25 2 : 1-12 2 : 13-23 2: 23 3 : 1-12 3 : 13-17 4 : 1-11 1:1- 1 : 9-11 1 : 12, 13 Luke. 3 : 23-28 1 : 26-38 1 : 57-80 2: 1-7 2 : 8-20 2 : 39, 40, 51,52 2 : 41-50 3 : 1-18 3 : 21-23 4 : 1-13 John. 1 : 1-14 1 : 15-51 2 : 1-12 2 : 13-25 3 : 1-21 3 : 22-36 4:1-3 4:4-42 4 : 43-54 5:1 5 : 2-47 John the Baptist. B. c. 5 B O ft o A. D. 27. Summer. a hi 2 E * a M 5 Impris oned, March A. d. 28. April , a. d. 28. s?HO H ffl P S?8» Second Year. A. D. 28. Year of Funda mental Principles. 25 52 Imprisonment of John the Baptist Returns to Galilee. Beginning of Great Galilean Ministry. Jesus rejected at Nazareth Takes up his abode at Capernaum Calling disciples to be fishers of men Many miracles First circuit of Galilee Healing of a leper Healing a paralytic The call of Matthew Discourse on the Sabbath The man with the withered hand healed on the Sabbath. Calling of the twelve The Sermon on the Mount Healing of the centurion's servant. Raising of the widow's son John the Baptist sends to Jesus. . . Warnings and invitations (here or at No. 80). The woman, a sinner. The two debtors. At Pharisee's house. Another tour of Galilee Healing of a blind and dumb de moniac and discourses thereon. Visit of his mother and brethren . . Eight parables by the seaside Stilling of the tempest Restoration of the demoniac Matthew's feast Jairus' daughter raised to life ; woman cured. Cure of two blind men and a dumb Second rejection at Nazareth The twelve sent forth Death of John the Baptist . . Macherus. . Galilee Nazareth . . Capernaum . Sea of Galilee CapernaumGalilee .... Capernaum . Horns of Hattin. Capernaum . . Nain Galilee Galilee Capernaum . . By Sea of Galilee. On Sea of Galilee. Gergesa Capernaum. . Nazareth . . Galilee Macherus. March. . April. , April, May. May May, June . Midsummer. Midsummer.Autumn. . . . A. D. 29. Winter March. 14 : 3-5 4:12 13-1718-22 8 : 14-17 4 : 23, 24 8:2^ 9:2-8 9:9 12 : 1-8 12 : 9-14 10:2^ chapters. . 5,6, 7 8:5-13 11 : 2-19 11 : 20-30 12 : 22-45 12 : 46-50 13 : 1-53 8 : 18-27 8 : 28-34 9 : 10-17 9 : 18-26 9 : 27-34 13 : 53-58 9 : 35 to 11:1 14 : 1-12 6 : 17, 18 1 : 14, 15 1 : 16-20 1 : 21-34 1 : 35-39 1:40-45 2 : 1-12 2 : 13, 14 2 : 23-28 3: 1-6 3 : 13-19 3:22-30 3:31-35 4 : 1-34 4:35-41 5 : 1-20 2 : 15-22 5 : 21-43 6:1-6 6 : 6-13 6 : 14-29 3 : 19, 20 4 : 14, 15 4 : 16-30 4:31 5 : 1-11 4:31-414:42-44 5 : 12-16 5 : 17-26 5 : 27, 28 6: 1-5 6 : 6-11 6 : 12-19 6:20-49 7 : 1-10 7 : 11-17 7 : 18-35 7 : 36-50 8:1-3 (11 : 14- 23) 8 : 19-21 8:4-188:22-258:26-39 5 : 29-39 8:40-56 9: 1-6 9:7-9 3 td s- B S HARMONY OF THE LIFE OF CHEIST {continued). Period. Outline. No. 5657585960 61 62636465 66 67 6869707172737475 7677787980 8182 S3 84 Events. Place. Date. Matt. Makk. Luxe. John. a,'-The greatGalilean Ministry (oneyear and ninemonths). S Third Year. A. D. 29. - Year of Devel opment. Great Deeds amid Great Opposition. • Discourse on the bread of life .... Discourse on eating with unwashen hands. Journey toward Sidon. Heals daughter of Syrophenician wo man. Return through Decapolis, and miracles of healing. Feeding the four thousand Demanding a sign from heaven and the warning. Blind man healed Jesus for the first time foretells his death and resurrection. Bethsaida ¦ . . Sea of Galilee Gennesaret . . Capernaum. . Region of Tyre and Sidon. Decapolis. . . . a Capernaum. Sea of Galilee Bethsaida.Near Cesarea Philippi. uu Galilee.Capernaum. . Jerusalem . . . «u ftu(( it Summer 14:13-2114 : 22-33 14 : 34, 35 6:30-466 : 47-52 6 : 53-56 9:10-17 6 : 1-15 6 : 16-21 6 : 22-71 15 : 1-20 15:21-2815 : 29-31 15 : 32-39 16 : 1-12 7 : 1-23 7 : 24-30 7 : 31-37 8:1-10 8 : 11-21 8:22-268:27-308: 31 to 9:1 9 : 2-13 9 ; 14-29 9:30-329 : 13-50 16 : 13-20 16 : 21-28 17 : 1-13 17 : 14-21 17:22,2318 : 1-14 18 : 15-35 9 : 18-21 9 : 22-27 9 : 28-36 9 : 37-43 9 : 43^5 9 : 46-50 Healing of demoniac boy Jesus again foretells his death and resurrection. Jesus and the children Discourse and parable on forgiving At the Feast of Tabernacles Discourses on the water of life .... 7:1 to 10:21 7:32-44 8 : 12-59 9 : 1-39 10 : 1-21 Octoberll-18 cc C. ft <( > cc8o o The Good Shepherd uit Nov., Dec. . . . cc u cc cc ii tc cc .. " ." 19:1 10:1 9:51 10 : 1-24 10 : 25-37 11 : 1-13 11 : 14-54 12 : 1-59 Dec. A.D.29. 0 1 § Answers attacks of the Pharisees . Discourse on great moral truths. The rich fool. 6S 1 ir^hriBi^^fiK his > I March A.D.30. A. D. 29. GreatDeeds amid Great Opposition. A. D. 30. Three Months. Culmination of Miracles and Teaching. 85 919293 9495969798 99 100 101 102 103 104105 106 107108 109 110 Discourses. Galileans slain by Pi late. Barren fig-tree. Healing on the Sabbath. Parables of mustard seed and leaven. The strait gate. Lament over Jeru salem. Jesus the guest of Mary and Martha Feast of dedication. Discourses . . Jesus retires beyond Jordan Dines with a Pharisee. Discussions Parable of the great supper Counting the cost of being a dis ciple. Parables of lost sheep and lost piece of silver. Parable of prodigal son Parable of unjust steward Parable of rich man and Lazarus . . Instruction on forgiveness and faith Raising of Lazarus Jesus retires to Ephraim in north ern Judea till near the time for the Passover. The healing of the ten lepers The sudden coming of the kingdom The importunate widow. The Pharisee and the publican. Discourse about divorce Christ blesses little children The rich young ruler Parable of the laborers in the vine yard. Our Lord makes a third prediction of his death and resurrection. Ambitious request of James and John. Healing of two blind men (Barti- mens) near Jericho. Visit to Zaccheus the publican. . . . Parable of the pounds (Minae) Bethany Jerusalem . . . Perea. Bethany. . Ephraim . On borders of Samaria. Perea Jericho. cc cc cc cc December20- 27 13 : 1-35 10 : 38-42 10 : 22-39 | A. D. 30. 10 : 40-42 aa attuu 14 : 1-14 14 : 15-24 14 : 25-35 15 : 1-10 15 : 11-32 16 : 1-13 16:14-31 17 : 1-10 1 •— 1 1 w > m 11 : 1-46 11 : 47-57 Q February, March. March 17 : 11-19 17 : 20-37 18 : 1-14 * 1 ow 1 ft aituu ° 1 55 1 19 : 2-12 19 : 13-15 19 : 16-30 20 : 1-16 20 : 17-19 20 : 20-28 20 : 29-34 10 : 2-12 10 : 13-16 10 : 17-31 18 : 15-17 18 : 18-30 1 1 1 10 : 32-34 10 : 35-45 10 : 46-52 18 : 31-34 18 : 35-43 19 : 1-10 19 : 11-28 -| HARMONY OF THE LIFE OF CHBIST (continued). Period. Outline. No. Events. Place. Time. Matt. Mask. Luke. John. Friday, Mar. 31. t-i> 00 ?3 m A. D. 30. Last Day of Public Teaching. Ill112 Jesus arrives at Bethany from Jer icho. Fri.,Mar. 31. 12 : 1 . . cc Sat., April 1 26:6-13 14:3-9.... 12:2-11... 113114115 116 117118119120 121122 123124125 126 127128129130131 132133134 Triumphal entry. Visit to tem ple. Return to Bethany. Jerusalem . . . Sun., April 2 21:1-11 11 : 1-11 . . . 19:29-44.. 12:12-19.. Cleansing of the temple. Return I to Bethany. ) Mt. of Olives Jerusalem.. . Mon., April 3 cc cc 21:18,19 21:12-17 11:12-14.. 11:15-19.. (i9: 45-48 } 21 : 37, 38 The fig-tree withered. Lesson on faith. Mt. of Olives Temple at Je rusalem ccctcc cccc cccccc Mt. of Olives cc cc cc cc Jerusalem. . . Tues., Apr. 4 CC CC CC CC CC CC cc cc CC CC cc cc CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC cc .. CC CC cc cc cc CC CC 21:20-22 21 : 23-27 21 : 28-32 11:20-26.. 11:27-33.. 20: 1-8 Parable of the wicked husbandmen Parable of the marriage of the king's son. Pharisees question Jesus about trib ute. Sadducees question about resurrec tion. Lawyer questions about the great commandment. Jesus asks, "What think ye of Christ?" Woes against the scribes and Pharisees. 21 : 33-46 22 : 1-14 12:1-12... 20:9-19... 22 : 15-22 22 : 23-33 22 : 34-40 22:41-46 23:1-36,. , , 23:37-39 12:13-17..12 : 18-27 . . 12 : 28-34. . 20:20-26.. 20:27-40.. 12:35-37..12 : 38-40. . 20:41-44.. 20:45-47.. 12:41-44.. 21- 1 4 Greeks seek Jesus. Discourse .... Prophecy of overthrow of the tem ple and end of the world. 12 • 20-50 24 : i-51 25:1-13 13:1-37... 21:5-36. . . 25 : 14-30 25:31-46 Plotting of rulers. Bargain of ) Judas. ) 26:1-5 26 : 14-16 14:1,2..) 14:10,11) 22:1-6.... Bethany Wed., Apr. 5 The Last Supper. Ma q ¦-- > The Jewish Trial. The Roman Trial. 135136137 138 139 140141 142143 144145146 14714S 149 150 151152 153 154155156 157158159160 161 162 163 164 Preparation for the Passover Arrival at the upper room Strife for precedence Jesus washes the feet of his disci ples. The paschal supper Jesus declares the betrayer. Judas goes out. Institution of the Lord's Supper . . Jesus foretells the fall of Peter. . Farewell discourse of Jesus Prayer of Jesus for his disciples . . . Jesus goes forth. Peter's confi dence. The agony in the garden of Geth- semane. The betrayal The arrest Jesus led to Annas, then to Caiaphas Jesus before Caiaphas Jesus before the Sanhedrim Denials of Peter Jesus mocked by his enemies Meeting of the Sanhedrim. Jesus condemned for blasphemy. Death of Judas Jesus before Pilate ; on three charges. Jesus sent to Herod Pilate seeks to release Jesus. Jews demand Barabbas. Jesus condemned, scourged, and mocked by soldiers. Pilate again seeks to release Jesus Jesus is led away to be crucified . . The superscription First word from the cross (" Father, forgive them "). Soldiers east lots for his garments . Jerusalem . Mt. of Olives Jerusalem . Jerusalem . Thur., Apr. 6 Midnight Fri.,Apr. 7, 1-5 A. M. 5-6 9 a. . M. •! 9 A. M. 26 : 17-19. 26:20.... 26 : 21-25. 26 : 26-29. 26 : 30-35. 26:36-46.26 : 47-50. 26:50-56. 26:57,58.26 : 59-66. 26:69-75.. 26:27: 67,68.. 1,2... 27 : 3-10 . . 27 : 11-14. 27 : 15-23. 27:26-30. 27:24,25. 27 : 31-34. 27:38.... 27 : 37 . 27 : 35, 36. 14:12-16. 14:17.... 14 : 18-21 . 14:22-25. 14:26-31.. 14:32-42..14:43-45.. 14:46-52.. 14:53,54..14:55-64.. 14:66-72.. 14:65 15:1.... -j Actsl:18,1915:2-5.... 15 : 6-14. . . 15:15-19.. 15:20-23.. 15:25,27,28 15:26. 22:7-13.. 22:14....22:24-30. 22:15-18.22:21-23.22 : 19-20 22 : 31-38 22:39...- 22:40-46. 22:47,48..22 : 49-53 . . 18:4-9... 18:10-12. 22:54,55. 22 : 56-62 . 22:63-65.22 : 66-71 . :3:1 23:2-5...23:6-12..23:13-23. 23:24,25. J23: 26-32 15 : 24. 23:38....23:33,34.23 : 34. . . . 13:1-20... 13:21-35.. (1 Cor. 11 : 23-25) . . . 13:36-38.. chaps. 14- 16 17:1-26... 18:1-3.... 18:13-15. 18:19-24. 18: 15-18 18 : 25-27 18 : 28- 18:38-40.19:1-3...19 : 4-16. . 19:16-18. 19:19-22. 19:23,24. HABMOMTT OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST (continued). Period. Outline. No. 165166 167168169 170 171 172 173174175 Events. Place. Time. Matt. Mare. Luke. John. HH»> -w w Friday,Apr. 7. The Crucifixion. Jews mock at Jesus on the cross . . Second word (the penitent thief) . . Third word ("Woman, behold thy son "). Fourth word (cry of distress to God). Fifth word (" I thirst ") Jerusalem . . . cc cc cc cc .1 a 9 A. m. 12 m. 3 P. M. 3-6 p. m. 27 : 39-44 15:29-32.. 23:35-37..23 • 39-43 . 19 • 25-27 . . 27:45 27 : 46, 47 27 : 48, 49 15:33 15:34,35.. 23:44,45. 15 -36. 19:28,29..19 -30. Seventh word (" Into thy hands," etc.). Jesus dies. Veil rent. Earthquake Jesus is pierced with a spear in the side. The burial. The watch at the se pulchre. 23-46. . 27:50-56 15 : 37-41 . . 23:45,46-49 19:30.19-31-37.. 27:57-66,... 15:42-47.. 23:50-56.. 19:38-42.. W Hqa1o ot)>¦ h!CO The Resur rection. 176177 178 179 ISO 1S1 182183 184 185186 The morning of the resurrection . . Women come to the sepulchre .... Mary Magdalene calls Peter and John. The women at the sepulchre Peter and John go to the sepulchre Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene ¦ The guard report to the priests . . . Jesus appears to two on the way to Emmaus. Jerusalem. . . cccc cccc cc cc Emmaus .... Jerusalem. . . Sun., April 9 cc cc cc cc cc cc EC CC c cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc 28:2-4 28:1 16:1-4.... 24:1,2.... 20 • 1 20-2 28:5-8 16:5-8.... 24:3-8 24:12 20-3 10 16 : 9-11 . . . 20: 11-18. . 28:9, 10 24 : 9-1 1 . 28:11-15 16 : 12, 13. . (1 Cor. 15: 5) 16:14. 24 : 13-35 He appears to the apostles except Thomas. (1 Cor. 15:5).. 24:36-48.. 20:19-23.. 187 He appears to all the apostles in cluding Thomas. Jerusalem . . . Sun., April 16 20:24-29.. 188 189 190 He appears to seven in Galilee .... He appears to a multitude, more than 500. Sea of Galilee cc - 21-1 23 April, May . . 28: 16-20 (1 Cor. 15: 7).. 16:15-18.. (1 Cor. 15: 6) The Ascension. Continued Life. 191192 193194 195 196 197198 He appears to all the apostles. . The ascension Conclusions of Mark and John. Holy spirit given. Pentecost. Jesus appears to Paul Jesus appears to John Jesus our high priest in heaven . New heaven and earth, where Jesus reigns. Jerusalem . Bethany. .. Jerusalem. Damascus . Patmos . . . . Thur.,MaylS Sun., May 28 A. D. 37--- A. D. 68 or 96 (Acts 1:1-8).. (Acts 1:9-12). (Acts 2: 1-11). (Acts 22: 6-16) (Rev. 1:9-20). (Heb. 9 : 11-28) (Rev. 21 : 1-27) 16: 19. 16:20. 24:49....24:50-53. 20 : 30, 31 . 21:24,25. EXPLANATIONS. MARGINAL REFERENCES. The Marginal References are those prepared under the supervision of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge, and completed in 189S, for their Revised Version. The marginal references given in the original edition of the Authorized Version of 1611 have been retained as far as possible, and the Contributors have availed themselves largely of the references in Dr. Scrivener's Paragraph Bible, which they were instructed to make the basis of their work. The references given may be arranged under the following heads : — 1. Quotations, or exact verbal parallels. 2. Passages referred to for similarity of idea or of expression. 3. Passages referred to by way of explanation or illustration. 4. Historical and Geographical references: — names of persons, places, etc., which recur. 5. Passages referred to as illustrating differences of rendering between the Authorized and Revised Versions. The following modes of indication have been used : — 1. A simple index letter is employed, when there is an exact or close parallel between the pas- 2. " Cited," or '" Cited from," is prefixed to cases of actual quotation. 3. " Cp." (compare) is prefixed to references, when the parallel is less exact. 4. " See " is prefixed : — (a) When reference is made to a parallel passage, on which a body of references has been collected : (6) In referring to longer passages, parallel or explanatory. When one longer passage is given as a parallel to another of similar length, the mode of indication is "For &c, see &c." 5. "' al." (= alibi, elsewhere) is added to indicate that all the parallel passages are not given. 6. " (?) " is placed after a reference, when its appropriateness is doubtful. 7. " (mg.)," " (& mg.)," " (for mg.)," " (mg. for rug.)" are used when references relate solely or partly to the Revisers' marginal renderings. THE COMBINED TEXT. In order to have the two Versions before the reader in the most convenient form, the text used combines them both. It presents in a single line and in large, clear type the texts of the Authorized and Revised Versions, where said texts are alike. Where they are unlike, either in language, spell ing, italicization, capitalization, parenthesis, punctuation, or otherwise, the difference is ns Oharac- clearly and at once set forth by means of double lines of smaller type, making a readily teristics. and easily readable combined text. Thus, direct and instant comparisons of the respective texts are assured, and all complexities and imperfections are avoided. Both eye and mind are instantly, and as fast as one can read, addressed to every difference of the two versions. The plan is so simple and easy that young children have read from the Linear Parallel Bible at family prayers with no difficulty whatever. To read the Authorized Version, one has but to read the large type line along how i0 yse to any point of difference in the respective versions, and then follow the upper small the Text. type line through such difference. Likewise, to read the Revised Version, one has but to read the large type line along to any difference in the respective versions, and then follow the lower small type line through such difference. This rule holds as to every difference, even to that of a comma. Thus, not only the readings but the comparisons of the two versions become easy, immediate, satis factory, and perfect. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW. CHAPTER 1. Section I. — THE HUMAN ANCESTRY OF JESUS. 1:1-17. ( 1. From Abraham to David. The Three Periods : 1 2. From David to the Exile. ' 3. From the Exile to Jesus the Christ. Notes on the Genealogies. Practical Suggestions. 1 The book of the a generation of Je'sus Christ, b the son of Da'vid, ° the son of A'bra-h&m* a Cp. Luke 3. 23-38. 6 2 Sam. 7. 12-16. Ps. 132. 11. Iaai. 11. 1 Jer. 23. 5. Luke 1. 32, 69. John 7. 42. Acts 2. 30 & 13. 23. Rom. 1. 3. 2 Em. 2. 8. Rev. 22. 16. c Gen. 22. 18. Gal. 3. 16. Cp. Rom. 9. 5. The Gospel, — evayye\tov (ev, well, as in well done, and ayyeAos, messenger, whence our word angel). It "signifies originally a present given in return for joyful news. Thus Homer makes Ulys ses say to Eumaeus,' Let this reward, euayyeAioK, be given me for my good news ' (Od. XIV. 152). Later it comes to mean the good news itself — the joyful tidings of Messiah's kingdom." 1 Our Eng lish word Gospel is compounded either of good and spell (=story, news) " the good news ; " or God (which is short for Good) and spell, God's story, or word, or news. It is good news from God or the story about God, what he has done to bless and save men. According to Matthew. It is not the Gospel of Matthew, but God's Gospel, God's Good News, as witnessed and recorded by Matthew. 1. The book of the generation. "The book of Origin, the title of the genealogy which follows in vers. 2-16. The evangelist adopted the genealo gical piece of writing . . . without alteration as he found it, and with its title also." 2 Of Jesus Christ. Jesus was his individual name ; Christ his official name. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua (Jehovah is Salvation). Joshua of Hebrew history was the captain who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, and gained the victory over all their enemies. Hence his name is a fitting one for the Son of Mary, named Jesus, " for he shall save his people from their sins," ver. 21 ; " and he shall reign over the house of David for ever," Luke 1 : 33. Christ, an adjective afterwards become a proper name meaning Anointed, is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah; one set apart for some special work by Anointing, used especially of kings, prophets, and priests- It was the title of Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King, all of which offices were included in the Messiah. Before this time it came to be the pop ular designation of the promised Messiah, the expected Deliverer, Redeemer, and King. Anoint ing is frequently applied to Jesus in the record of his life. He was anointed as a guest, as a mark of honor. " Anointing was an act of hospitality, and a sign of festivity and cheerfulness." "Jesus as the Great Physician is described by Isaiah (61 : 1, 2, compare Luke 4 : 18) as Anointed by God to bind up the broken-hearted, and to give the mournful the oil of joy for mourning." 8 The son of David. Two Greek words are used almost interchangeably for son or child, vios, son, and tckvov, child, one born. This last is never applied to Christ, but only "Son." For, while tckvov lays emphasis on " the fact of descent, of being born from," vtds emphasizes the "privi lege, dignity, and freedom " of sonship. Hence this same word is used to express the relationship of Christians as sons of God (Rom. 8 : 14 ; Gal. 3: 26). The son of David the king, and therefore heir to his throne, and the inheritor of God's pro mises to him that he would " stablish the throne of his kingdom forever " (2 Sam. 7 : 13-16). The son of Abraham. Therefore a true Jew 1 Prof. Marvin R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 2 Prof. H. A. W. Meyer, Th. D. 3 Prof. Marvin R. Vincent. * The parallel text of the two versions is from Holman's Parallel Linear Bible, by permission. 2 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 1: 2-11. 2 ''.A'bra-ham begat I'gaac ; And ' I'gaac begat Ja'cob ; And ¦>' Ja'cob begat JuS and his brethren ; o And „Ju'das l-.on.Q+ Pha'res j Za'ra ..f Tha'mar; o and Jn'dah Degat re'rez ana Ze'rah Ol Ta'mar ; And K&f begat gSS¥S.;s And SSron begat i2£m; 4AndA'ram "U£irro+ A-min'a-dab : and Kam UtJg cl I Am-min'a-dab ; A n/1 A-min'a-dab v.Q™„+ Na-as'son; iilia Am-min'a-dab Dcgat Hah'shon ; And Sf'shoS begat SaTmSn ; 5 £2f SaTmSn begat pil of " £8$ ' And Z'°4 begat O'bed of Ruth ; And O'bed begat JSs'se ; 6 tnd * J6s'se begat Da'yid the king: Sna-'Da'vid thekins begat Sol'o-mon of* her that had been the wife of frfl'an'; 7 tod ! S51'o-nion begat b2$£S$SJ., A-~,q Ro-bo'am v./-.r»-r.-i- A-bi'a; Ana Ke-ho-bo'am Begat ji-bi'jah ; And AAw'iah begat A'sa; 8 iSi A'sa begat ,l&tt$h ¦. And jeJhossh^hpnat begat Jo'ram ; And"1 Jo'ram begat uzlT'lh; 9 And O-zi'as y. ~~Q f Jo'a-thain ; and Uz-zi'ah Ucgtll Jo'tham; kr,A Jo'a-tham i>.mi A'chaz; AnO Jo'tham Degat A'haz; A„,q A'chaz l,„„.,,± Ez-e-ki'as: Ana A'haz Degai Hez-e-ki'ah; ! (\ And Ez-e-ki'as V*acrat Ma-nas'ses; IV and Hez-e-ki'ah Ucgdl Ma-nas'seh; And KaKlh begat A'mon ; And A'mon begat jS-tf'ah • 11 iSi '%£& begat -gtS and his brethren, aba°tut the time th0Uere 'SSSSi away to B3b'y-lon| d Gen. 21. 3. e Gen. 25. 26. / Gen. 29. 35. <7 Cp. Ruth 4. 18-22 & 1 Chr. 2. 1-15. A Josh. 6. 25. i 1 Sam. 16. 1 & 17. 12. j 2 Sam. 12. 24. £ 2 Sam. 12. 10. I For ver. 7-10, see 1 Chr. 3. 10-14. m Cp. 2 Kin. 15. 1 & 1 Chr. 3. 11, 12. n 1 Chr. 3. 15, 16. o Esth. 2. 6. Jer. 24. 1 & 27. 20. and inheritor of the promises made to Abraham, ered with four remarkable changes in four imme- and the means by which they were fulfilled, for diate generations. "in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be " (1) Roboam begat Abia ; that is, a bad father blessed," and that seed shall be "as the stars of begat a bad son. heaven " (Gen. 22: 17, 18). " (2) Abia begat Asa ; that is, a bad father a 2-17. In the Authorized Version the names in good son. this list are the Greek forms of Hebrew names as " (3) Asa begat Jehoshaphat ; that is, a good ordinarily used by the people who first read the father a good son. Gospels, just as we say Florence for the Italian " (4) Josaphat begat Joram; that is, a good city Firenze, Leghorn for Livorno, or New York father a bad son. for the Latin Novum Eboraeum, or William for " I see from hence that my father's piety cannot Gulielmus. be entailed ; that is bad news for me. But I see, The Revision, as given in the text above, uses also, that actual impiety is not always hereditary ; the forms common in the Old Testament, so that that is good news for my son." 1 they may be recognized as the same. Four women are named in this genealogy, — 7, 8. Eoboam, Abia, Asa, Josaphat. — "I Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. It has find the genealogy of my Saviour strangely check- been noticed that two of these were of heathen 1 Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times. 1: 12-17 MATTHEW 13 14 15 12 And after SFcEEMy to B&b'y-lon, * ffiS begat * SSM A-nrl r Sa-la'tlii-el !-.„„„ f Zo-rob'a-bel : Ana Sbe-al'ti-el Oegat Ze-rub'ba-bel ; i2£$££®&& begat 1-bfud ; And A-bi'ud begat E-li'a-klm ; And E-li'a-kim begat A'zQr ; and A'z6r begat Sa'dfic ; and Sa'd5e begat A'chim ; And A'chim begat E-li'ud ; and1 E-li'ud begat E-le-a'zar ; And E-le-a'zar begat M&t'than ; And Mat'than begat Ja'cob ; 16 tnd Ja'cob begat s Jo'geph the husband of Ma'ry, of whom was born Je'sus, who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from A'bra-ham unto Da'vid are fourteen generations ; and from Da'vid {Sto the carrying away mo° B&b'y-lon are ' fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away m0° B&b'y-lon unto the Christ an fourteen genera tions. p 1 Chr. 3. 17-19. q Luke 3. 27. r Ezra 3. 2. s Luke 3. 23. t ch. 2. 4 & 11. 2 & 16.16 & 22. 42 &23. 10. Mark 8. 29. Luke 3. 15. John 1.20, a!. Cp. John 1. 41 & 4. 25. descent, and three had some scandal connected with their youth. It is not so often noticed that they all became good and faithful, and that there were many more bad men than women. So natu ral is it for some to see the fly in the precious ointment and fail to perceive its perfume ; to note the caterpillar and not to notice its change into the butterfly. Any long line of ancestry will have some bad links in it. And it was fitting that He who " was tempted like as we are," and came "to save that which is lost, should have the evil as well as the good in his ancestry." 12. Jechonias begat Salathiel. Jehoiachin had no children of his own; " write ye this man childless " (Jer. 22 : 30). Salathiel was the son of Neri (Luke), but heir to Jehoiachin.1 17. Fourteen generations. The genealogy of Jesus is here arranged in three groups of 14 members each. This form may have been adopted in the records to assist the memory. In order to make each group to consist of exactly 14 generations, some of the names of lesser impor tance were left out, as can be seen by comparing these lists with those recorded in 1 Chron. 3 and Luke 3. This is perfectly natural, especially in records of royal descent. We often speak of a person as the descendant of some noted ancestor omitting intervening obscure persons with whom it is not worth while to burden the memory ; just as in travelling over a country we stop at only the chief places and take no note of the small towns through which the train passes. It is a practice familiar to readers of Jewish antiquities. The Three Groups of Fourteen corre spond to three distinct periods of Jewish history, to three stages in their development, and their three forms of government. First Group. From Abraham to David ; the Patriarchal period ; the government by theo cracy. About 900 years, from r. c. 1996 to 1085 (according to Ussher's chronology). Second Group. From David to the Exile. The Monarchy. About 500 years, E. c 1085 to 586. Third Group. From Jeconiah (the king of the Exile) to Jesus. The hierarchy or gov ernment by the priests, subordinate to other kingdoms. About 580 years, from E. c 586-5. The Two Genealogies. Besides the gen ealogy in Matthew we have another in Luke, which differs in several respects. Luke goes back to Adam, Matthew only to Abraham. From David, Luke's genealogy branches off to another line, Matthew apparently giving the royal succes sion, in the line of kings, and Luke the actual descent, the family pedigree ; or else Matthew gives the line of Joseph, the legal succession, and Luke the line of Mary, the actual descent of Jesus through her from David. Note 1. " The actual Davidic descent of Jesus is established as certain by the predictions of the prophets, which, in reference to so essen tial a mark of the Messiah, could not remain Rev. A. Carr, in Cambridge Bible. THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 1: 17 without fulfilment ; as well as by the unanimous testimony of the New Testament." * Note 2. That Joseph was not the actual father of Jesus is plainly stated by both Mat thew and Luke, and implied in the genealogies themselves, Matthew saying only that Joseph was the husband of Mary, and Luke begins his genealogy by speaking of Jesus as "being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph." Note 3. It can scarcely be imagined, much less is it within the bounds of probability, that any author of any age should flatly contradict himself in two successive paragraphs referring to the same thing. In some way the genealogies must agree in his mind with the statements that Jesus was the son of Mary, an actual descendant of David, and that Joseph was only his putative father. Note 4. The most probable theory is that entertained by a large number of the best com- (According to Matthew) Jacob I I Mary (?) Or " Jacob and Heli probably married in suc cession the same wife," according to the Jewish levirate law (Deut. 25: 5-10), " and Joseph, who was the true son of one, was the legal heir of the other." » PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. What is the use of this dry list of hard names — this long ancestral pedigree ? It has several important uses, so important that two of the evangelists give considerable space to these genealogies. It is often true in our experience that from things hard and dry and unpromising come most precious truths and unexpected bless ings; as gold comes from the coarse rock; as vast fortunes have depended on family registers and town records ; as some of the most practical scien tific discoveries have come from the driest groups of facts ; as a great geode, a dull-appearing stone, mentioned by Professor Vincent in the preface to his Word Studies, on being broken disclosed a mass of crystals arranged in the form of a cross. And he has succeeded in his hope " to break the shell of the words, of life, and to lay bare their hidden jewels," and "help others to » clearer vision of that cross which is the centre and glory of the gospel." 2. One advantage of this genealogy is that it is one of the stones in the arch of the proof that mentators, that the table in Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, as the visible representative of the family and regarded by his contemporaries as the father of Jesus, and exhibits him as the heir to the throne of David and inheritor of the promises and Messianic prophecies ; while the table in Luke gives the genealogy of Mary, and shows Jesus to be the actual son of David. The advocates of this view render Luke 3 : 23, " Jesus being the son (as was supposed of Joseph) of Heli," the change being simply in the place of the parenthesis. Jesus, according to this reading, is a grandson of Heli, Mary's father, and thus a lineal descendant of David. Note 5. Another theory is that " both gene alogies show Joseph's descent," and are in fact equally genealogies of Mary's family. "Prob ably Joseph was the son of Heli and the heir to Jacob. It is conjectured with much probability that Jacob was Mary's father. Matthan or Matthat I Heli (according to Luke) it* I ~~ Joseph 2 Jesus is the Messiah, the One foretold in the Scriptures : he comes as a, part of the Divine Providence which has been working through the ages for the redemption of man. It confirms our faith, and enlarges our vision. 3. In this line of Jesus' ancestry were a great variety of people of different races, of different characters, very bad and very good, and differ ent talents and conditions in life, " all classes and conditions of men." He is " the heir of all the ages." Everything good and bad that belongs to human nature was among the influences that affected him. He belongs to the race. Thus he can be "the son of man." He was " tempted like as we are, yet without sin." He is able to enter into the whole extent of human experience,, and to sympathize with every struggle to over come hereditary foes within, as well as enemies without. We can recognize his victory, and know that the same is possible for us, and that we have his sympathy, forgiving love, and upward help. 4. " We inherit from thousands, from hundreds of thousands of ancestors. The blood of many families and tribes and races is mingled in our veins. . . . There are many potential men in every man, and which of them is to emerge he chooses for himself by a thousand silent mora) preferences."4 1 H. A. W. Meyer in his Com. on Matthew. 2 See Cambridge Bible. 3 For fuller discussion of this question, see Int. Crit. Com. on Luke 3 : 23 ; the article by Dr. B. W. Bacon in Hastings1 Bib. Die, art. " Genealogy of Jesus Christ," from the more advanced critical point of view. Prof. John D. Davis, Dictionary of the Bible, Lord A. Hervey's The Genealogies of our Lord, and the article by him in Smith's Bible Dictionary ; andGodet's Com. on Luke. 4 Prof. Henry Van Dyke, D. D., The Gospel for era Age of Doubt, "Liberty." See, also, Heredity and Christian Problems, by Amory H. Bradford, D. D. 1 : 18, 19. MATTHEW. Section II. — THE BIRTH OF JESUS. HIS DIVINE ORIGIN. 1:18-25. Mary the Mother op Jesus. The Angelic Message to Joseph. The Name, Jesus. The Prophecy op Immanuel. The Birth of Jesus. Who he was before he came into the world. Dates.1 The Annunciation to Mary, spring of B. c. 5. The Angel's appearance to Joseph, early sum mer, B. c. 5. The Birth of Jesus, probably in December, B. c. 5, four years before our Christian era ; for December 25, B. c. 5, is only one week short of January 1, B. c. 4. Places. The Announcements, at Nazareth. The Birth of Jesus, at Bethlehem. 18 IT Now the birth of " Je'sus Christ was on this wise : " When as his mother Ma'ry lmdTem'SItrouied to Joseph, before they came together' she was found with child"' of the Holy Ghost. 19 in™ Jo'geph her husband, being a rigSlouTman, and not willing x to make her a pubil? example, was minded to put her away privily. Mver. 1. ch. 16. 21 (mg.). Mark 1. 1. John 1. 17 & 17. 3. Cp. ver. 16. uLukel.27. wLukel.35. xCp. Deut. 24. 1. President G. Stanley Hall in a recent lecture said that, calculating in geometrical ratio — two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grand parents — he had 20,000,000 ancestors, counting back to the time of William the Conqueror. The best of all is that we have God himself for our ancestor, as Luke says, " The son of Adam, the son of God." We can choose what, of all we inherit, we will follow and strengthen. Jesus chose the good and rejected the bad in his inheritance from his human past, and we can do the same. Imperfec tions in our ancestry do not shut the door of hope. 5. From some names in this list we learn that those who have sinned, and fallen very low, may yet gain the victory, and have part in the coming of the kingdom of God. 18. When bis mother Mary. — (1) Her name. Mary, or Miriam, being the name of the great sister of Moses, was one of the most common of Jewish female names. — Sadler. (2) Lineage. Very little is told us of Mary's parentage, but it is continually implied that she was of the royal line of David. She was a kins woman of Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist (1 : 36), and she had a sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas (John 19 : 25). (3) Her home was in Nazareth of Galilee. (4) Circumstances. It is implied in the Gos pels that she was in humble circumstances ; per haps an orphan, as nothing is said of her family. She was doubtless quite young, as girls were be trothed at an early age. She was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth. Some think he was a widower, and that " the brethren of the Lord" were his children by a former marriage; others that these brethren were her own chil dren. (5) Appearance. Tradition, not very well founded, says that Mary was of middle height, fair complexion, blonde hair, light hazel eyes. She was beautiful, without pride, simple, serious, and earnest. She delighted to sing the Psalms of David ; and all loved her for her kindness and modesty. Was espoused. Had been betrothed to Joseph. Betrothal in the East was almost as sacred as marriage itself. The union could be dissolved only by some act of divorce. " Unfaithfulness on the part of the woman was deemed adul tery." Found with child of the Holy Ghost. The details of this event, the annunciation to Mary, and the song of Mary, are recorded in Luke 1 : 26-56. The statement is very clear that the father of Jesus was God, and Jesus was in a peculiar manner the Son of God, in both his divine and human nature. 19. Joseph her husband, being a just man. 1 The dates given are those of Andrew's Life of Christ, as on the whole the best, but it makes almost no differ ence in the practical value of the Life of Christ whether that be the exact date, or whether Prof. Ramsay and Mr. THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 1 : 20, 21 20 But When he thought on these things, behold/ a„e angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Jo'seph, thou son of Da'vid, fear not to take unto thee Ma'ry thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Ho'ty Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son; and z thou shalt call his name je'Ss™: for it is "he that shall save his people from their sins. y ch. 2. 13, 19. Cp. ch. 2. 12, 22. Cp. Acts 3. 26. z ver. 25. Luke 1. 31 & 2. 21. a Luke 2. 11. Acts 4. 12 & 5. 31 & 13. 23, i A righteous man, one who wanted to do exactly right. The case was perplexing, and there was a conflict in Joseph's mind as to what was right both for Mary and for the community. A con flict also between love, mercy, and tenderness on the one hand, and justice on the other. As a just and honorable man, he could not take to his home one who had apparently fallen so low ; and yet he was not willing to make her a public example. His inclination and desire was not to "expose her to public shame ; " "he did not wish to compromise her, as would be the result had he given her a letter of divorce." 1 Was minded. The Greek word denotes not merely intention, but "a carefully weighed self- determination " ! to put her away privily, se cretly, "by means of a private interview, without a letter of divorce." 1 Oras others, he would not proceed to a public trial, but secretly give her a writing of divorce to protect her, according to the Jewish law. " There would probably be something so pure, and sweet, and elevated in the character of Mary, that Joseph, even under the influence of irritation and the deepest disappoint ment, would feel himself unable to entertain the idea of proceeding against her to the utmost ex tremity of the law. His heart would be filled with mingled surprise, sadness, and compas sion." 2 Note. That in full view of this danger of es trangement from her betrothed, and of loss of reputation from her friends, and even of public trial as a criminal, Mary accepted this trust in joyous faith, shows her to be preeminently a heroine of sublime faith and perfect consecration, worthy of the mother of the Saviour, " Who above all mothers shone, The mother of the Blessed One." 20. While he thought on these things. Both justice and wisdom would lead him to do nothing hastily, but to turn the matter over in his mind till he had seen it on all sides, in all its bearings. The (better " an ") angel of the Lord, a mes senger from God, appeared unto him in a dream. " That is, while Joseph was in a state of uncon sciousness in relation to the material side of things. Insensibility had barred, for the time being, the gateways that communicated with the outer world, the gateways of his senses ; but his mind was inwardly thrown open to spiritual agencies and influences." 2 E'ear not to take unto thee Mary. The angel affirms that Mary's story was true. It would be neither merciful nor just to put her away under these circumstances. Bather his soul should be full of joy. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, " Salvation of Jehovah." See under verse 1. The people would naturally think of his three great predecessors in their his tory: (1) Joshua, the glorious leader of the an cient people into the Promised Land and con queror of their enemies, — a type of Jesus as King and Deliverer. (2) Joshua, the high priest, aided in bringing back the exiles from Babylon and in building the temple and restoring the worship of God. In the vision of Zechariah he was the representative, in filthy garments, of sinning and suffering Israel ; but in token of the restoration and redemption of his people God commands him to be clad in clean, rich and splendid robes, and crowned with the priestly mitre, — " a brand plucked from the fire," — a type of the priestly office of cleansing from sin. (3) Hoshea, the original name of Joshua, and the same as Hosea the prophet, means "saving." He was the prophet of grace and salvation from sin through a sad experience of devoted love, foreshadowing the patience and forbearing love of God to sin ners, — a type of the prophetic office and work of Jesus. Shall save his people from their sins, — "from both the consequences and the dominion, both the penalty and the power, of their sins. Messiah did not come, as the Jews commonly sup posed he would, simply to save his people from the dominion of foreigners ; it was something deeper and higher, to save them from their sins. And not to save them in their sins, but from their sins." a "They cannot save themselves. Once in the Lewin are right in making it B. c. 6. There are several dates advocated. See Prof. Ramsay's Was Christ born in Bethlehem? the article in the Hastings' Bib. Die., Lewin's Fasti Saeri, Prest. Rush Rhees' Life of Jesus, Andrew's Life of Our IjOrd. 1 Meyer. 2 James Morison, D. D. a Prof. J. A. Broadus, D. D. 1 : 22, 23. MATTHEW. 22 Now » all this is c™ldtonpass, c that it might be fulfilled which was spoken & the Lord through the prophet, saying, 23 d Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name6 fin-SSe!1- which i8, being interpreted, i8' God-' with us. b ch. 21. 4 & 26. 56. John 19. 36. c ch. 2. 15, 23 & 4. 14. Mark 14. 49. John 13. 18, al. 7. 14. e Isai. 8. 8, 10. / See ch. 28. 20. d Cited from Isai. power of their sins they are like Laocoon within the coils of the serpents ; their case is hopeless unless a Saviour interpose."1 The only possible way of saving either individuals or nations is by first saving them from their sins. His people. All who are saved from sin are his people. All his people are saved from their sins. From their sins (ajuapTtui/). The word for sin here is akin to a verb which means missing the mark, " as a warrior who throws his spear, and fails to strike his adversary, or as a traveller who misses his way (see Homer's Iliaa\, IX. 501 ; Soph ocles, CEdipus Tyr annus, 621). In this word, therefore, one of a large group which represent sin under different phases, sin is conceived as a failing and missing the true end and scope of our lives, which is God." 2 22, 23. All this was done, rather, has come to pass. That it might be fulfilled, completely accom plished. Spoken of, by, the Lord, Jehovah, as the author, by, through, the prophet, as the means of communication. The prophet was Isaiah (7 : 14). That, in order that, with this design. The Greek particle (1W) according to the best scholars never means " so that," expressing merely a re sult or effect, but "in order that," expressing de sign and purpose, the purpose here being, not that of Joseph, but of God. It was part of God's plan. Certain things were necessary for the sal vation of the world. Therefore God planned and purposed them. They were foretold and typified because he had planned them. He guided their fulfilment because they were both what he wanted and what he had foretold. 23. Behold a virgin shall be with child. The circumstances of this typical sign are re corded in Isaiah 7 : 1-16. Ahaz, king of Judah, and his kingdom were in sore trouble. The north ern kingdom, Israel, and the king of Syria had formed an alliance to stop the inroads of Assyria, and demanded that Ahaz, king of Judah, should join them. Ahaz refused. Then these two north ern nations sent their armies like " smoking fire brands" upon Judah, "and the king's heart shook, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest shake before the wind." Isaiah, bear ing the word of the Lord, bade the king of Judah take heart, for his enemies should be destroyed. And to confirm the king's faith he gives him a sign, that before a young woman could have a child, and the child grow up to know enough to choose between good and evil, — that is, within three years, — both the allied kings they feared would be destroyed. They were, in fact, so de stroyed by the Assyrians. The child was named Immanuel (God with us), and was a living proof, a continual sign, a growing sermon to the people, that God was with them in unceasing love and salvation. But this did not exhaust the meaning even to Judah in Ahaz's time. God was with them all through their history, as he had promised. And this promise was their light and comfort even in their darkest times. " Each victory, each deliver ance, prefigured Messiah's work." " It is hardly possible not to connect his name with the child who was to be ' the Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father' of Isai. 9:6; with the Rod and Branch of the Stem of Jesse that was to grow up and present the picture of an ideal king (Isai. 11 : 1-9). All that we speak of as the Messianic hopes of the prophet clus tered round the child Immanuel." 8 This Immanuel was the sign and type of a greater Immanuel, who was to bring a greater deliverance, a child born that would forever be the assurance that God is with us ; as a dawning ray is the sign and the type of the rising sun, as the bud predicts the flower, and the seed the fruit ; the very structure of fruit and flower being dis cernible in the seed and the bud. Jesus actually fulfilled this type. He was " the brightness of the Father's glory, the express im age of his person ; " he expressed God's love and grace and goodness. He was a perfect revelation of God to man.4 It is not probable that Isaiah saw all that was enfolded in his prediction. But it was there, and God saw it. So we believe in the millennial days and.the New Jerusalem ; we " Clothe the waste with dreams of grain And on the midnight sky of rain Paint the golden morrow." But there will be a thousand things fulfilled in Morison. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. Prof. Philip Schaff, D. D. 4 See Dr. Van Dyke's Gospel for an A ge of Doubt, "The Gospel of a Person," and " The Unveiling of the Father." 8 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 1 : 24, 25. 24 S? Jo'geph beiK!8ed from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord ££££!ffii him, and took unto him his wife; 25 and knew her not till she had brought forth his name J5s!s.s- g ver. 21. her firstborn son : and » he called that day which we cannot see in the promise, nor could we understand them if put into words. But God sees, and will fulfil it to the utmost. " And God shall make divinely real The highest forms of thy ideal." 24. Joseph . . . took unto him his wife. He sheltered her from suspicion ; he showed his perfect confidence in her. 25. And knew her not. Showing that not he, but the Holy Spirit, was the father of Jesus. Brought forth her firstborn son. R. V., brought forth a son ; but of course he was her firstborn. The circumstances of the removal of Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem the city of David, the manger-cradle, the angel's song, and the visit of the shepherds, are desciibed in Luke 2 : 1-20. WHO JESUS WAS BEFOBE HE CAME INTO THIS WORLD. In order to understand Jesus Christ our Sav iour, and the meaning of his coming, we need to know who he was before he came. ^Gmt" °f We learn from John 1:1-3, and Heb. 1:2, 3, that he was existent from eternity, that he " was with God, and was God," "the very image of his substance," the Eternal Son of God. By him the worlds were created. From his glorious home he came to this world to reveal to us our Father in heaven, to express his infinite love, to bring us messages of forgiveness and hope, to give his life in atonement for our sins, to redeem the world from sin to holiness and heaven. Nothing better than this has ever been conceived by man. The divine nature of Christ is not a mere theory, far away from human life, but is a fact essential Practical *° one w^° would reveal God to men, Value of a and be the Saviour of men. He dwme speaks to us from personal knowledge of God, of his love, his care, his readiness to forgive, his nearness to men, his fatherhood. He tells us about heaven and im mortal life from his own experience. Only the Son of God could possibly make atonement for sin. Only he could have power to save us at all times and in all places, to be our ever-present friend, our perfect example, our infallible guide. Only God is wise enough and good enough to save us. Only a divine Saviour can lead to vic tory over all the forces of evil ; only he could make atonement for sin ; only he could repre sent God truly to us ; only he be forever before us as our ideal, leading us onward and upward through eternity. On the other hand, he must be human, in order that he might "be tempted like as we are yet without sin.' Thus he reaches The Neces- down to our human experiences, and sity of a we may realize his sympathy and human friendship ; he must be God visible ; he must hold up before us a perfect human ex ample ; he must gain the victory in the same bat tle which we are waging. The top of the ladder of Salvation, like that of Jacob's dream, must reach heaven and God, but the base must be on earth. If Christ were only divine, we could not realize him. If he were not divine, our love and service of him would lead us away from God, and not towards him. To love and serve such a leader and Saviour would be idolatry, and lead us away from God, were he not God himself ; but now all our love for Jesus is love for God. The Mysteby of the Union of God and Man in One Person, Jesus the Christ. — We cannot explain how this can be, but we can prove that it is possible and reasonable by a similar mystery in ourselves. For each of us is a union of body and soul in one person. This is a fact ; but before it became a fact it would seem contra dictory and unthinkable that the immaterial spirit should unite with matter, that the two should be distinct, and yet form one person. Every difficulty involved in " God dwelling in the man Christ Jesus," two and yet one person, some times spoken of as separate, sometimes as the same, is illustrated in our own persons, and solved there, that being said of the whole which is true only of the soul (as that we are immortal), or again true only of the body (as that we are sick, or die). 2: 1 MATTHEW. CHAPTER 2. .Section III. — THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF JESUS. 1. Eight Lines of Preparation of the World for the Coming of the Messiah. 2. The Date of the Birth of Jesus. 3. The Visit of the Wise Men. ¦1. The Star in the East. 5. The Flight into Egypt. 6. The Massacre of The Innocents. 7. The Return to Nazareth. 8. The Home Training of Jesus for His Great Work. Time. Birth of Jesus, probably Dec. 25, B. c. 5. Visit of the Wise Men, Feb. E. o. 4. Jesus in the temple, his first Passover, Ap. A. D. 9. Home in Nazareth, E. c. 2, to A. D. 26. Place. Born at Bethlehem of Judea. Home in Nazareth. Rulers. Augustus, Emperor of Roman Empire. Herod the Great, King of Judea under Rome. 1. PREPARATIONS OP THE WORLD FOB THE COMING OP THE MESSIAH. There has been no other time in the history of the world so perfectly adapted for the beginning of the kingdom, and the spreading of the news of salvation throughout the earth, as that in which Christ was born. (1) It was after the Jews had received all that they would about God's kingdom, but before the breaking up and scattering of the nation by the fall of their capital and the temple. (2) There were many lands, but nearly all the world was subject to the one government at Rome, so that the preachers of the gospel could travel in safety, and be protected in their work. Roman roads made for their legions were a high way for the gospel, and the Roman soldiers were a guard for its preachers.1 (3) The world was at peace, for almost the only time, so that the gospel could have free course. The doors of the Temple of Janus at Rome were shut. " No war or battle sound Was heard the world around." (4) The Greek language, the most perfect medium of human speech, was spoken every where with the native languages, so that the gospel could be heard and read by all. The con quests of Alexander, which diffused the Greek language, the Greek civilization, and Greek learn ing throughout the East, were a marvellous providential preparation for the gospel. (5) The Bible of the Jews had been translated into the Greek language in the third century before Christ. This version is called the Septua- gint. Thus for some centuries the Greek language was being prepared to express the divine message to man. (6) The Jews had been dispersed through all lands carrying the Old Testament, which bore witness to one God, and held the prophecies of the Messiah. And they had established syna gogues in almost every town, so that there was a place in which to preach the gospel, and a people who could easily be reached. (7) It was a time of great intellectual activity. It was an era of literature and learning. "Diodorus Siculus, the Greek historian, and Strabo, the Greek geographer (b. o. 54 to A. D. 24), Ovid (b. C. 57 to A. D. 18), Livy (b. c. 59 to A. d. 17), and Seneca (b. c. — to A. D. 65) were living at this time. Horace had been dead three years and Virgil fourteen years." 1 (8) It was a time when the nations were awaken ing to their need of a truer religion, a clearer light, a powerful Redeemer from sin. There was despair for their own religions, and an intense desire for something better. " There was a general disintegration of the old religions which gave neither righteousness nor hope in this world nor promise for the world to come. But nothing could quench the thirst for something higher and better." 2 The Roman Empire. In order to understand the material on which Christianity had to work, we give the best statistics available. Lyman's tables give the population of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ as 120,000,000, . of which 60,000,000 were slaves, 40,000,000 were tributaries and freedmen, and only 20,000,000 were full citizens, or one sixth of the population. The army numbered 400,000, and the navy 50,000 1 Labberton's Outlines. 2 See Lecky's History of European Morals. David R. Breed's Preparation of the World for Christ (Revell) is a masterly and interesting presentation of this subject. See, also, Dr. Wenley's book on the same subject. 10 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 2: 1. 1 Now when " Je'sus was born in i BSth'16-hSm of Ju-dge'a-' in the days of H6r'od the king, behold, therecame *wise men 'from the east came to JS-m'sa-lSm, i Luke 2. 15. John 7. 42. j Luke 1. 5. h Cp. Jer. 39. 3 (for mg.). I Cp. Gen. 25. 6. & 1 h Luke 2. 4-7. Kin. 4. 30. men. Milman gives the population of Rome, by the census of A. d. 48, at 5,984,000. Palestine. Hon. Selah Merrill, in his Galilee in the Time of Christ, thinks that the population of Palestine was about 6,000,000, and of Galilee 2,000,000. 2. DATE OP THE BIRTH OP JESUS. 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The date was four or five years B.C., that is, before the date from which we count the years a. d., Anno Domini, the year of the Lord. It is very perplexing to many to find that Jesus was actually Date of Christ's Birth. born four years before the time from which we count his birth. The simple reason is that no one calculated dates from the birth of Christ till centuries after he was born, and then Dionysius Exiguus, the monk who published the calcu lations in a. D. 526, made a mistake of four years. He placed the birth of Christ A. D. in the year of Rome (u. c.) 754. But Herod the Great, who slew the innocents of Bethlehem, died in April of the year of Rome 750 ; so that Christ must have been born several months before or not later than the last of 749. The following table will help to make the matter clear. Year of the world (Anno Mundi = (a. m.) Tear of Rome (Urbe Condita) =zv.c.) Year of Our Lord . . Age of Jesus 4000 4001 4002 4003 4004 4005 4000 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 B. c. 5 4 3 2 1 A. n. 1 2 1 Born 1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th ! Dec. 25 year. year. year. year. year. year. 4007 756 7th year. It should be carefully noted that the numbers are ordinal, standing for first, second, etc. Jesus was probably born at the very close of B. c. 5, which would be only/owr years before our era, for in a week after the 25th of December, B. c. 5, it was January, B. o. 4. He was five years old at the close of A. d. 1. Bethlehem of Judaea.1 A village five or six miles south of Jerusalem. Its name, Beth-le-hem ( " house of bread " ), was due to the fertility of the adjacent cornfields. It was the town of Ruth and Boaz, and was called the city of David because it was his birthplace and contained the records of his family. Here Jerome made the Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate, A. D. 370-400. It now contains about 5000 in habitants. The field of the shepherds was about a mile from the village. In the days of Herod the king. Herod died April 1, B. c. 4 (Lewin's Fasti Sacri), at Jericho, at the age of 70, so that the visit of the wise men must have been a few weeks previous. " This Herod was Herod the Great, founder of the Herodian family. Though aliens by race, the Herods were Jews in faith, and from the time of their conversion remained constant to their new religion." 2 " He possessed energy of character, but an unscrupulous ambition, and was remorse lessly cruel. He was made governor of Galilee at the early age of fifteen, and distinguished himself by his campaign against the brigands who infested the mountains. He rebuilt the temple in great magnificence in Jerusalem, which is consequently known in history as Herod's Temple, to distinguish it from Solomon's Temple." 8 3. VISIT OP THE WISE MEN. There came, arrived in Palestine. It must have been after the presentation in the Temple, for the family left Bethlehem immediately after the visit of the wise men, and before April, for Herod died April 1. It was probably in Feb ruary. Wise men from the east. Magi, sages, " Originally a class of priests among the Persians and Medes, who formed the king's privy council, and who cultivated astrology, medicine, and occult natural science. They are frequently re ferred to by ancient authors. Herodotus speaks of them as a priestly caste of the Medes, and as interpreters of dreams. Afterwards the term was applied to all Eastern philosophers . " 4 "They are men of rank and wealth and learning from the 1 See Prof. Ramsay's Was Christ born at Belhleliem f (Putnams) ; Mrs. Browning's Poems, " The Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus ; " Milton's Poems, " Hymn to the Nativity ; " Phillips Brooks' hymn, " O little town of Bethlehem " and " The earth has grown old with its burden of care ; " Dr. Sears's hymn, " It came upon the midnight clear ; " The Christ Child in Art, by Prof. Henry Van Dyke, D. D. ; The Life of Christ in Art, by Canon F. W. Farrar. 2 Smith's Bit). Die. 3 Lyman Abbott. i Schaff. 2; 2. MATTHEW. 11 2 8Raayyin#: Where is he that is born »' King of the Jew§? for we "aSwen "his star in the east, and are come to " worship him. m ch. 27. 11, 37. Jer. 23. 5 & 30. 9. Zech. 9. 9. John 1. 49, al. ch. 8. 2. n Cp. Num. 24. 17 & Rev. 22. 16. o See far East, representatives of all that is best in the old civilizations of the world."1 Daniel became president of such an order in "Babylon (Dan. 2: 48). The Gospel does not tell how many in number these wise men were, but tradition has made them three, from the number of their gifts, and represents them as kings, — " three kings of the Orient," and named them Melchior, Bal thazar, and Caspar.2 From the east. The far East, a different word in the Greek from "East" in the next verse. Here it is in the plural, referring to the Eastern regions, probably Persia, since the Magi were the priestly caste of the Zoroastrian religion, the religion of Persia, and hence were not idolaters, but worshippers of the one God under the emblem of fire. To Jerusalem, the capital of the country, these strangers would naturally come to find the king of the country in the royal palace. 2. Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews '/ " This inquiry, more literally translated, is, Where is the born King; that is, the newly-born King of the Jews ? " 3 Whence arose this Expectation ? 4 With out doubt from the Jews, who were scattered everywhere, with their Scriptures and their hopes, since the Babylonish captivity. Daniel himself was a prince, and chief among this very class of wise men. His prophecies were made known to them ; and the calculations by which he pointed to the very time when Christ should be born became, through the Book of Daniel, a part of their ancient literature. " We are informed by Tacitus, by Suetonius, and by Josephus, that there prevailed throughout the entire East, at this time, an intense con viction, derived from ancient prophecies, that ere long a powerful monarch would arise in Judea, and gain dominion over the world."5 "Virgil, who lived a little before this, owns (Fourth Eclogue) that a child from heaven was looked for, who should restore the golden age, and take away sin."6 "Confucius had prophesied the appear ance of such a deliverer ; and a deputation of his followers, going forth in search of him, were the means of introducing Buddhism into China." 7 " But the clearest of all these prophecies was one by Zoroaster. The Nestorians say that Zoroaster was a disciple of Jeremiah, from whom he learned about the Messiah, and taught concerning him to his disciples." 8 4. THE STAR IN THE EAST. 2. Por we have seen his star in the east. " Seen by them in the eastern countries, or seen in the eastern sky. The first was certainly the fact, but the second is the probable meaning here."9 It is natural that a miraculous being should be neralded by a miraculous star. His birth was a miracle ; the angels sang at his birth, miracles accompanied his life and crowned his death with the resurrection. It is also natural that nature should show some sign at his birth, as the darkened sun and quaking earth did at his death. And are come to worship him. To ac knowledge his worthship ; to do homage to him. Why should the Star lead them to think of the Messiah ? (1) Such appearances were continually regarded by the sages of those days as signs of some great event. (2) The general expectation of the Great King at this time would cause the wise men to think of him when they saw the wonderful star, especially if they connected it with the promised " star out of Jacob " (Num. 24: 17), or thought of the morn ing star that heralds the da .vn. (3) They must have been deeply religious men, God's "outside saints," looking for the hope of the world, listen ing for the voice of God, " with eyes and hearts set heavenward," watching for the signs and " signallings of Providence." Only to a seeing heart, a soul open to God, would the star have had a meaning. And (4) God may have made some communication to them, as we learn from verse 12 that he actually did afterwards. The Star in the East. This must have been a supernatural star, some light set in the heavens by God, or some natural phenomenon controlled by God to guide the wise men. 1 Sadler. 2 Proctor's The Universe of Suns, " The Star in the East." Longfellow's Poems, "The Three Kings." The Wise Men; Who they were, by Prof. Francis W. TJpham. The Star of the Wise Men, by Arbp. Trench. The Other Wise Man, a reverent and beautiful story, by Prof. Henry Van Dyke. F. w. Robertson's Sermons, "The Star in the East." 3 Morison. 4 See Trench's Christ the Desire of all Nations; or, the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom, and the early chapters of Wallace's Ben-Hur. D Farrar. c Jacobus. ' Abbott. > Mrs. Judith 8. Grant. » Schaff. 12 THE TEACHEES' COMMENTARY. 2 : 3, 4. 3 AKhen HSr'od the king had heard «**",«'•».. he was troubled, and all JS-ru'sS- 16m with him. 4 And '£S£&£Sdt«S&?d all the chief priests and scribes of the people, tOBether- he tnqXeedd of them where " the Christ should be born. p See ch. 1. 17. There are some very interesting astronomical facts in this connection. New stars suddenly Hash s' out, and then dwindle or disappear. The most noted one is that of the astronomer Tycho Brahe, to whom, as to others, suddenly appeared a radiant fixed star in the constellation Cassiopeia, larger than he had ever before seen. For splendor it was only com parable to Venus when nearest to the earth, and was seen by some at noonday. After a few weeks it began to decline, and in sixteen months became invisible to the naked eye. It has since been thought that this star appeared also in 945 and 1264. If it be a variable star with a period of about 431 years, it would make its time of appearance about the beginning of the Christian era.1 We learn from astronomical calculations that a remark - A remark- aD^e conjunction of the planets of our sys- able Con- tern took place a short time before the birth junction of of our Lord. In December, 1G04, the great Planets. astronomer Kepler saw a strange sight in the heavens, — a sight which occurs only once (or rather, is repeated two or three times at one period) in 800 years. It was the conjunction of the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn, close together at one point of the heavens. Five months later, in the following May, the wonder was re peated in a more wonderful way : Mars joined with Jupi ter and Saturn, a fiery trygon in the constellation Pisces. The attention of the whole astronomical world was called to the sight ; and this seemed to draw notice to another sight, — the appearing of a new star in the constellation of the Serpent. First seen in October, 1604, it grew more and more brilliant, till it glowed like a planet ; then its lustre waned, its white light turned to yellow, then to red, grew duller and dimmer, and finally, at the end of two years had vanished altogether. These unusual occur rences led Prof. Kepler, who was as religious as he was scientific, to think that they might help to explain the Btrange star which the wise men saw in the east. The conjunction could occur but once in 800 years; take twice 800 years, and it brings us to within one or two years of the date of Christ's birth, the exact date of which is unknown. Several great astronomers, since Kepler's day, have made the same calculations, particularly Prof. Pritchard, of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Encke ; and it rests on assured grounds that, about the time of Christ's birth, in the month of May, occurred this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, rising about three hours before sun rise, and therefore seen in the east. Suppose these wise men of Persia, the far East, seeing this wonderful sight in their clear skies, had started on their journey about the end of May, it would require at least seven months. The stars were again in conjunction in September, when the wise men would have reached the nearer East, on the border of the desert. At that time there can be no doubt that Jupiter would present to astronomers a very brilliant spectacle. It was then at its most brilliant apparition, for it was at its nearest approach both to the sun and the earth. The glorious spectacle continued almost unaltered for several days, when the planets again slowly separated, came to a halt, and then Jupiter again approached to a conjunction for the third time with Saturn, just at the time the Magi may be sup posed to have entered the holy city, in December. And to complete the fascination of the tale, if they performed the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the evening, as is implied, then, about half an hour after sunset, the two planets might be seen from Jerusalem, hanging, as it were, in the meridian, and suspended over Bethlehem in the distance. These circumstances would seem to form a remarkable coincidence with the history in our text. The true theory seems to be, that the expectations of the Magi were aroused by the remarlcable conjunction, and their watching was rewarded by the sight of the miraculous star. This conjunction was a John the Baptist that heralded the true star out of Jacob, miraculously shown in the heavens.2 3. When Herod the king had heard these things. " The tidings would run like an electric shock through the palace of the usurping Herod." 3 He was troubled, agitated, disturbed, lest he should lose his throne and his power. He was old, and feeble, and wicked. His life had been full of crimes. He knew he was hated by his subjects. The least disturbance would inflame his conscience and arouse his fears. And all Jerusalem with him. Those in power, officials of Herod, would be afraid of anything that shook the throne. The progress of religion, the coming of Christ, is always a source of trouble to the wicked, for they mean the turning of their world upside down, the dethroning of their idols, the overthrow of their hopes. 4. And when he had gathered ail the chief priests and scribes. " The chief priests were probably the heads of the twenty-four courses into which the sons of Aaron were divided (2 Chron. 23 : 8 ; Luke 1 : 5), but the term may have included those who had, though only for a time, held the office of high priest. The l scribes ' were the interpreters of the law, casuists, and collectors of the traditions of the elders, for the most part Pharisees." 4 He demanded (rather, inquired) of them where Christ, — in the origi nal The Christ, not the proper name, but the Mes siah, the official title of the promised Deliverer — should be born. What do your Scriptures say ? What is your expectation V 1 Condensed from an article by Prof. Wm. W. Payne. 2 TJpham's The Wise Men; Who they were (condensed). 3 Arbp. Trench. * Ellicott. 2: 5-10. MATTHEW. 13 5 And they said unto him, In B6th'lS-h6m of Ju-dse'a : for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 'And thou Bgth'16-hem, inthe land of jufta^run0™1^ least among the princes of ju"dah:: For out of thee shall come fDrth a gowm""' which shall ¦ be shepherd ot my people Is/ra-el. 7 Then HBr'od- wheu,ietaa privily called the wise men, aSolSa of them Sun/ what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to B6th'16-h6m, and said, Go and search out careiuuyronwrnmg the young child ; and when ye have found him, bring me word, agam' that I also may come and worship him. alS0, 9 vA„an they, hiving heard the king, S&'vaV; and' lo- the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 ArS when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. cj Cited from Mio. 5. 2. r Ezek. 34. 23. John 21. 15-17. Cp. 2 Sam. 5. 2. & Rev. 7. 17. 5. And they said, i. e., the chief priests, etc. " The answer seems to have been given without any hesitation, as a matter perfectly well under stood, and settled by divine authority." 1 Beth lehem of Judaea. See above. Thus it is writ ten. What is quoted in the next verse. By the prophet (Micah, in chap. 5 : 2). It should be noticed that "by" is literally "through," and that in every case this expression is used. " The ruler to whom Mieah alludes is none other than the Messianic King of David's race, so that in the birth of Jesus the prophecy receives its complete historical fulfilment." 2 6. And thou Bethlehem. This is quoted freely from the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament), just as such quotations were pop ularly made at that time, for there were no Bibles in circulation, and quotations must be made chiefly as remembered from hearing them read. Bethlehem, in the land of Juda. In the original there is no in the-, but the expression is " Bethle hem, land of Juda," as we say, " Chicago, 111.," or "Newport, R. I." This was to distinguish this Bethlehem from the Bethlehem in the terri tory of Zebulon, west of the Sea of Galilee. Princes is, according to a usual figure, put for the towns where the princes, or heads of thou sands, lived. For gives the reason for the great ness in spite of the insignificance. Shall come a Governor. A leader, guide, or ruler. That shall rule ; or, more correctly, " shall be the shepherd of," including the whole work of the shepherd, guiding, feeding, defending, folding, ruling ; a perfect picture of what a, good ruler should be to his people. 7. Then Herod . . . privily (privately) called the wiBe men. Privately, for he was already hatching, still more privately, his malicious plot to destroy Jesus. Inquired diligently. Learned accurately (ilicpCPuxre), "from a*poc, the highest or farthest point." " The idea is, therefore, he ascertained to the last point ; denoting the exactness of the in formation rather than the diligence of the search for it." 3 ¦What time the star appeared. How long ago, within what time, was the birth of the king made known by the appearing of the star. He would thus learn the age of Jesus. 8. He sent (or directed) them to Bethlehem, a short six miles from Jerusalem. Search dili gently. Better, as before, accurately, carefully. Bring me word . . . worship him. He lied, because if he told his real object, they would of course not report to him. " It was like the kiss of Judas." 9. Lo, the star, unexpectedly the star they had seen in the east, appeared to them again, and guided them to Bethlehem, and stood over where the young child was. " Many a starry night I have followed a road leading dne south, and over the road hung Betel- geux or Capella (westering with the others), and as I walked, the star 'went before me,' and when I stopped it ' stood ' over farmstead or cot tage. It was no strain of imagination to say that the star led me on ; on the contrary, the optical illusion was so strong that while one was in mo tion one could scarcely help thinking of the star as advancing just as I myself advanced." 4 10. They rejoiced. Because their journey was now ended, their search was successful, their King was found. Their interpretation of the meaning of the star was correct. 1 Alexander. 2 Meyer. 3 M. R. Vincent. * William Canton in Expositor, July, 1899. 14 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 2 : 11, 12. 11H And when they wecin\eme into the house- an6/ saw the young child with Ma'ry his mother ; and they fell down, and worshipped him; and whentl07emngopened their treasures' s they D0ef§re!d unto him gifts; ' gold' and " frankincense' and " myrrh. 12 And w being warned °f %°d x in a dream that they should not return to Her'od, they departed into their own country another way. s Cp. 1 Sam. 9. 7 & Ps. 72. 10. t Isai. CO. 6. u Rev. 18. 13. v Ex. 30. 23. Ps. 45. 8. John 19. 39. w ver. 22. Cp. ver. 13, 19. x Cp. ch. 27. 19 & Gen. 20. 6 & 31. 11 & Num. 12. 6 & Job. 33. 15. 11. When they were come into the house. This could scarcely have been the stable where our Lord was born. Joseph and Mary remained for forty days in Bethlehem, and would find tem porary lodgings. Hence the double blunder of the paintings which represent " the adoration of the Magi" as taking place in the stable while the shepherds were present. And fell down, in the Oriental manner of showing homage and wor ship. And worshipped him. " Three acts are here, — falling down, worshipping, and offering: the first, the worship of the body ; the second, of the soul ; the third, of our goods. With these three, our bodies, our souls, our goods, we are to worship him. Without them all, worship is but a lame and maimed sacrifice, neither fit for wise men to give nor Christ to receive." 1 Opened their treasures. The word points to caskets or chests which they had brought with them. They presented unto him gifts. " Ac cording to the Oriental custom in paying visits to royalty. Setting forth greater truths than they knew, they offered, to the Son of Man and Son of God, myrrh, hinting at the resurrection of the dead ; the royal gold ; and frankincense that breathes prayer, — ' myrrh to a mortal, gold to a king, frankincense to God.' " 2 Frankincense. A gum resin, obtained by an incision made in the trunk of a tree of the genus Boswellia. It occurs in commerce in semi-opaque, round, or oblong tears. It is of a yellow or yel lowish-brown hue, — the best being almost color less. Valued for its sweet odor when burned, and used for incense, it was, in olden times, ac counted one of the most valuable products of the East.8 Myrrh. " An aromatic gum highly prized by the ancients, and used in incense and perfumes. It distils from incisions from a small thorny tree, which grows chiefly in Arabia." 4 12. Being warned of God. In a dream, in the same manner as God may have spoken to them before. " The verb means, to give a response to one who asks or consults. The word therefore implies that the wise men had sought counsel of God." 6 Into their own country another way, They could easily go direct from Bethlehem to the Jordan River, leaving Jerusalem to the north and west. PBACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. I. Ouk Stars in the East. — There are many things which become " stars in the east " to lead us to Christ : (1) The star of science, the know ledge of God's works. Nature interprets God to us, and leads us to love and adore him. Many a person has been " led through Nature to Nature's God." (2) The hungers of the soul for love and knowledge, and light and peace, are stars that lead to seek for Jesus and for God. Goethe's dying cry, " More light," is the cry of the soul. (3) The need of forgiveness and reconciliation to God. (4) The need of help in trouble. (5) The hunger of the heart for love. (6) The star of ex perience of what God has already done for us. (7) The star of hope — for the redemption of ourselves and of the world.6 II. Like the wise men, we must look to heaven to be guided rightly on the earth, as ships are guided on the ocean by the sun and stars. The shepherds and the wise men were all guided, the first by a song in the sky, the others by a star. III. Those who know about Christ should make every effort to find him. It is worth while to travel far and to sell all we have to obtain this pearl of great price. IV. " Make me, 0 Lord Jesus, like the Star of Bethlehem, a guiding light to men, that they may find thee and rejoice." 7 V. A Missing Stak. Matthew does not state whether the star was shining all the way, or was seen only at intervals as at the beginning and the end. It certainly was not shining at Jerusalem. A writer makes this use of the latter view : "In a careful reading of the New Testament narra tive of the visit of the Magi to the infant Saviour, one fact appears which does not lie on the sur face, — the Magi lost their star. It shone out clearly when they started, but presently disap peared ; nor did they see it again till their jour- 1 Dr. Mark Frank in Christ in Literature. 2 Upham, The Wise Men. 3 Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1 Lyman Abbott. B M. R. Vincent. 8 See Whittier's Poems, " The Star of Bethlehem." A help to a missionary in Persia from the flower by that name. 7 Bishop John H. Vincent. 2: 13. MATTHEW. 15 13 nSw when they were departed, behold, » a„e angel of the Lord appeareth to Jo'§eph in a dream, saying, Arise' and take the young child and his mother, and flee into E'gypt, and be thou there until I bffiF thee: word: for H6r'od will seek the young child to destroy him. y ver. 19. ch. 1. 20. Cp. ver. 12, 22. ney's end. This loss of the star is a curious and significant fact. It has in it a helpful suggestion for us of to-day in our desert journeys when we have no certain knowledge of the way. At times there comes to us a conviction of duty that blazes in the heavens as the star did for the Magi. Often this is as directly God-given as was the Magi's star. There can be no question about duty then. God's will is plain. Such an occasion comes to every one when he first finds Christ. He should accept his Saviour and follow him wherever he leads. But presently the light is gone ; duty is clear no longer ; new complications have come, the path is lost. He would follow Christ, but the question is, Where does Christ lead ? What is to be done now ? Why, exactly what the Magi did. Keep straight on as you were going till some means of taking your bearings and of ascer taining duty is open to you. The desert does not last forever, and the day will come when duty shall he made clear. Then it happens to us just as it did to the Magi, the star blazes out again. A divine assurance fills our soul. There is great joy ; and at last we lay our gifts at the feet of our Lord." 1 VI. " The star could only speak into hearts that were prepared, ears that were trained to listening and interpreting. As the plate of the photo grapher must first be made sensitive to the light before it can receive and retain the fugitive vision that plays before it, so the hearts of these stran gers must have been made sensitive, susceptible to the heavenly vision. That is, there must have been a light in the heart, or the light in the sky had been of no use. Nay, the sky may become one burning star, but if there be no light in the soul, no power of vision, the light itself will be but darkness." 2 VII. It is not the size of the place, but what is done in the place, that makes it glorious. An insignificant spot has often been the scene of events possessing the greatest importance and the highest moral grandeur. Battles that have changed the history of the world have been fought in small villages. Little Bethlehem be came glorious because Christ was born there. Our hearts, too, can become Bethlehems, and be trans figured by the presence of Jesus in them. VIII. Wicked men are troubled by that which brings hope to the world, — as by revivals, tem perance reform, preaching, and whatever inter feres with unrighteous gains and pleasures. Here is a test of our character, — whether we rejoice or are troubled at the coming of Christ and his kingdom. IX. In this story we have " types of four classes of men which exist still ; namely, (1) those who earnestly seek the truth ; (2) those who rest in the letter of the truth ; (3) those who are fear fully alarmed at the truth ; and (4) those who are affectionate guardians of the truth. The Magi represent the first, the scribes and Phar isees the second, Herod the third, and Joseph and Mary the fourth." 3 X. Every one who finds the Lord desires to ex press his worship and love by giving him precious things.5. THE FLIGHT IMTO EGYPT, 2 : 13-15. February B. c. 4. Immediately after the visit of the Wise Men. 13. And when they, the wise men from the East, were departed. Returning home, but not by way of Jerusalem as Herod had requested. The angel. Better an angel, a heavenly mes senger. The angels took great interest in the Saviour, and the saving of men. Take the young child. Mentioned first be cause the most precious charge, and the one ex posed to danger. Flee, implying urgent haste. Into Egypt, about 300 miles from Jerusalem. The reasons were probably, (1) Egypt was the nearest safe refuge, being wholly independent of Herod, although under the Roman government. (2) The roads were good and led from Beth lehem directly away from Herod, through a thinly settled and desert country. (3) There was a large, wealthy, liberal com munity of Jews there, who could receive and secretly guard the holy family. " It was almost another Judea, for the favor shown to their race by the Ptolemies had induced as many as a million of Jews to settle in the Nile valley ; and of the five quarters of Alexandria, with its 300,000 free citizens, Jews occupied more than two." Until I bring thee word. Everything was to be done under divine direction, and thus would i Condensed from The Advance, May 3, 1894. 2 Prof. Ernest Burton, in Expositor, April, 1895. Thomas's Genius of the Gospel. 16 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 2 : 14, 15. 14 Tnd1 he arose' aid took the young child and his mother by night, and de parted into E'gypt- 15 and was there until the death of Hgr'od z : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken Dy the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of E'gypt hliae I "Sli!11 my son. z See ch. 1. 22. a Cited from Hos. 11. 1. be done safely and successfully. It was not neces sary for Joseph to know the times and seasons, but only that he should commit his ways unto God, who did know. " I know not the way I am going, But well do I know my guide." " I had rather walk in the dark with him Than walk in the light alone." Herod will Beek ... to destroy him. To realize the danger, we must recall the horri bly cruel and abominable character of Herod. "Deaths by strangulation, deaths by burning, deaths by being cleft asunder, deaths by secret assassination, confessions forced by unutterable torture, acts of insolent and inhuman lust, mark the annals of a reign which was so cruel that, in the energetic language of the Jewish ambassador to the Emperor Augustus, ' the survivors during his lifetime were even more miserable than the sufferers.' " " And, as in the case of Henry VIII., every dark and brutal instinct of his char acter seemed to acquire fresh intensity as his life drew towards its close." J Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, II. 4, reports that the Emperor Augustus said of Herod, " It would be better to be his sow than his son." 2 14. 'When he arose. Note the prompt and wise obedience of one who fully trusted the Lord. He took the young child ... by night. Prob ably the same night, for (1) there was need of great haste. (2) They could thus leave suddenly and unexpectedly, without danger of Herod's dis covering where they had gone, or even the fact of their leaving.8 The gold given by the wise men may have fur nished means for the journey. Departed into Egypt. According to tradition the place was the town of Matari'eh, a few miles north of Cairo, and near Leontop'olis. Within sight of this place once stood the Egyptian obe lisk now in Central Park, New York. 15. Until the death of Herod. On the first day of the following April. How long they re mained after this is uncertain. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. The expression would be more liter ally rendered, by the Lord through the prophet. Out of Egypt have I called my son. The pro phecy here cited is found in Hosea 11: 1. It was originally written of Israel's Exodus from the bondage in Egypt, not as a prophecy but as a his torical fact that took place many centuries be fore, and recounted there as a proof of God's love to his son, Israel. The true Israel, the ideal Israel, who fulfilled the purpose for which the nation was selected and trained by God, was the prototype, the representative of Christ, as we see in Isaiah. So that many things in the history of Israel have their parallel in Christ also, and are applied to him. This explains many of the New Testament applications of Old Testament pro phecy. As to this prophecy, — (1) As Israel was called out of Egypt from exile to enter their promised home, so was Jesus, an exile in Egypt, called away from his exile into his own country. (2) " The Israelites were called out of Egypt chiefly that they might bring with them the real Son of God, the Saviour of the world. This result could not have come to pass if Jesus had re mained in Egypt. His coming out of Egypt as a child was a visible type of this spiritual truth." i (3) ' ' Nor should we err if we ascribed to them one fulfilment more in the church of the redeemed. Egypt is always represented to us in the Scrip tures as a land of darkness, idolatry, slavery, for the body and the spirit, — a type and symbol of the world. What wonder, then, that when God calls from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom, from the worship of idols to the worship 1 Farrar. 2 Morison. 3 The famous French picture of this scene, called the Repose in Egypt, represents a sphinx with upturned face, as if still asking the great questions of life ; and appro priately standing on the edge of the African desert, to represent the desert state of the world, without God and immortality. Darkness broods over the scene, with only the far-off stars of tradition and philosophy shed ding their dim light upon the dark desert of life. The artist represents Mary, with the child Jesus, in their flight from Herod, as reposing between the arms of the sphinx, with Joseph, and the ass near by on an oasis. The light of the picture radiates from the child Jesus, and makes bright the oasis and the nearer sands ; and rays from his face stretch far away over the barren wastes, and penetrate through the darkness. So indeed does Jesus shine upon this dark world of sin and sick ness and death. 4 Morison. 2: 16-18. MATTHEW. 17 16 IT Then Her'od, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was ex ceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the maie children that were in BSth'- lg-hem, and in all the Sirs thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had dSu\\yy!e2Srt of the wise men. 17 'Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by jer-eSl'Ih the prophet, say ing, io c In Ra'ma was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weemmr. j ~ j. • ti— i i i l ° a voice was heard in ija'mah, weeping weepins" and great mourning, Ra chel weep ing {or her children ; Andfhe would not be comforted, because theyd are not. b ch. 27. 9. Cp. ch. 1. 22. c Cited from Jer. 31. 15. d Gen. 37. 30 & 42. 13, 36. Lam. 5. 7. of himself, it should be styled a calling out of Egypt? "i 6. THE MASSACBE OF THE UiTlirO- CENTS, 2. 16-18. 16. "When he saw that he was mocked. Made a fool of (Meyer), outwitted (Lange). "Was exceeding wroth. Angry beyond all bounds, in a rage. Slew all the children that were in Bethlehem. All the boys; for so the original means, being in the masculine gender. " Herod's object was to destroy the lately born King of the Jews ; and hence he did not need to kill any but the male children." The population of Beth lehem could hardly have been more than 2000, and the number of boys under two years of age in that number would be between 20 and 30. In all the coasts, borders, neighborhood. From two years old and under. So as to in clude the outside limit of the time when the star appeared in the east. 17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy, Greek form of Jeremiah (31 : 15). 18. In Bama (Ramah) was there a voice heard. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, before being finally carried off to Babylon by Ne- buzaradan, E. C. 586, were collected together in chains at Ramah (five miles north of Jerusalem) and thence they were carried away captive, in gangs " (Jer. 40 : 1). " No doubt there was there a cruel massacre of those who were too young, or otherwise unfit for the journey."2 Rachel was buried not far from Bethlehem, eight or nine miles from Ramah, and yet she is pictured by a metaphor as weeping for her descendants with so intense a wail of sorrow that it could be heard even in Ramah. Now again she weeps with equal bitterness over those slain at Bethlehem. The one sorrow is the type and expression of the other. In both cases the massacre was an at tempt to destroy the nation. Note 1. " The fate of these few infants is a strange one. In their brief lives they have won immortal fame. They died for the Christ whom they never knew. These lambs were slain for the sake of the Lamb who lived while they died, that by his death they might live forever. These ' Little flowers of martyrdom, Roses by the whirlwind shorn,' head the long procession of martyrs, if not in in tent, yet in fact ; and, we may be sure, are now among the palm-bearing crowd, ' being the first fruits to God and the Lamb.' " 8- 4 Note 2. " Herod dies, but the young child whom he tried to slay lives. A heathen emperor of Rome, at the close of a persecution, erected a pillar inscribed, ' In honor of the emperor who extirpated the Christian superstition.' The pillar and the emperor are both gone, but the gospel lives." 5 " The first skirmish gives promise where the victory will lie in the final battle." 6 " Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne : Tet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." 7 1 Trench's Westminster Sermons. 2 Sadler. 3 Maclaren. * " Holman Hunt's magnificent painting, The Triumph of the Innocents, is to my mind the most important reli gious picture of the century." " The Bpirits of the murdered children of Bethlehem — not a great multitude, as they are often thoughtlessly depicted, but a little band such as really played in that little village — have followed after Jesus on his flight. . . . The Holy Child looks around, and, seeing the spirits of his playmates, welcomes them with the gladness of a divine sympathy. These children are the first of his glorious band of martyrs, and as they draw near to him the meaning of their martyrdom flashes upon them, and their sorrow is changed into joy. In front floats a trio of perfectly happy spirits, one carrying a censer and singing, the others casting down branches of the palm and the vine. At their feet rolls the river of life, breaking into golden bubbles, in which the glories of the millennium are reflected." " All mystical, symbolical, visionary ! But is it not also true ? Think for a moment. It is the religion of Jesus that has transfigured martyrdom and canonized innocence. It is the religion of Jesus that tells us of a heaven which is full of children." — Henry Van Dyke, The Christ-Child in Art. » J. L. Hurlbut, D. D. 0 Bishop Hurst, D. D. i James Russell Lowell. 18 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 2: 19-23. 19 H But when Her'od was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Jo'§eph in E'gypt, 20 spying,' Arise' and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Is/ra-el : for e they are dead wSl sought the young child's life. 21 And he arose' and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Is/rg,-el. 22 But when he heard that Xr-ch6-la'us wasreigS'over Ju-dse'a in the room of his father HSr'od, he was afraid to go thither; ^Withstanding, /being warned l}%fd in a dream, he ^Fthdrew6 into the parts of Gal'i-lee; 23 ASndhe came and dwelt in a city called "NaVa-rgth : * that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, thafteshouw be called a NSVa-rene. « Cp. Ex. 4. 19. A See ch. 1. 22. /See ver. 12. g ch. 4. 13. Mark 1.9. Luke 1. 26 & 2.39 & 4. 16. John 1. 45. Acts 10. 38, al. THE BETUK3V TO 2 : 19-23. NAZABETH, 19. "When Herod was dead. Only a few weeks after the flight into Egypt. " Herod died at Jericho 7 to 14 days before the Passover (April 12) in the year 750 after the building of Rome, four years before the date from which we reckon our time. An eclipse of the moon which occurred about the same time fixes the date." 1 (See the horrible description of his living death in Jos. Ant. XVII., p. 6, v. 5.) He was buried within the bounds of Bethlehem, where he had mur dered the innocent children. An angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream. The permission to return came in the same manner as the pre vious warning to depart. 20. Saying, Arise. How long this was after the death of Herod is unknown. 21. Came into the land of Israel, intending, as is plain from what follows, to return to Beth lehem of Judea, there, no doubt, to rear the Infant King, as at his own royal city, until the time should come when they would expect him to occupy Jerusalem, " the city of the Great King." 2 He would naturally reach Judea first in his journey. 22. When he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea. Archelaus was Herod's son, and was appointed by Herod's will king of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. But the emperor gave him only the title of ethnarch, a viceroy, governor of a peo ple. " The revenue of Archelaus was 600 talents, about a million dollars. He began his rule by crushing all resistance by the wholesale slaughter of his opponents. But he far surpassed his father in cruelty, oppression, luxury, the grossest egot ism, and the lowest sensuality, and that without possessing the talent or the energy of Herod." 8 He was afraid to go thither, as well he might be, knowing the character of the new ruler. He turned aside, withdrew, took another road. The parts of Galilee : i. e., the country itself, the northernmost province of Palestine. 23. He came and dwelt in a city. A small town, or large village. It was his former home. Called Nazareth (shoot, or branch, or protectress). Nazareth is 20 miles east of the Mediterranean, and 16 west of the Sea of Galilee, and 66 miles in a straight line north of Jerusalem. The mod ern Nazareth is one of the better class of East ern villages, and has a population of three or four thousand. Within a year or two it has had a telegraph office, by order of the Sultan. Here Jesus spent mor,e than 28 years of his life, — his childhood, youth, and early manhood. That it might be fulfilled. It was God's plan irrespective of Joseph's design. Spoken by the prophets. " Note the plural, as indicating not any one prediction in particular, but a summary of the import of several pro phetic statements, such as Ps. 22: 6, 8 ; 69: 11, 19; Isai. 53: 2-4."* He shall be called a Hazarene. Not " Naza- rite," as John was (Luke 1 : 15). Comp. Num. 6 : 1-8, where a different word is used. The pre diction was fulfilled in two ways : (1) It refers to his humble origin and position and insignificance among the powers that con trolled the world, as a little twig or shoot in a great forest. The name Nazareth means in Hebrew, a sprout or shoot, or twig, in contrast with a great tree. The town was always lowly and insignificant. " As David sprang from the humble family of Jesse, so the Messiah, the second David, shall arise out of great humiliation (see Isai. 53 : 2, etc.). The fact that Jesus grew up at Nazareth was a sufficient reason for his being despised (' Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? ' ). He was not a lofty branch in the summit of a stately tree ; not a recognized and honored son of the royal 1 Edersheim. 2 Jamieson, Faussett & Brown. 3 Edersheim. « M. R. Vincent. 2:23. MATTHEW. 19 house of David, now fallen, but an insignificant sprout from the roots of Jesse, a Nazarene, an up start Sprout-town." * (2) Jesus was "the Branch," " the shoot " of Isai. 11: 1-16, and by his Nazareth (" Branch ") name fulfilled this prediction. Though of lowly origin, the small, despised shoot will become a great tree. The Jewish nation were cut down by the exile, so that there remained but, as it were, a mere stump of a nation, instead of a beautiful and flourishing tree. But they were cut down not like a fir tree as Assyria was (Isai. 10 : 33, 34), from which no shoots spring up, and the destruc tion is without remedy ; but as an oak, or chest nut, from whose stumps spring up new shoots which often flourish far beyond the original in it** |i ¦ Carpenter's Shop at Nazareth. (From an original Photograph.) size and beauty. Thus the Jewish nation sprang up again after the exile. Thus it was foretold that Messiah was the new shoot, springing up from the decadent Jewish nation representing the kingdom of God, through which that kingdom should grow into a. noble tree, far exceeding in splendor and glory and blessing the original tree from whose stump it sprang. 8 JESUS THE HOME TRAINING OP FOR HIS GREAT WOEK. Jesus lived at Nazareth, after he was one or two years old, through his youth and young manhood till he was about 30 years old. He was at home with Joseph and Mary. During this time it is probable that Joseph died, as no mention is made of him with Mary during the ministry of Jesus, and she was committed to John's care at the cru cifixion. So that Jesus probably cared for his mother during his early manhood. From various sources we learn something of the influences around Jesus during his youth, and the kind of boy he grew up to be amid them. Here are two portraits of him from Luke. And the child grew, and waxed strong, .filled with wisdom : and the grace of God was upon him. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men. ' ' The great Erasmus once wrote a piece in Latin for a boy to speak : ' We boys commemorate the boy — pueri puerum — we commemorate our Master Jesus, the chief ideal of all, but yet par ticularly the chief of us — that is, of boys.' "2 His early life brings a message to the young people of to-day. I. His Nazareth Home. "The houses are of white limestone, prettily situated among fig trees and olive trees, while down below in the valley are gardens in the midst of which is the Fountain of the Virgin from which Nazareth de rives its water, and whither doubtless Mary fre quently went to obtain water for her household." " The hill on the northwest rises about five hun dred feet above the valley." Stapfer says, " We cannot credit more than fifteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants to a village which had only one synagogue, one foun tain, and one public square." 8 On the other hand, Hon. Selah Merrill regards Nazareth as a city of fifteen or twenty thousand inhabitants.4 "The House is low and square, with a court before it, and a terrace on the roof. The door is wide, for light and air, but there are no windows. There are no tables, but there are rugs. There is only one room, for all purposes. Here Joseph works at his carpenter's trade. Here all sleep and eat, except in the summer, when on clear starlight nights all sleep on the roof, each rolled in a blanket. The house is built of sun-dried clay, with an outer stairway. The furnishings consist of a carpenter's bench like our own, and its tools ; 5 a kitchen furnace with two places ; a sheet of iron for roasting wheat or baking bread ; a few leathern bottles, some goblets and cups. They have no plates, or forks, or spoons. Their beds are mere pallets, rolled up every morning. A few mats, and cushions, and a great chest complete the fur niture." 6 II. His Home Training must have been in a most spiritual atmosphere, full of love and piety and good morals. The star of Bethlehem for the human race stands over the home. " I agree with 1 M. R. Vincent in Word Studies. 2 Phillips Brooks, Sermons, " The Beautiful Gate of the Temple." 3 Jt'stfs Christ before his Ministry. 1 Galilee in the Time of Christ. 5 In the Naples Museum are some of the carpenter's tools from Pompeii, preserved from within a half century of Christ, which closely resemble some of the carpenters' tools of to-day. e Jesus Christ before his Ministry. 20 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 2:23. Helvetius, the child should be educated from its birth ; but how ? — there is the rub : send him to school forthwith ! Certainly, he is at school already with the two great teachers, Nature and Love." The atmosphere of the home is the most potent of home influences. It is the sum of them all. Stapfer says, " Very early Jesus knew by heart certain verses of the Bible. First of all, Deut. 6 : 4, 5 ; 7 : 7. . . . After a while his mother put into his hands strips of parchment upon which were written the words he knew by heart. Thus he finally came to know his letters," and to read. " She taught him all the marvellous stories of the Old Testament. The command ments of Jehovah, his promises, his warnings, were graven on his mind in ineffaceable characters." III. His School Training. When Jesus was six years old his parents sent him to school, in the audience room of the synagogue, which was the schoolroom during the week. He learned to read and write. He probably knew three languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, an allied form of the Hebrew, which was the common language of Palestine in that day. The principal schoolbook was the Old Testament, with the comments of the Rabbis. IV. The Training of his Village Life. Lange says that it was " the master stroke of di vine wisdom ' ' which caused Jesus to be brought up in Nazareth. " It is quite noteworthy how many of the strongest, greatest, and most prominent men in the cities were brought up in the country. Yet this is not the complete picture. Jesus came in contact with busy life, with bad men, with un just dealers in his trade. For Nazareth was a notoriously wicked town." And rumors of the scandal and sin of the empire entered Palestine close to Nazareth along the great roads running through Galilee. " The perfection of his purity and patience was achieved not easily, as he- hind a wide fence which shut the world out, but amid rumor and scandal, with every provocation to unlawful curiosity and premature ambition." " The chief lesson which Nazareth teaches us is the possibility of a pure home and a spotless youth in the very face of the evil world." 1 Plato says," The child is a charioteer driving two steeds up the long life hill ; one steed is white, representing our best impulses ; one steed is dark, standing for our worst passions." Jesus had to choose between these, exactly as every child must choose, with a choice on which depends the eternal destiny. V. Jesus never permitted Nazareth to give the Measure op his Life. " Thirty years he lived there, and there was matured the largest, freest human character the world ever saw." "The one man upon whom there are no limita tions whatever of race, of circumstances, or of character, was =< villager who toiled for bread. There is the conclusive answer for all time to the objection that it is impossible to live a large life under narrow circumstances." How did he do it ? (1) By doing even the smallest acts with the greatest motives. (2) By his consciousness of divine sonship and fellowship with God. (3) By keeping his sympathies world wide. Missionary interests are broadening.2 VI. The Training of the Carpenter's Shop. Jesus learned the trade of a carpenter from his father (Matt. 13: 55; Mark 6: 1-3). " There is a beautiful tradition that Joseph, his reputed father, died while Jesus was a child, and so he worked not merely to earn his own living, but to keep the little home together in Nazareth, and Mary and the younger members of the family depended upon his toil." " The man Jesus rose at daybreak, and, picking up his tools, made yokes and tables for something to eat." "Jesus never did a piece of shoddy work, or God could not have said of his Son, 'I am well pleased.'" "In that carpenter's shop he fought many battles with subtle forms of temptation that beset mankind." 8 The carpenter's shop in the home was " the seed plot of the manly virtues." In that school may be learned nearly all the virtues, when the smallest acts are done with the highest motives, love, faith, truth. The spiritual motive transfigures the lowliest toil. It is well that our Saviour was a laborer. Daily work is one of the great schools in which we learn life's best lessons, — skill, faithfulness, honesty, self-denial. Educators are coming to believe that hand work is a necessary part of the best education.4 VII. Nature Study. " The natural scenery around Nazareth is said to be among the most beautiful on the face of the earth."6 Jesus' preaching is full of allusions to nature, and illus trations drawn from nature. He must have watched with close attention the works of his Heavenly Father. VIII. The National Tendencies. First. 1 George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land. 2 Condensed from Dr. C. I. Scofield. 3 G. Campbell Morgan, The Hidden Years at Nazareth. 4 Gannett's Blessed be Drudgery is capital. See Mu- rillo's picture (Louvre) of The Angels in the Kitchen. See, also, Dr. Van Dyke's Poems, "The Toiling of Felix," a legend on a new saying of Jesus to Felix, who sought long to find Jesus. " Raise the stone, and thou shalt find me ; Cleave the wood, and there am I." Pictures. Christ Among the Doctors, Hofmann, Hunt, Dobson ; Childhood of Christ, Carpenter's Shop at Nazareth, Hofmann ; The Carpenter's Shop, Millais ; The Shadow of Death, Holman Hunt. 6 Stalker. MATTHEW. 21 The Roman dominion was irksome and galling. The people of God were subject to a foreign yoke. The taxes were heavy. Roman soldiers, laws, money, ever reminded them of their sub jection, when they ought to be free and them selves the rulers of the world. When Jesus was ten years old there was a great insurrection (Acts 5 : 37) in Galilee. He who was to be King of the Jews heard and felt all this, and was filled with patriotic impulses. Second. The Jewish hopes of a Redeemer, of throwing off their bondage, of becoming the glori ous nation promised in the prophets, were in the very air he breathed. IX. Training from Travel and Great Religious Meetings. In Luke one incident of these years is preserved for us. At twelve years of age Jesus began his annual journeys to Jerusa lem, and his attendance at the great religious festivals. It is hard to realize now the great edu cational value and the spiritual inspiration of these vacation experiences in a time when there was little communication between different parts of the country. X. The Book of History lay open before him. The scenes of a large portion of the heroic deeds of his nation, the victories and the defeats, the struggles for freedom, and the punishments for sin, were spread out before him, from the hills back of the city, whither he would make many boyish excursions. As Edersheim says, " There could not be a national history, nor even romance, to compare with that by which a Jewish mother might hold her child entranced." XL Communion with God. The silent medi tations, the hidden years, like those of Moses in the wilderness, the lonely wrestlings with life's problems, like Jacob's at the brook Jabbok, the sweet hours of prayer, the opening of the soul to the divine influences, — were all needful to his growth in wisdom, and for his preparation for his life's work. CHAPTER 3. Section IV. -JOHN THE BAPTIST AND HIS MISSION. 3: 1-12. 1. The Hidden Years of John. 2. Preaching in the Wilderness. 3. How He prepared the Way for Jesus. Time. John began to preach in the summer of A. D. 26. He preached six months alone, then a year and three months coincident with Christ till March, A. D. 28. Place. The Wilderness of Judea. John about 30 years old when he began to preach. Jesus between 29 and 30 years old, still at Naz areth. Rulers. Tiberius Caesar, Emperor of Rome ; John's preaching began in his thirteenth year as sole ruler ; Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea (first year) ; Herod Antipas, of Galilee and Perea (thirtieth) ; Herod Philip, of Traehonitis, Idumea, and. the northern regions beyond Jordan. 1. THE HIDDEN YEARS OF JOHN. Time. b. c. 5 to a. d. 26. Place. Hebron and the Wilderness of Judea. John the Baptist was born in the summer of B. c 5, about six months before Jesus, in the hill country of Judea. His parents were the priest Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth, the cousin of Mary ; so that Jesus and John were second cousins. John was the child of prayer and of prophecy. He'was a Nazarite, drinking " neither wine nor strong drink," and was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth (Luke 1 : 15). The history of his first thirty years is recorded in one verse (Luke 1 : 80). He grew in his bodily development, and waxed (grew) strong in spirit, in character, in knowledge, in devotion, in spirit ual insight, in firmness of will. All this time he was in the deserts, not sandy wastes, but sparsely inhabited, wild, uncultivated regions, probably not far from his " hill country " home. Compare the forty years which Moses spent in the desert before he entered upon his great work, and the long period of Elijah's youth before he suddenly appeared to King Ahab. The object of this long period of retirement seems to have been (1) to prevent John from be ing under the influence of the pervading false idea in reference to the Messiah. (2) That he might have long and deep communion with God, both in nature and in revelation, and be filled with his Spirit. As astronomers now discover stars invisible even through the telescope, by placing in it highly sensitive photographic paper exposed 22 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 3:1-3. 1 'AKDin those days ,0metn 'John the Bap'tist, preaching *in the wilderness of Ju-dse'a, 2 And saying, 'Repent ye; for mthe kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of by i^ln^prw'tet: saying, " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ° PMakle ye ready the way of the Lord, "1^ his paths straight. (For vers. 1-12, Bee Mark 1.2-8 & Luke 3. 2-17. j John 1. 6, 7. ft Josh. 15. 61. Cp. Judg. 1. 16. I ch. 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. m ch. 10. 7. Dan. 2. 44. Cp.'ch. 6. 10. n John 1. 23. Cited from Isai. 40. 3. o Luke 1. 76. in perfect stillness for a long time, till the image of the starry heavens is impressed thereon, so in silence and alone great truths of the kingdom of heaven were written on the prophet's soul. " In youth, beside the lonely sea, Voices and visions came to me ; In every wind I felt the stir Of some celestial messenger." 1 (3) From without he could best see the condition of the nation, could study its hopes, understand its sins and dangers, and learn the way by which alone it could be saved. These thoughts burned within his soul like the fires in the heart of a vol cano, till when the hour came they suddenly burst forth as in a lava stream of fire.2 2. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING IN THE "WILDERNESS, vers. 1-3. Time. Summer of A. d. 26. Place. The Wilderness of Judea. Parallels. Mark 1 : 1-3 ; Luke 3 : 1-6. 1. In those days. While Jesus was still living at Nazareth, about twenty-eight years after he came there as a child. The time is given more exactly in Luke, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, or his thirteenth as sole ruler. He reigned two years in conjunction with Au gustus. John the Baptist. So called because he bap tized those who repented and confessed their sins. Baptism was the most characteristic pub lic feature of his work. (See below on ver. 6.) Preaching (tcnpiurabiv, from a noun meaning a herald), proclaiming after the manner of a herald, who is vested with public authority to convey messages or commands from a king or general. In the wilderness of Judaea, not a desert, but wild, uninhabited, unappropriated land of the lower Jordan valley, and extending west of the Dead Sea, belonging to the territory of Judea. 2. Saving, Repent ye (METai-oerre). The Greek word is compounded of a preposition with two meanings, after and with, and a verb meaning to perceive, and to think as the result of perceiving. Hence the meaning to think after a deed is done, and to think with, in comparison with what ought to have been done, or might have been done, and so to think differently after. It is a change of mind resulting in a change of conduct. The em phasis is on the change of mind and heart, rather than on the sorrow which is the impulse that leads to the change of conduct. For, giving the special reason for proclaiming repentance at this time. Sin always demands repentance, but now (1) a new era was at hand when repentance would accomplish more than at any other time, just as the approach of spring gives a new reason for sowing seed ; and (2) be cause there were at hand new aids to repentance, new inspirations, new motives, which made it easier to repent. The kingdom of heaven. That condition of things where God is the real King, the laws are those of heaven, the spirit of its members is that of heaven. It is the rule of God on earth as he rules in heaven. It has its organizations and visible membership, but the kingdom is far larger. " Its origin is in heaven ; its end is in heaven ; its King is heavenly all over ; its sub jects are heavenly in character and destiny ; its laws are heavenly ; its privileges are heavenly ; its institutions are heavenly ; its own culmina tion is in heaven, and is indeed heaven ; its in stitutions on earth are earnests of the glory of heaven. Thus the kingdom on earth and the kingdom in heaven are one, the one kingdom of heaven." 8 Is at hand in the person of Christ its King, who had come to inaugurate the kingdom , to give the light, the motives, the teachings, the message of love from God, to make the atonement neces sary for its coming. 3. For this is he, the words of Matthew not of John. By the prophet Esaias. Greek form of Isaiah. The words are found in Isai. 40 : 3-5, quoted from the Septuagint, the Greek translation in common use at that time. The message that follows was primarily spoken of the exiles in Babylon, who were nationally in a wilderness ; and a real wilderness lay between them and their own The historic country. The time had come for the exile to end, and for the Jews to return and rebuild 1 T. B. Aldrich, Sea Longings. 2 See a highly appreciative notice of John the Baptist by Josephus, Antiquities, 18 : 5 : 2. 8 Morison. 3:3. MATrHEW. 23 their capital city and the temple, which had long lain waste. Then came a voice, not a person, but an unseen call, an inspiration and impulse through out the exiled peoples, as we speak of the voice of Spring calling to the seeds and roots to awake into life and activity. It was the voice of God spoken (1) through his providence ; for the nation that exiled the Jews was overthrown, and a new kingdom with differ ent principles and policies took its place. (2) Through the heathen leaders, as Cyrus, mak ing them see that it was better for them and their nation to restore the Jews, as a defence against Egypt. There may have been also a more direct communication to Cyrus. (3) Through the Jews themselves in a long and widely diffused influence, touching their con science through their sufferings for their sins, and their hearts with an intense longing for deliver ance and religious life. (4) Through the voice of the prophets, especially as recorded in the last part of Isaiah, calling, en treating, warning, promising, awakening in them repentance for the past, and new life, new de sires, new hopes, new love. John fulfilled all this spiritually. He did for the Jews, and for the world in spiritual exile, what this voice did for the exiles six centuries before. This was the great spiritual reality of which the return from the exile was a type and visible ex pression. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. John is called " a voice," because : (1) He was the utterer of God's thought. (2) " The whole man was a sermon ; " his whole personality spoke. (3) Because the emphasis and importance lay chiefly in the message, not in the messenger ; the man was in the background. (4) Himself weak and insignificant, like a breath, a mere vibration of air, he yet produced a mighty effect on the souls of men. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. " In the mountain regions, the washing of the hillsides by the heavy winter rains destroys each year a large portion of the best-laid roads. In the desert re gions the shifting sands, and in the more fertile regions the abundant growth of weeds and shrub bery, make Eastern roads well-nigh impassable, unless care is exercised for their frequent or special clearing. In many parts of the East the ancient roads were prepared or# repaired only at the special call of the king, for his special service on an exceptional occasion." 1 On the 1st of April, 1886, the boy Emperor of China set out on his first journey beyond the confines of Peking, to visit the Eastern tombs, fifteen miles away, to worship his imperial ances tors. " For weeks before the eventful day, hun dreds of men had been at work preparing a road for His Majesty to travel." 2 " On going from Cairo to the Pyramids, over an exceptionally good road, the traveller will not fail to be told that it was built for the Prince of Wales, or for the Empress Eugenie, or for the Khedive himself, or even, rarely, for Napoleon the Great." 8 The best roads now in Palestine were prepared for the Prince of Wales in his late visit to Jeru salem. Make his paths straight, so that the Great King with all his retinue may travel easily over them, to overcome his enemies, and bless his peo ple even to the uttermost bounds of his kingdom. Wherever the conquering Romans went, they built good roads for military and governmental purposes. They are now all over Europe. The description is fuller in Isaiah and in Luke. The Need of Preparation. The way for the coming of the kingdom of God was full of obsta- cles of every kind, — the military power of the Romans which had conquered the world ; the throne of the emperor who was worshipped as God ; the crimes and sins intrenched in customs, fashion, wealth, and the very structure of soci ety ; the pride, the learning, the prejudices of the whole Jewish nation ; all the sins, and evils, and selfishness of the human heart.4 And still every unregenerate human heart is a wilderness abounding in obstacles to the coming of its king. There is need of reformations and revivals, po litical and religious, which stir the community to its very depths, and throughout its whole extent. The ordinary means of grace are most important, but there is also need of other and sudden powers to make men see more clearly both their needs and their hopes, and to bring them to action. Preparing the Way of the Lord. The breaking up of wild ground for cultivation, re moving rocks and roots of trees and thorns and weeds, ploughing the ground, are all necessary as preparations for sowing the good seed, without which there can be no harvest. It is useless to sow even the best of seed on snow banks and frozen soil. Every people, every heart, needs a John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord. The voice comes to us, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord." (1) Fill up the valleys, the sins of omission, — defects of prayer, of faith, of love, of work. (2) Bring down the mountains of 1 H. C. Trumbull, LL. D. See his Studies in Orien tal Social Life. ¦ ¦ Mrs. H. P. Beach. 3 Prof. Isaac H. Hall in Sunday-School Times. * On the moral condition of the world at the time of Christ's coming, see Uhlhorn's Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, Prof. Geo. P. Fisher's The Beginnings of Christianity, Farrar's story From Darkness to Dawn, scenes in the life of Nero. Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis give vivid pictures of the times. 24 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4 AndN ho-^me John himseu had p his raiment of camel's hair, ai about his loins; and his Sod* was 'locusts and r"wild honey. p 2 Kin. 1. 8. Zech. 13. 4. Cp. Heb. 11. 37. q Lev. 11. 22. r 1 Sam. 14. 26. pride, sin, selfishness, unbelief, worldliness. (3) Straighten out all crooked places, crooked deal ings with others, crooked ways of sin, settle diffi culties, confess sins. (4) Smooth rough places, — harshness of temper and manner, lack of courtesy, coldness, fault-finding, which are the little foxes that spoil the vines, the flies in the precious oint ment, the spots in our feasts of charity that mar the beauty of holiness. 3. HOW JOHKT PREPARED THE -WAY, vers. 4-12. Parallels. Mark 1 : 4-8 ; Luke 3 : 7-18. I. By his Manner op Coming ; like a Pro phet of Olden Time. John was the Elijah of the New Dispensation, and he came like Elijah in the suddenness of his coming, and in his general appearance and mode of living. 4. And the same John (or John himself) had his raiment of camel's hair. "Not the elegant kind of cloth made of the fine hair of the camel, which is thence called camlet, but a coarse, rough stuff, manufactured from the long and shaggy hair (shed every year) of those ani mals." l "This raiment of camel's hair was nothing else than that sackcloth of which we read so much in the Scriptures." 2 This coat or mantle1 is still worn by the Arabs, and is of most admirable material for "keeping out the heat, the cold, and the rain." It is used only by the poorest of the people. And a leathern girdle about his loins, neces sary on account of the loose dress. It was of un- tanned leather, like that worn by the Bedouin of the present day. This was in contrast with the richly ornamented girdles, often of the greatest richness, embroidered with silver and gold, in which Orientals delighfa His meat was locusts. The common brown locust is about three inches in length, and the general form is that of a grass hopper. Locusts have been used as food from the earli est times. ' ' Herodotus speaks of a Libyan nation who dried their locusts in the sun, and ate them with milk. The more common method, however, was to pull off the legs and wings and roast them in an iron dish. Then they were thrown into a bag and eaten like parched corn, each one taking a handful when he chose." They are still eaten by the Bedouins, and by some of our American Indians. " The Indians of the coast very highly prize the dishes from these insects. They make soup of them first, and finally, when they will no more answer for soup, they are eaten." Locusts. " Prof. C. V. Riley, the government entomolo gist, was found breakfasting on fried cicada, or seventeen-year locusts, the other morning. They resemble fried oysters. ' I spent an hour last night,' said the host, ' gathering them, and they were very beautiful when fresh. I took them just as the pupa began to break. They were creamy-white and plump, and looked good enough to eat raw, but I didn't venture. I think these should have been stewed instead of fried, — stewed in milk. I presume they would be nearly as good as grasshoppers.' ' Do you eat grasshoppers ? ' ' Certainly. I once ate nothing else for two days, and I found them delicious when properly cooked.' " 3 Locusts are so abundant in this region that, ac cording to the London Daily News, in 1881, 250 tons of locusts were buried in Cyprus, each ton numbering over 90,000,000 of these pests.4 Locusts are sold at one cent a pound " in the market-place in Biskra (which is the second oasis from the north in the Sahara), and there they are cooked by boiling with salt and water, as shrimps are boiled here. I myself have little doubt that they are more nutritious than the latter, because in March, when the insect is gathered and dried, it is as full of albumen as an egg." 6 And wild honey, made by wild bees, and 1 Dr. Campbell. 2 Bp. Porteus. 3 Correspondent of the Boston Journal. * The Popular Science Monthly, xxiii., pp. 531-535, has an excellent article by David A. Lyle, on as Food for Man." B London Daily Graphic. Locusts 3 : 5. 5 Then went out unto round about J6r dan; MATTHEW. 25 him Je-ru'sS-lSm, and all Ju-dse'a, and all the region stored in hollow trees or clefts in the rocks. Such honey abounded in Palestine. Why John lived in this Manner. (1) John's habits were perfectly natural for a poor person living in the wilderness. It required little care or thought, and thus left him free for his great work. (2) The dress was probably delib erately adopted by the Baptist as reviving the outward appearance of Elijah. (See, also, Zech. 13 : 4.) 1 It would thus give him the prestige of a prophet, and power over the people. (3) His manner of living was a protest against the prevalent worldliness as manifested even by the Pharisees with their "long garments " (Mark 12 : 38), and the " gorgeous apparel " of the scribes in the court of Herod (Luke 7: 25). (4) It would enable him to be perfectly fearless and independ ent. He had little to lose by opposition of the great, or to gain from their favor. (5) It sym bolized the rigor and austerity of the old dispen sation ; a fitting garb for those who felt the depths of sin and the danger to which sin had brought the people and the country. But such a manner of living is not required in other circumstances. Jesus Christ, the ideal man of all ages, did not live in this manner. " Though asceticism be sometimes good, it is consciously not the highest nor the most effective goodness. It is harder to be a holy friend of publicans and sinners, a witness for God while eating and drink ing with these, than to remain in the desert un dented." 2 II. John prepared the Way by his preaching Repentance tjnto Remission of Sins, and the approach of the kingdom of heaven (ver. 2. Luke 3:3). There was the sever est denunciation of sin, and the boldest rebuke of wrongdoing, not from the wish that harm should come upon them, not with the desire of vengeance, but always with the desire that men should repent and be saved from the threatened woes. The one absolutely necessary condition was repentance and forsaking sin. Most of the people were looking for some easier way, as men now wish to go to heaven, but cannot without casting away all that is unheavenly and having the heavenly character formed within them. A king, however mighty, a victory over Roman au thority, however great, outward prosperity, how ever abundant, could never bring the promised blessedness. There was only one way, — Repent. Therefore, John denounced sin, particular sins ; he showed their evil and their danger. He was personal, direct, and fearless. He was very vivid in his illustrations. Fire, vipers, winnowing fans, chaff scattered by the winds, trees with the axe laid at their roots, illumined and impressed his teaching. Everywhere in his preaching there was hope forgiveness, the kingdom of heaven, a new life, a redeemed nation, a Great Deliverer. Better things were close at hand. The winter was almost over, and " Heaven's Springtime of Glory " was about to burst upon the world. The things reported were but a portion of John's preaching (Luke 3 : 18). 5. Therefore there went out to him the in habitants of Jerusalem, practically the whole city, and all Judsea. He did not go to them, they went to him, as the hungry go where there is food, and the cold where there is a fire, and the poor where there is a gold mine, no matter how des ert and difficult the place. What drew these Crowds ? To hear such a man denounce their sins? (1) The terrible de nunciations of sin touched their moral nature and almost fascinated them into listening. Perhaps, feeling guilty, they wanted to hear other men's sins brought to the light. (2) There was always hope with the condemnation. John pointed out a way of escape. It was not the terror of despair, but of urgency to use the means of deliverance. (3) John preached to their needs. He said what they needed, what their souls hungered for in their innermost depths. (4) The earnestness of the preacher who thoroughly believed in what he said. (5) What he preached was true, and they knew it. (6) His courage was sublime, for he condemned to their face the very leaders, the Jewish authorities, even Herod himself, who by his conduct was ruining the nation, was warned to his face (see on 14 : 2-5). John was no respecter of persons, but spoke the truth though it cost him his life. (7) There was a general religious awakening and expectation ; such as drew the wise men from the East. The Roman yoke was very bitter, and the people were hoping for a de liverer, and questioned whether John might be the one. Thus their personal needs, their patriotism, their interest in the welfare of their country, awak ened an interest which prepared their minds to consider the claims of the gospel ; just as now, in our country, the connecting of moral questions with political interests causes multitudes to think about and to discuss the great moral questions of the day, and thus becomes one of the greatest of our educating forces. III. By the Rite of Baptism, and Public; Confession. 1 Plumptre. ! G. A. Chadwick in Expositor's Bible. 26 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 3 : 6, 7. 6 andttey were baptized of him in the river J6r'dan, * confessing their sins. 7 IT But when he saw many of the ' Ph&r'i-sees. and " S&d'du-cee§ coSg baptism, he said unto them," rilttmiiSi of w vipers, who hath warned you to flee from x the wrath to come ? s Acts 19. 18. t ch. 23. 13, 15. 5. 6. Col. 3. 6. 1 Thess. 1. 10. u ch. 22. 23. v ch. 12. 34 & 23, 33. w Ps. 140. 3. x Rom. 5. 9. Bph. 6. And were baptized of him in Jordan. It was necessary that some means should be em ployed that would bring the people to a clear and public decision. There must be an open and de cisive stand, both for the sake of the individual himself and for the public. Men do not enlist in a war secretly, as if ashamed of their colors. Their banners, their uniform, their associations, all declare where they stand. None are so weak and useless as those who sit on the fence. Those on the border between two warring countries suffer most of all. " Ablution in the East is of itself almost a religious duty. The dust and heat weigh upon the spirits and heart like a load ; its removal is refreshment and happiness. It was, hence, im possible to see a convert go down into a stream, travel-worn and soiled with dust, and in » mo ment emerge pure and fresh, without feeling that the symbol suited and interpreted a strong crav ing of the human heart." 1 Confessing th6ir sins. The very act of bap tism was a confession of sins and a promise of re pentance, but doubtless they also, as Alford says, made " a particular and individual confession ; " not, however, made privately to John, but before the people. -No one truly repents who does not also confess, — to God the sins against God, to man the sins against man, ever also making resti tution as far as possible. Value of Confession of Sin. (1) Confes sion strikes at the root of the matter, showing that we ourselves are to blame for our sins and the sorrows that flow from them. (2) It honors God before men, no longer imputing to him the evils which belong to ourselves. (3) It confirms and strengthens us in our new life. It is a bar rier against returning again to sin. Secret reli gion is like a plant grown in the shadow, never so vigorous or fruitful as that which grows in the open air. (4) It tends also to convict others of sin, and to lead them to repentance. (5) There fore everything that is noble and honorable in our nature requires us to confess our sins. IV. By Warnings and Denunciations of Sin, vers. 7-10. 7. "When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The two leading religious sects of the Jews, including the principal men of the na tion. Come to his baptism.2 Why? (1) Drawn by the general interest and excitement. (2) Per haps to watch what was going on, so as to hinder the work if need be. (3) Possibly with a half- conscious feeling of sin and need. If the new kingdom was coming, they might want chief places in it. They would be baptized (Luke), if by so easy a form they could be partakers in the kingdom. O generation of vipers. Progeny, brood of vipers. "In all the waste places of the East, among the jagged rocks, on the sands, and especially among the ruins of old inhabited places, among the thorns that grow over the stones, the asp and the adder are to be looked out for. A place in fested with adders is as deadly and dangerous as can be." 8 " The most venomous and dangerous of the many poisonous snakes of Syria. It is of small size, gives no warning rattle, and closely resembles the gray rocks where it lives. If darts upon its victim unawares. This treacherous habit of the viper, and the deadly poison of its bite, gave point to the comparison." 4 They were children, not of Abraham (v. 9), but of "that old serpent the devil," and had the na ture of their father. "Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath. They had come to be baptized, not to re pent ; to go through a form, not to change their natures. Who had told them that the outward form would save them ? What had made them think that there was any danger, since they claimed to be so good, and to belong to the people of God ? The wrath to come. The punishment that must come upon the guilty nation and the sinful individual unless they forsook their sins. (Mai. 3:2; 4:5; Luke 21 : 5-26 ; Matt. 22 : 13 ; Rom. 2 : 9.) The result was as certain as the laws of God. The disease will work death. The fire will burn. This was not denunciation, but warning. It was the cry of love. Its object was to keep them from sufferingthe wrath. The " vipers " were a mirror held up before them that they might real ize what they really were. ' Geikie. 2 See Robertson's Sermons, 1st Series, "The Scribes and Pharisees at tl.e Bapti&m of John." Very suggestive. a Prof. I. H. Hall. ' Dr. E. W. Rice. 3 : 8-11. MATTHEW. 27 8 Bring forth therefore $$?» worthyV repentance: 9 and think not to say within yourselves, '" We have A'br&-ham to our father : for I say unto you, that God is able of a these stones to raise up children unto A'br&-ham. 10 And even now a!l° the aSeis laid unto the root of the trees : therefore " every tree thereforehthat bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 c I indeed baptize you with water ''unto repentance: but che that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you ¦'with the Holy Ghost' and with « fire : y Acts 26. 20. z John 8. 39. a Cp. ch. 4. 3. 6 ch. 7. 19. Luke 13. 7, 9. John 15. 2, 6. c John 1. 26. Acts 1.5. d Acts 13. 24 & 19. 4. e John 1. 15,27 & 3. 30, 31. Acts 13. 25. /John 1.33. Acts 11. 16. g Cp! Isai. 4. 4 & Mai. 3. 2, 3 & Acts 2. 3. 8. Bring forth therefore, if you really wish to be saved, and to escape. If you wish to be bap tized. Fruits meet for repentance. The fruits that grow out of true repentance, and prove it true, as good fruit proves the tree to be good. Compare Gal. 5 : 19-24 and Luke 3 : 10-15, where some of these fruits are named, in particu lar directions to soldiers, taxgatherers, and the people in general. 9. And think not to say within yourselves, as your secret hope and confidence. "We have Abra ham to (for) our father. We must be saved be cause we belong to the race of Abraham and the kingdom he founded, and are inheritors of the promises to him and his children, even if we do not repent, and whatever our character. Such hopes, says John, are absolutely vain. You must inherit Abraham's faith and character if you would inherit the promises to Abraham. God is able of these stones, " doubtless pointing to the stones that lay on the shore of Jordan, where he was baptizing. May there not be a play on the words banim (children), abanim (stones) ? " * To raise up children unto Abraham. " God can as easily make sons of stones as of a brood of vipers." 2 Indeed, he did change the stony hearts of publicans and sinners into children of Abra ham by faith. (See Ezek. 11 : 19 ; 36 : 26, 27 ; and Gal. 3 : 7-9.) Thus God could fulfil all his pro mises without having unrepentant and wicked Pharisees in his kingdom.8 10. The axe is laid (is lying) unto (at) the root of the trees, all ready to cut them down when the time came. As if a farmer, looking over his orchard, and seeing a tree fruitless or with only poor fruit, should lay his axe at its roots for his servants to cut the tree down. It was laid there as a warning. Hence there was a brief respite, with the possibility of such a change into fruit bearing that the axe need not be used. Compare the parable, Luke 13 : 6-10. The Jewish church was this tree. The axe was laid at its root. The forces were already in opera tion which led to the destruction of the Jewish nation 44 years later.4 The same is true of each individual sinner. Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down. Because it takes the place of something better. Moreover, in Palestine the fruit trees are all taxed, whether they bear fruit or not. So that a fruitless tree brings its owner into debt. A few years ago, when taxes were heavy and olive products light, multitudes of olive trees were cut down on the spurs of Lebanon to save taxes. New influences or a new graft might make the tree fruitful again, at the cost of cutting off many a limb. But the Jews, as a nation, were not willing to receive the scion that would have saved them. Wicked men, and their use of ceremonial, their selfish opposition to the principles of the kingdom of God, stood in the way of its coming, and therefore they must be removed. And cast into the fire, a painful and terrible destruction. It was all they were good for. And thus unwillingly they did a little for the help and improvement of the world. V. By pointings to the Messiah, ver. 11. We see more fully in John 1 : 19-37 how John bore witness to Jesus as the Messiah, to the Pharisees, and pointed out Jesus to his disciples as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." 11. I indeed baptize you with water. I give 1 Cambridge Bible. 2 C. H. Spurgeon. 3 See Guthrie's Gospel in Ezekiel, " The Heart of Stone." Compare Shakespeare's Julius Cwsar : -- " There were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of Caesar, that should move The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." * Josephus' Jewish Wars and Charlotte Elizabeth's Judea Capta give vivid pictures of these times, and show how their own bad life was ruining the nation, and repentance would have saved it. 28 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 3:12. 12 who0™* fan !'s in his hand, and he will throughly SSe his threshi00Aioor; and he win 'gather his wheat into the garner; ¦'but hewillbumui> the chaff he wm bum up with * unquenchable fire. h Isai. 30. 24. i ch. 13. j Mai. 4. 1. k Mark 9. 43, 48. you the sign and symbol. I call you to repent ance ; but I cannot give you new life. I point you to one that cometh after me, whose forerun ner I am, but who is so much greater, better, more worthy than I, that his shoes I am not worthy to bear, nor to unloose the thongs by "Winnowing Fans. which the sandals were fastened. I am not worthy to perform the lowest, most humble service for him, for this work belonged to the very lowest class of servants. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. ("Ghost" is Old English for "spirit"). The mightiest power in the universe for renewing the heart and bringing in the kingdom of God. It would be as easy to bring springtime without the sun as the kingdom of God without the Holy Spirit. And with fire. The symbol of the Holy Spirit. The sun is fire, the source of all light and heat, purifying, health-giving, the source of beauty, comfort, life, fruitfulness, and all cheer and power. The fire was visibly manifested on the day of Pentecost, as a symbol of the perpetual but invisible operation of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of men. VI. By showing that a Day of Judgment was at hand, ver. 12. 12. Whose fan is in his hand. The fan is not a fan in our sense ; it is a broad, light, wooden shovel, with which the grain is thrown up to the breeze, so that the wind may carry off the lighter chaff while the heavier grain sinks down clean. He will throughly, old form of thoroughly, from the preposition through. "In that preposition lies the picture of the farmer beginning at one side of the floor, and working through to the other, cleansing as he goes." x The Greek word has the same force. The work will be done thoroughly, through and through. Purge. Cleanse, separate the good from the bad. His gospel, his invitations, his commands, the opportunities he presents, are forever testing men, separating the chaff from the wheat, the sheep from the goats. His floor.2 Threshing-floor, which is usually a circular area of beaten earth, surrounded by a low bank. It represents the world of men into which Jesus has come, with its mingled wheat and chaff. His wheat. The good, the true members of his kingdom. Into the garner. Granary ; the right place for the wheat ; the kingdom of heaven ; heaven. But . . . the chaff. The refuse ; the useless, representing all who continue in sin, unre pentant, good for nothing, harmful. Those who refuse to be converted, and thus to be made into good wheat. He will burn up . . . with un quenchable fire, that no power can put out or enable them to escape. The only possible hope of wicked men is in ceasing to be wicked. There is a time in the lives of both individuals and of nations when the chaff may be changed into wheat. But there is no hope if they remain chaff. The same forces that preserve the wheat destroy the chaff. The fire that purifies the gold consumes the dross. " Grant, 0 Lord," says Quesnell, "that I may have a heart not as of chaff, feeble, light, empty, barren, and tossed about with every wind, but as of wheat, pure, full of real holiness, firm in good ness, fruitful in good works." The chaff is burned up (1) because it is useless ; (2) it would again mingle with the wheat and destroy its best usefulness ; (3) its ashes may en rich the ground and thus increase the crop of wheat. The good that bad men do, as in wars of conquest, is compelled to aid the kingdom of heaven, and the tragedy of their lives is made to do good as a warning. Compare Matt. chap. 25. 8 1 Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 2 Greek, aAura, of which our word halo is a transcript. 3 See Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, " The Bosom Serpent ; " Prof. Phelps' Studies in the Old Testa ment, " The Twin Serpents." Prest. G. Stanley Hall's A Study of Fears is very suggestive in connection with John's preaching. See, also, Plutarch On the Delay of Divine Punishment, annotated very finely by Prof. Peabody of Harvard University, 11 It may be well for us to listen to Hesiod, who main- 3:13. MATTHEW. 29 Section V. — PBEPAR ATIONS OF JESUS FOR ENTERING UPON HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 3: 1. By the Ministry of John. 2. By Baptism. 3. By the Coming upon Him of the Holy Spirit. 4. By the Testimony of a Voice from his Heavenly Father. 5. By the Temptation in the Wilderness. 1-13; 4: 1-11. Time. The Baptism was probably in Jan., a. d. 27 ; the Temptation, the 40 days immediately follow ing. Place. The Baptism, at Bethabara, on one of the fords of the Jordan ; the Temptation in the Wilder ness of Judea, northwest of Jericho. Jesus was about 30 years old. Luke 3 : 23. 13 IT l Then cometh Je'sus "' from G&Ti-lee to the Jor'dan unto JShn, to be bap tized of him. I For vers. 13-17, see Mark 1. 9-11 & Luke 3. 21, 22. Cp. John 1. 32-34. m ch. 2. 22. It is love that warns, and cruelty that fails to ' warn, and cries Peace, Peace, when there is no peace. 1. THE PREPARATION THROUGH THE MINISTRY OP JOHN". John's ministry of preparation for Jesus con tinued nearly two years, from the early summer of A. d. 26 till March, A. d. 28 ; and after that he was in prison, holding up his light from a dungeon for another year till his martyrdom in March, A. d. 29. Note how perfectly this ministry of John was adapted to its purpose not only in its character, but in its circumstances and duration. Ministry of John. 6 mos. alone. a. n. 26 Ministry of Jesus. 1 year and 3 mos. with Jesus. 1st year A. n. 27. Martyrdom. In prison. 2d year A. d. 28. 3d year A. d. 29. Eq For six months before Jesus came upon the scene, John was preaching and awakening a deep religious interest and expectation and a desire for better things. Then for a year and three months he preached in the wilderness of Judea, while Jesus was slowly beginning his ministry chiefly in the cities and villages of Judea, till about the time Matthew begins the story of his ministry in Galilee. This was like the overlap ping where two pieces are spliced together, or the junction of a new scion into a branch whose twigs are removed when the scion has begun to grow from the sap of the tree. Then when the Messiah was fully established in his work, in the wise providence of God John was taken from his active work in a way that deepened the impression of his teachings. He was imprisoned for his faith fulness to duty. He had completed his work. Had he preached longer he would have marred its perfection and hindered the work of the Messiah. " That life is long which answers life's great end." Then for another year be was bearing silent testimony from his prison at Machserus, and at the end he was set upon a martyr's pedestal to shine down the ages as the forerunner of the Mes siah. 2. FREPABATION FOR HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY THROUGH HIS BAPTISM, vers. 13-15. Parallels. Markl: 9; Luke 3: 21. 13. Then, while John was preaching, and the tains, not with Plato that punishment is a suffering that follows wrongdoing, but that it is a twin birth with wrongdoing, springing from the same soil and the same root." The wicked " receive, not after a long time, but during a long time, not a slower, but a longer punish ment ; nor are they punished when they grow old, but they grow old in a state of punishment." " If we confine the name of punishment to the last stage of punishment, as well might we maintain that a fish that has swal lowed the hook is not caught till we see it roasted by the cook or cut up on the table." 30 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 3 : 14-16, 14 But n J5hn Wouia have Mndered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? 15 Buf Je'sus answering said unto him, Suffer it tobeso now: for thus it becom- eth" us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he Zutltth him. 16 And Je'sus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water : and' lo, " the heavens were opened unto him, and he « saw the Spirit of God descending "aT a dove, and comb?/ upon him; n Cp. John 13. 6. o John 9. 4. p Acts 7. 56. q John 1. 32, 33. Cp. Luke 4. 18, 21. Acts 10. i crowds coming to hear him. Cometh Jesus from his home in Nazareth of Galilee, to enter upon his great mission. He was about 30 years old (Luke 3 : 23), in his full maturity. It was the age when priests entered upon their ministry (Num. 4: 3). To Jordan, probably at the ford near Jericho, and not far from Bethabara (John 1 : 28). There is a peculiar analogy in the fact that this was probably the place where the Israelites first crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. It was where Elijah and Elisha miraculously crossed the Jordan. To be baptized of (by) bim, who was introducing the kingdom of God. The announce ment and the one announced came together. "When Jesus heard John's call for consecration to the approaching kingdom, he recognized the voice of duty, and he sought the baptism that he might do all that he could ' to make ready the way of the Lord.' " * 14. But John forbad him. The imperfect tense implies not that John actually forbade or hindered him, but was in the act of forbidding, had it in mind to prevent him. So the R. V., " would have hindered." 2 I have need. lam the sinful but repentant one. I am the inferior, only the doorkeeper, the preparer of the way. It is more fitting that I should express my repentance by being baptized of thee than that the sinless one should come to me for baptism. How did John recognize Jesus as so holy, the possible Messiah ? (1) They were kinsmen, and John could not have been brought up in igno rance of the circumstances of Jesus' birth, the song of the angels, the visit of the wise men, the song of Mary, and the prophecy of Simeon. (2) He must also have had some acquaintance with the pure and sinless life of Jesus at Nazareth. (3) Before this John had received from heaven the assurance that the Messiah was at hand, the means by which he was to recognize him (John 1 : 33), and he presumed that Jesus was the one. 15. Suffer it (permit it) for thus it becom- eth us, both of us, or a general statement true of all men, to fulfil all righteousness, to do what is right, what ought to be done. Why was Jesus baptized ? The reason is practically summed up in the expression " to ful fil all righteousness." (1) " It was right for all good men to be baptized ; and Jesus, as a man, was under obligations to do whatever was incumbent on other good men. If one so deeply devout had stayed away from the ministry and baptism of the new prophet, it would have be£n setting a very bad example, unless explained." 3 " As men could consecrate themselves to a holy life and work in baptism, so could he ; and so he did, pledging himself to the higher activity of that Messianic life on which he was only then enter ing."4 (2) "Jesus was the example for his dis ciples to imitate ; and as baptism was to be an ordinance of perpetual obligation in the new dis pensation, we see in the baptism of Jesus an example to his followers."5 (3) It was a public renunciation of sin and a public profession of re ligion. It is true that Christ himself knew no sin and needed no repentance (John 8 : 46 ; 1 4 : 30), but all the more would he renounce all sin publicly, showing where he stood in relation to it. (4) " He was baptized in order to show that he would achieve his redeeming work by sharing in the fortunes of our fallen and wrecked hu manity." " He is in very truth our fellow man, and as such enters into man's duties.' ' 6 (5) "Our Lord was now at the age (the thirtieth year) of the priests at their entrance into office (Num. 4 : 3)." 7 (6) Thus, by his own personal obedi ence to all righteousness, Jesus was prepared to teach the people. "It is not true, as is sometimes said, that Christ professed religion only by his life." 8 3. BY THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON HIM. ver. 16. Parallels. Mark 1 : 10 ; Luke 3: 22. 16. "Went up straightway out of the water and up the bank of the river. He was praying as he went (Luke 3 : 21). Thus it was when he 1 Prof. Rush Rhees, The Life of Jesus. 2 The verb iB Sc&cuiXvev. The preposition Sid, through, thoroughly, intensifies the verb. John strenuously, ear nestly protested, with deep feeling. » Prof. John A. Broadus. 4 W. N. Clark, D. D. 5 G. W. Clark, D. D. 6 George D. Boardman, D. D., The Divine Man. ' Prof. M. w. Jacobus. 8 Lyman Abbott, D. D. 3: 17. MATTHEW. 31 17 and1 lo,r a voice onfcjffiSvens, saying," This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. r John 12. 28. s Matt. 17. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 17. Cp. Ps. 2. 7. Isai. 42. 1. Bph. 1. 6. Col. 1. 13. 1 John 5. 0. was transfigured. The heavens were opened. In Mark, K. V., " rent asunder." All that had hidden from him the view of his heavenly home and his Father above was rent asunder, and he saw into the very heaven of heavens. And the way was shown from heaven to earth. He (Jesus) saw, so did John (John 1 : 34). The Spirit of God descending like a dove. The Holy Spirit descended not only in the manner of a dove, but in the bodily shape of a dove (Luke 3: 22). 1 This was the symbol ; the coming of the Spirit was a reality. Lighting upon him. It was by this sign that John was to know for certain that Jesus was the Messiah whose way he had been preparing. Thus he could point him out to others (John 1 : 32-34). " The dove was histor ically connected in the Jewish mind with the abatement of the waters after the flood, and has become, as well as the olive branch, a symbol of peace among all Christian people ; and it is re ferred to by Christ as a symbol of harmlessness and gentleness."2 We should add purity and a loving, attractive nature. It was the symbol of salvation. " All along the ages it is the power of his gentleness and tenderness and meekness — his love, in short — that has been victorious. He has 4 wooed and won.' " 3 The Spirit produces, in the hearts of those who dwell in the Spirit, the dove-like nature, — gentle, loving, attractive. The dove and the fire are complementary symbols expressing different aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Object was : (1) To illumine his nature to himself, " to complete his growing conscious ness of his relation to God." (2) " It marked the official beginning of his ministry like the anointing of a king." 4 (3) It pointed Jesus out as the Son of God (John 1 : 32-34). 4. BY THE TESTIMONY OP A VOICE PROM HIS HEAVENLY FATHER, ver. 17. Parallels. Mark 1 : 11 ; Luke 3 : 22. 17. Lo, a voice from heaven. Three times during our Lord's earthly ministry was a voice heard from heaven : (1) at his baptism ; (2) at his transfiguration (Mark 9:7); (3) in the courts of the temple during Passion Week (John 12 : 28). This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Thus God endorsed him and his mis sion, and showed to the Jewish nation that here was the Messiah. It must also have strengthened and confirmed the human Jesus as to his nature and his work. Practical Suggestions. These three things are essential to every Christian ; and in propor tion as he has received them will he be fitted for any work, or mission, or reform, in promoting the kingdom of God. 1. He needs to publicly confess his faith in Christ, and to stand pledged on the side of right eousness. 2. He needs the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whose symbols are a dove and fire. 3. He needs the approval of God, manifest to himself and to others ; a divine call and endorse ment in some form. 1 Dean Alford. • Lyman Abbott, D. D. s Morison. » Int. Crit. Com. 32 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4: 1. CHAPTER 4. Section V. (continued). — THE FIFTH PREPARATION OF JESUS FOR HIS PUBLIC WORK, — VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION. 4 : 1-11. 1. First Temptation. 2. Second Temptation. 3. Third Temptation. 4. Victory over Temptation. Time. January and February, A. D. 27. Place. The Wilderness of Judea. Parallel Accounts. Luke 4: 1-13. Mark 1 : 12, 13. 1 ' Then was Je'sus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness " to be tempted of the devil. t For vers. 1-11 see Mark 1. 12, 13. Luke 4. 1-13. u Cp. Heb. 2. 18 &4. 15. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit. It was just after his baptism and he was full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). It was some impulse of this Spirit that impelled him to go (Mark 1 : 12). Into the wilderness. Where in solitude he could be absorbed in intense meditation, and fight for himself the great battle with temptation. Mark says he was " with the wild beasts " (i. e., without human companionship or help). There is no hint given as to the place where Jesus went to be tempted, but most authorities incline to the northern part of the wilderness of Judea, north of the line between Jerusalem and Jericho, with the Jordan and the upper part of the Dead Sea on the east. Tradition places it in Mount Quar- antania, not far from Jericho, near the Jordan. It was named Quarantania (which means a space of forty days) because Jesus was supposed to have passed his forty days of fasting in one of its caves. To be tempted of the devil. For the whole forty days, according to Luke. It was not merely one sudden assault. The three tempta tions were either a summary of the whole forty days' experience, or the final assaults at the close.1 SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERA TIONS. I. We will best understand these temptations if we gain a clear vision of the circumstances in which Jesus is placed at the beginning of his Mes sianic work. He stood on the threshold of his lit' ework, his mission from heaven. The greatness of the work was appalling. Before him lay two ways ; which should he choose ? On the one hand were the popular expectations of the Jews, an outward political kingdom, vic tories over Rome, an independent nation standing at the head of the world, a king more splendid than Solomon in all his glory, visible, honored, quickly gained, a movement with the tide of Jew ish feeling and opinion. On the other hand a religious movement, over throwing the hopes and powers of the leaders, resisted by every prejudice and influence, silent, almost invisible, slow in coming, disappointing to the people, victorious only by his death, and long after his death. Which should he choose ? Could he undertake it ? Which was the best way ? Here was the crisis of his life, the crisis of the history of the world. Satan seized the opportunity to tempt, and God used it as a test. It was a test whether Jesus was qualified for his office, — whether he would remain true to the spiritual idea of the Messiah. In order to be the Saviour of tempted mankind, it was necessary that he him self should be tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4 : 15). He must fight the battle to show us how to gain the victory, we having the same helps that he had. As. the first Adam, the head of the race, must be tempted and tested at the beginning of his career, so must the second Adam, the head of the redeemed 1 On the Temptation : Dr. Wace's Central Points of Our Lord's Ministry; Dr. Boardman's The Divine Man, " The Temptation ; " Rev. George S. Barrett's Tlie Temptation of Christ. George MacDonald has two excel lent sermons on the temptation, in C. S. Robinson's Sab bath Evening. Milton's Paradise Lost; Longfellow's Divine Tragedy. For illustrations, see Milton's Paradise Regained, Boole 3 ; the Sirens and Circe, in Homer's Odyssey (the story of Circe is best told in Hawthorne's exquisite Tan- glewood Tales) ; the tract, Peter Parley ; Bunyan's Pil grim's Progress, " The Battle with Apollyon ; " Farrar's Life of Christ in Art, pp. 310-312 ; Rogers' Grey son Let ters, " The Madman and the Devil ; " Jacox's Secular Annotations, pp. 10, 143 ; story of St. Anthony's tempta tion in Foster's Cyclopedia, 5G57. 4: 1. MATTHEW". 33 people of God, be tempted and tested at the be ginning of his work. The first Adam failed, and changed paradise into a desert ; the second Adam gained the victory, and changed a desert into paradise. II. Temptation is the testing of a person : either to see what he is fit for, with the desire that he stand the strain ; or with the intent to make him fall. The first is God's way ; he tests and tries men. The second is Satan's way ; he tempts. God never tempts men (Jas. 1 : 13). But God does transform the temptations of Satan and of men into trials for their good. IH. Two Elements in Temptation. (1) There is some strong allurement or attraction, and the strength of the temptation depends upon the intensity and continuity of the allurement. (2) There must be something wrong in the thing desired or in the way and conditions of attain ing it. IV. The Temptations op Jesus were Real. In whatever form the temptations came, the battle was real. It was no sham fight. It was no mere form, for example's sake. Satan was in earnest, and intended to prevent the com ing of the kingdom of heaven with every force he could muster and every scheme he could devise. And Jesus knew that he could choose good or evil, and that the result for himself, for the hu man race, and for the kingdom of God depended upon his choice. There was no foreordained cer tainty of victory. V. How could a Holy Being be tempted? The reply comes by distinguishing between (1) the desire, which may be natural and right, and (2) the indulgence of that desire in forbidden ways. It is not sinful to be hungry, but it is sinful to satisfy that hunger by lying, or stealing, or dis obedience. Eve did not sin in liking the forbid den fruit and in desiring knowledge. She sinned when she ate contrary to God's command. We are tempted by our natural desires ; by right long ings and hungerings of spirit which are right and good. Sin is the yielding to an unlawful gratify ing of those desires. Jesus was tempted by means of the good that was in him, through his desire to do good and to save men. " 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall." Shakespeare. Professor Plummer, in the Int. Grit. Corn, on Luko, with true insight, says : " The force of a temptation depends not upon the sin involved in what is proposed, but upon the advantage con nected with it. And a righteous man, whose will never falters for a moment, may feel the attrac tiveness of the advantage more keenly than the weak man who succumbs ; for the latter probably gave way before he recognized the whole of the attractiveness, or his nature may be less capable of such recognition. In this way the sinlessness of Jesus augments his capacity for sympathy ; for in every case he felt the full force of tempta tion." "Sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain." 1 VI. The Tempter. Jesus was tempted of the devil (diabolos). In the original, the word is always with the article, and always in the singu lar number. Whenever the plural " devils " is used, it is the translation of another word, " de mons." " Devil " means calumniator, slanderer, accuser, one who seeks by vile, false means to injure others by slandering God, misrepresenting the truth, and so leading men astray. The Hebrew "Satan" means "one who opposes," " an adversary," one opposed to God, to good, to the welfare of man, man's great enemy. He is the leader, the chief of evil spirits. It is no more unreasonable to believe in a personal devil than in bad men, bad leaders on earth. Denying the existence of the devil lays much heavier charges of evil on the nature of man than does the belief in Satan. VII. In what Form the Tempter came to Jesus we do not know, but we do know that he was tempted " like as we are." And this assures us of several things. 1. Satan could not have come as Satan, as Apollyon to Bunyau's Pilgrim, with horrible form and sulphurous and flaming breath ; for he does not tempt us in that way. Such an appear ance would drive us away, not attract us. It is not the drunkard in his loathsome wretchedness, nor the terrors of delirium tremens, but the gilded saloon, the fascination of the early exhilaration of wine, that tempts men to intemperance. " Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen." 2. If he came in bodily form at all, it must have been as an angel of light, or " in the guise of a friendly stranger, with gracious manner and plausible speech." 3. " My own impression," says Dr. Boardman,2 " is that Satan came to him in a guise hardly dis tinguishable from his own mental operations." " Temptation is all the more effective because so insidious, seeming to rise out of our own minds." " Bunyan, who knew so well the windings of the human heart, has admirably illustrated this when he represents his Pilgrim, while walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as horrified by what seemed to be his own blasphe- 1 Canon "Westcott, on Heb. 2 : 18. 2 The Divine Man. 34 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4:2,3. 2 And when he had * fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an ¦" hungred. 3 And when*the tempter came ""S116 said' unto him, If thou & "the Son of God, command that s these stones DeSmie bread. v Cp. Deut. 9. 9, 18 & 1 Kin. 19. 8. w Cp. John 4. 6,7. xl Thess. 3. 5. y See ch. 14. i z Cp. ch. 3, 9. mies." Bunyan's picture is this: "Just as he was come over against the mouth of the burn ing pit, one of the wicked ones got up behind him, and stepped up softly to him and whis pered grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded out of his own mind." 1 Flowers of Comport in the Wilderness of Temptation. No one can enter upon the great world of life and usefulness without first being tempted and tried. Thus at the beginning of the Christian life comes the great temptation, — the battle as to who shall rule the soul : its success is conversion, the entrance upon the new and the true life. All who would become strong and useful must gain their power largely through victory over temptation. It is thus that the soul "builds itself larger mansions." It is a chief factor in education. Men gain victories only through battles. They cultivate courage through things that test courage. They grow in faith through the things that try their faith. They learn business by taking the risks of business. People without trials and temptations are always failures. Again, the fact that Christ was tempted shows us that the fact that we are tempted is no proof that we are wicked. "Some sensitive natures conclude that they must be very sinful because they are so much tempted," says Way land Hoyt, " whereas multiplicity of temptation is often rather an evidence of faithfulness and integrity. The strongest attacks are made upon the strong est forts. Repeated temptation argues the exist ence of resistance." Four Aspects op Each Temptation. In order to understand the three great temptations which are now described, it is necessary that we seeclearly four things in respect to each of them. (1) The Allurement. What it was that made the act so intensely desirable to an innocent and holy person like Jesus. (2) The Wrong in doing what was proposed. (3) The Means of Victory. The same for Jesus as for us. (4) The Application to us. The tempta tion as a type of our temptations. THE FIRST TEMPTATION THROUGH NATURAL APPETITES AND DESIRES, vers. 2-4. 2. Fasted forty days and forty nights Being tempted all the time (Mark, Luke). He was probably thinking, praying, planning. Old Testament Examples. Moses (Ex. 34 : 28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19 : 8), representing the law and the prophets on the Mount of Transfigu ration ; each spent forty days fasting in the wil derness. 1. The Attraction. He was afterward an hungred. When the reaction has begun, hunger asserts itself with terrible force. The stories of shipwrecked sailors, or of sieges, as that of Jeru salem, where women ate their own children, give some conception of the intense craving of Jesus' hunger at this time. No stronger temptation could come to man. 3. The tempter came to him. In this hour, when his desire for food was strongest, and his powers of resistance weakest. Satan still watches his time, and attacks us when weary, sick, trou bled, disheartened, and nervous. If thou be (art) the Son of God, if you really are God's Son, and hence are possessed of miraculous pow ers, command that these stones, probably pointing to one of the small, round, flat stones lying near him, which looked like their loaves of bread, " and which" were represented in legend as the petrified fruits of the cities of the plain. The very appearance of these stones, like the bread for which the faint body hungered, may have added force to the temptation." 1 Be made bread, and thus satisfy your hunger, and at the sam e time prove that you have the powers of the 1 " Tintoretto, in his Temptation of Christ, in the Scu- ola di San Rocco, makes the tempter a beautiful angel with an evil face." — Farrar's Life of Christ in Art. " The picture owes a great part of its effect to the lustre of the jewels in the armlet of this evil angel, and to the beautiful color of his wings. The armlet is seen by reflected light, its tones shining by inward lustre, this occult fire being the only hint given of the real character of the tempter." — Ruskin, in Stones of Venice. See Alexander Robertson's The Bible of St. Mark's, p. 222, for description of the mosaic of the Temptation, in St. Mark's, Venice. In Moore's Lalla Rookh, the prophet of the silver veil tempts Zelica by visions of blessing which conceal his selfish soul, and by the silver veil which hides his hid eous features. " Here judge if hell with all its power to damn Can add one curse to the foul thing I am." 4 : 4-6. MATTHEW. 35 4 But he answered and said," It is written, b Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5 cThen the devil taketh him up into "the holy city- and irf£|{1 him on tge pin nacle of the temple, 6 and saith unto him, If thou an the Son of God, cast thyself down : for it is written, c He shall give his angels charge concerning thee : IndoVtheir hands they shall bear thee up, le Leas\ 1%$™ thou dash thy foot agahist a stone. a ver. 7, 10. Eph. 6. 17. b Cited from Deut. 8. 3. Cp. John 4. 34. c Luke 4. 9. d ch. 27. 53. Neh. 11. 18. Isai. 48. 2 & 52. 1. Rev. 11. 2. Cp. Ps. 46. 4 & 48. 1 & Rev. 21. 2 & 22. 19. e Cited from Ps. 91. 11, 12. true Son of God. The temptation was much more than to satisfy hunger, however intense. It was to test his power as the Son of God in the lower plane of the people's expectations that the Messiah would be able to feed his people and their armies as Moses fed the Israelites with manna. How the people would hail such a king ! as is shown by their trying to make him king after he had fed the five thousand. The desire for food and the desire to hasten the kingdom of God were innocent and good. II. The Sin in yielding. For unless it was wrong, there was no temptation in his hunger, but only an opportunity to satisfy it. The wrong was not in satisfying his hunger, for he accepted food from the angels (ver. 11), but in doing it when he ought not to, at the instigation of Satan, at the expense of higher things. This would have destroyed his power and mission as a Saviour of men. He could not then be tempted like as we are, if he used his supernatural power to save himself from hunger, for we have no such power. "Such a course," says Godet, "would have made his humanity a mere appearance." "It was," says MaeDonald, "God's business to take care of him, his to do what his Father told him to do." It would thus have been the giving up of his mission as the Redeemer for the sake of something to eat, selling his soul, and all souls, for a mess of pottage. It would have been the choice of the outward kingdom according to the popular expectations, and giving up the spiritual kingdom which alone is the true kingdom of God. And this was what Satan was seeking. III. The Victory came through a right use of the Word of God. 4. It is written, in Deut. 8: 3, quoted from the Greek translation. Man shall not live by bread alone. By food for the body. This quo tation referred to the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness, when, in answer to their bitter complaints of hunger from the absence of ordi nary food, God sent them manna. God, by his word, could give other kinds of food in his own time and way. It had a lower meaning, referring to manna, and a higher, referring to spiritual food. Jesus meant (1) that God could feed him in other ways than by his doing wrong, as indeed he did soon after, for the angels ministered unto him ; (2) that there was something higher, better, more needful than earthly food, even obedience, faith, love, character, righteousness. " He that would save his life shall lose it." Modern Applications. Our bodies and our souls are full of desires, appetites, hungers, which are innocent in themselves, but which we are tempted to gratify in wrong ways, Satan's ways, in contradistinction to God's ways. This is the essence of most sins of the flesh, which work disease and death, as intemperance, gluttony, and social vices. So too our highest and deepest longings — as for love, for usefulness, for success, for larger spheres — may be gratified in wrong ways, at the expense of character, and on low, outward, instead of holy spiritual methods. Examples. Eve losing paradise by eating the forbidden fruit. Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage. David blackening the close of his life by yielding to passion. THE SECOND TEMPTATION. To gain the Kingdom of Good by a False and Presumptuous Faith. It is the seeking to obtain success, happiness, a life worth living, by worldly means instead of the divine, by a misuse of God's promises ; by expecting results without fulfilling the conditions. I. The Attraction. 5. Taketh him up into the holy city. Jerusa lem, literally, or in spirit. On a (the) pinnacle, orrather wing, of the temple. The word Temple here includes the whole mass of sacred buildings in the temple area. " Herod's Temple had two wings, the northern and southern, of which the southern was higher and grander, hence probably the wing." 2 The roof was flat and surrounded by a balustrade. From it one looked down six hundred feet into the valley of Hinnom. 6. If thou be the Son of God. Thus plant ing a doubt in his mind. Cast thyself down. 1 Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. " By a similar fancy certain crystallizations on Mt. Carmel and near Bethlehem are called ' Elijah's Melons ' and the ' Virgin Mary's Tears.' " = Prof. M. R. Vincent. 36 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4:7. 7 Je'sus said unto him, •'Again it is written, again' "Thou shalt not ''tempt the Lord thy God. /ver. 4, 10. g Cited from Deut. 6. 16. h Cp. Isai. 7. 12. Not into the valley of Hinnom, but into the court of the Temple among the crowds. Why? (1) It would prove that he was indeed the Son of God. (2) It would seemingly prove his perfect trust in God. For it is written, in Ps. 91 : 11, Sep- tuagint (Greek) version, then in common use. " The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." 1 He shall give his angels charge, etc. Satan's meaning is, You can do this act in perfect safety, for you rest on God's promise, which cannot be broken, and you honor God by your perfect con fidence in his Word. To understand the force of this temptation to Jesus, the picture of the scene must be clear and vivid before our minds. " He who has not seen the building of Herod has never seen a beautiful thing." The Temple proper was surrounded by magnificent cloisters of Corinthian columns thirty- eight feet high, enclosing the Temple area, " which was always thronged with ecclesiastics and their retainers and clients, gossip-seekers of the city, and visitors from the country." "The picture paints Christ appearing on the battle ments of the temple towers, and descending thence, superior to the law of gravitation, at tended by a choir of angels, and in this pomp passing into the cloisters of the Temple and the colonnade of Corinthian pillars, the hosannas of cherubim declaring him to be the Son of David. The picture paints him receiving the homage of the national leaders and being elected to the throne of David." 2 " Reveal thyself by royal act and gesture, Descending with the bright triumphant host Of all the highermost Archangels, and about thee as a vesture The shining clouds, and all thy splendors show, Unto the world below." 3 To inaugurate his society in Jerusalem as the glorious capital of his empire, to make the Temple the basis of his sway, to rally the elect spirits for renovating the old system, to utilize all the eccle siastical and intellectual forces, " to become the visible dictator of invisible powers,'' all this lay within the tempter's proposition. The vision must have charmed him, as he saw the whole na tion following him, the Roman yoke broken, the kingdom of God bursting upon the earth in sud den and unspeakable glory, instead of the long, slow, unnoticed process through an humble teacher, with few disciples, and a career ending upon the cross. II. The Sin. (1) To have done this would have been a misrepresentation of the nature of faith, the very foundation of his work. (2) It would have been tempting God by expecting an unwarranted exemption from the natural laws under which all men live, and so he would not have been tempted like as we are. (3) It would have been disobeying the Scriptures defining what the Messiah should do. It was defying God's way for the coming of his kingdom. It would have destroyed the whole value and power of his salvation, gaining him subjects, not chil dren ; outward homage, and not new hearts. It would have rendered impossible the true and blessed kingdom of heaven, in a morally trans formed world. III. The Victory was gained. A right use of the weapon Satan had used against him. " Jesus met the temptation with the Word of God : a weapon that we too may use, like King Arthur's sword, ' which flashed with the flame of sixty torches, and with every stroke clove a man.' " 4 7. It is written (Deut. 6: 16) again. On the other hand, as explaining the words you quote. " In that Ii is written again of Christ lies a great lesson, the secret of our safety and defence against all distorted use of isolated passages of Holy Scripture." We need the balance of counter and coordinated truth to preserve us from dis tortion and error.6 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. That is, " distrust God or test his power presumptuously." A case is described, Ex. 17 : 1-7. It is to demand that God should fulfil his promises to those to whom they are not 1 In Scott's Ivanhoe the Templar essays to corrupt the Jewess by citing the examples of David and Solomon. " If thou readest the Scriptures," retorts Rebecca, " and the lives of the saints only to justify thine own license and profligacy, thy crime is like that of him who ex- tracteth poison from the most healthful and necessary herbs." " But then I sigh ; and, with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil ; And thus I clothe my naked villany With old odd ends stolen forth of Holy Writ ; And seem a saint, when moBt I play the devil." Richard III, Act I., Scene 3. " The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart." Merchant of Venice, Act I., Scene 3. 2 W. W. Peyton, D. D., in Expositor for Nov., 1890. 3 Longfellow, Divine Tragedy. ' J. L. Hurlbut, D. D. e So Arbp. Trench. 4 : 8, 9. MATTHEW. 37 8 'Again, the devil taketh him uSn"o° an exceeding high mountain, and shew- eth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; 9 aid'Kid unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. i Luke 4. 5. made, and in circumstances in which they do not apply, or else appear to have dishonored his Word. Whatever had happened to Jesus, had he yielded, the victory would have been Satan's. Either he would have been killed, and that would have ended his work ; or if by chance he sur vived, he would have lost faith, obedience, char acter, and his whole mission to man. IV. Modern Applications. The attempt to build up the church or Sunday-school by pander ing to fashion or wealth instead of by spiritual life. Men expect heaven without the faith and love that make heaven. They expect the fruit of victories without fighting the battles. They expect health, while they violate all laws of health. They expect results, while they refuse to use the means, and call it faith. They com plain of God as bringing upon them the evils which are the result of their own sins and errors. They blame God for punishment, while they re fuse to forsake their sins. They put themselves in needless perils, and blame God if he does not protect them.1 3. THE THIRD TEMPTATION. To gain Success by Wrong-doing. Vers. 8-10. I. The Attraction. 8. The devil taketh him up, probably in vision or imagination, as there is no mountain from which can be seen with the natural eye all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of tbem. Not only the splendid courts and cities like Rome, but the kingdoms of literature, art, and culture in Greece ; the " bar baric pearls and gold " of the Orient ; and possi bly a vision of the future, with its glorious civi lizations, with its redeemed peoples, fulfilling all that the prophets foretold, or John in Patmos saw of the new heavens and the new earth. " The kingdoms of the world thine eyes behold Like a great map unrolled." " It was Satan's masterpiece." Milton, in his Paradise Regained, pictures with matchless skill "our Lord as lost in meditation upon the means by which his kingdom can be founded and built up." " Victorious deeds Flamed in my heart ; heroic acts, — one while To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke, Then to subdue and quell o'er all the earth Brute violence and proud tyrannic power." 9. All these things will I give thee. I will withdraw my opposition. I will use all my influ ence and power to make you the greatest worldly king, like Alexander or Csesar. Your hopes shall be realized. You shall 14 Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, And on the midnight sky of rain Paint the Goldeu Morrow." In a measure Satan did have these things. Christ later called him the " prince of this world." On everything he had stamped his seal. " The trail of the serpent was over them all." The kingdoms were ruled largely according to Satan's principles. Satan offered him at once, without waiting long centuries for wrongs to cease, the very things he had come on purpose to gain. There will be no slow and painful process, no conflict, no persecu tions, no great self-denials, no martyrdoms, no soul lost ; but the new era, the good time coming, will burst at once into noontide glory over all the earth. He came to vanquish Satan, and lo ! he would surrender himself. This offer must have been exceedingly attractive. It was an appeal to the highest motives and noblest feelings. It had greater power and attractions because it was the way the Jews expected the Messiah to rule, and the kind of kingdom they longed for.2 II. The Sin lay in the conditions on which only Satan would fulfil' his promise. If thou wilt fall down and worship me. This was the only condition possible. Satan does not mean a bald act of worship, a bending in outward rev erence to the grim king of darkness. As Weiss says, " The suggestion that he would fall down before the actual devil and worship him is a sug- 1 See Pres. Charles Cuthbert Hall's Does God send Trouble ? 2 There is a curious little picture in the Crystal Palace gallery of Munich, called The Red Fisherman. The devil in red costume is fishing for men, who are like fishes in a pond. The bait on his hook consists of gold coins, but near him are other kinds of bait, — crowns, swords, wines, jewels. See Virgil's story of the wooden horse entering through the walls of Troy : — " Daughters of Time the hypocritic days. Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, And marching single in an endless file, Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. To each they offer gifts after his will, — Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all." 38 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4 : 10, 11. 10 Then saith Je'sus unto him, Get thee hence, j Satan : for* it is written, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and '" him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth him'; and' behold," angels came and ministered unto him. j See 1 Chr. 21. 1. * ver. 4, 7. I Cited from Deut. 6. 13. m 1 Sam. 7. 3. n ch. 26. 53. Luke 22. 43. gestion which even he who is but moderately pious would without hesitation and with abhor rence refuse to entertain." Rather, Satan asked such an act of worship as when men worship money by loving it better than God ; when they worship success by placing it before duty : a real, not a formal worship. Satan is too shrewd to insist on the form if he can gain the heart. It may have meant, as Bishop A. C. A. Hall sug gests : " Flatter the people ; be more politic in your teaching. Lower your standard a little ; don't have so much to say about the cross, about self-denial;" or, " Place yourself at the head of an insurrectionary movement. Upset the Roman usurper. Lead us on to victory." Christ was to give up his spiritual kingdom for a temporal ; his spiritual power of love for armies, palaces, and outward honors ; his converting the world for a ruling of the world. III. The Victory was gained, as before, by the Word of God planted in his memory and in his heart. 10. Get thee hence, Satan. It was by this -proposal that Satan revealed himself. This was the Ithuriel's spear that made everything it touched appear in its true nature, as Milton re presents it in the temptation in Eden. Jesus may not, before this, have realized that the tempter was Satan ; but now the robes of light fell off, and Satan stood undisguised before him, in all his hideous nature. To give up dying for the sins of the world, to give up converting the world, and let Satan really rule, — this could come only from Satan, the great adversary of all good. For it is written (Deut. 6 : 13), Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. The first and great com mandment. There is none other worthy of wor ship, and there is no other way of gaining the true kingdom of God. IV. Modern Applications. " We share the experience of this temptation when we are tempted, for the sake of power, wealth, or influ ence, to conform to the world, and to employ Satan's instruments in even seeming to do God's service. We yield to the third when we are con formed to this world, and adopt its policies and methods, and imbibe its spirit for the sake of its rewards." 1 We find this temptation in the attempts of the church to fulfil its mission by worldly power and pomp, by dictating to governments, by seculariz ing the church, by statecraft, by wars and per secutions. The result has always been a spiritual failure. It is the gaining any success by wrong doing ; attaining power, or wealth, or rank, or high ambitions, or political and social heights, by any kind of wrongdoing.2 4. CONSOLATION AFTER VICTORY. No greater victory has ever been recorded. The greatest joy and peace are those that come as a benediction after conflict. 11. Then the devil leaveth him. " For a season " (Luke 4 : 13). He was tempted again and again ; at last in Gethsemane and on the cross. And, behold, angels. Spiritual beings ; probably in visible form on this occasion. Min istered most naturally means " supplied him with food," as in the case of Elijah (1 Kings 19 : 5) ; and with all spiritual support, comfort, and companionship. Milton thus celebrates this victory : — " Straight a fiery globe Of angels on full sail of wings flew nigh . . . Then in a flowery valley set him down On a green bank, and set before him spread A table of celestial food, divine. Ambrosial fruits fetched from the Tree of Life, And from the Fount of Life, ambrosial drink . . . And as he fed, angelic choirs Sung heavenly anthems of his victory." The First Year of Jesus' Public Ministry. — The Year of Beginnings. Chiefly in Judea. a. d. 27. Between verses 11 and 12 belong more than a year of Jesus' public life, the whole of the Judean ministry, and the first months of the Galilean ministry up to March, A. D. 28. The events of this year are recorded only by John, the disciple who was more with Jesus at this time than any of the others. Matthew does not mention this year, for he knew nothing of it from personal experience. He does not begin his account till Jesus made his home in Capernaum where Matthew lived, and not long before his call to become a disciple. The chief events recorded were : — ' Abbott. 2 N. P. Willis' Poems, " Parrhasius " shows how futile is ambition gained by sin. Robert Browning's Poems, ** Bishop Blougram's Apology " shows the vanity of " success at any cost." In George Eliot's Romola Tito Melema gradually deteriorates by yielding to temptation. Mrs. Browning's Andrea del Sarto presents a similar case. Irving Brown's poem, The Bubbles of Life. 4:12. MATTHEW. 39 12 H Now when Je'8h|had heard that ° J6hn was cad8lilvl?edrup0,n' p he wXSw into GaT- I-lee ; o ch. 14. 3. Mark 1. 14. Luke 3. 19, 20. Cp. John 3. 24. p Luke 4. 14. 1. The First Disciples (James, John, Andrew, Peter, Nathanael). Bethabara. Feb ruary. John 1 : 35-51. 2. The First Miracle (Water changed into Wine). Cana of Galilee. March. John 2 : 1- 12. 3. The First Reform (Cleansing the Temple). Jerusalem. April. John 2 : 13-25. The First Discourse (To Nicodemus). Jerusalem. April. John 3: 1-21. The First Tour. Throughout Judea. Sum mer and Autumn. John 4: 1-4. The First Samaritan Converts. Sychar. December. John 4 : 5-42. The Second Miracle in Galilee. Cana and Capernaum. December. John 4 : 43-54. All this time John was preaching and baptizing in the wilderness of Judea. This year was practi cally the offering to the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea the opportunity of welcoming the Messiah, and leading in the new movement. The Second Year of Jesus' Public Ministry, a. d. 28. — The Year of Principles. The year in which Jesus laid down and worked out many of the fundamental principles and truths of his kingdom. Markl: 14-4: 41; Luke 4: 14-8: 56; John 5: 1-AT. Recorded in Matthew 4 : 13-13 : 53 ; The most marked stages were : — 1. Choosing the Apostles, — Organization. 2. Sermon on the Mount, — Principles. 3. Miracles, proving authority, and illustrat ing his mission. 4. Training of the Twelve. 5. Warnings and Invitations. 6. Growing opposition. 7. Teaching by Parables. 8. Great Truths, — water of life, forgiveness, seeking the lost, light and life. The First Three Months, January-March, were spent in quiet labors. The last of March Jesus went to the Passover at Jerusalem, and healed the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5). Section VI. — A GENERAL VIEW OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY, 4 : 12-24. 1. A Beautiful Vision of the Prophet, vers. 12-16. 2. A Beautiful Picture of its Fulfilment, vers. 17-24. (1) Jesus changes his field of labor to Galilee. (2) The prophecy of better times. (3) The preaching that helped to fulfil it. (4) The summons of others to aid its fulfilment. (5) A general view of Jesus' ministry. Time. Spring of a. D. 28. Place. Capernaum and Galilee. Second Year of Jesus' Ministry. 1. JESUS LEAVES JERUSALEM; AND GOES TO GALILEE, vers. 12, 13. 12. When Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison. For the cause of John's im prisonment see Matt. 14 : 3-5. Jesus was in Jeru salem (Luke 4: 14), attending the Passover the last of March, A. D. 28 (Andrews) ; or it was the autumn of A. d. 27, and this was the departure after his Judean ministry to enter upon his Gali lean work, and his conversation with the woman of Samaria took place on the way. He departed into Galilee. Not to avoid Herod Antipas, who imprisoned John, but to avoid the rising opposition of the Pharisees, who, now that John was put out of the way, could turn their whole attention to Jesus and the growing influence of his teaching (John 4 : 1 ; 5 : 16). The Jerusa lem Jews rejected and opposed his work. Into Galilee. As a better sphere of work under the circumstances, and with fewer hindrances. The Galileans were more tolerant, less conservative, less bound by tradition, on account of their dis tance from Jerusalem, and their contact with Gentiles. The soil was rich, business was varied and good in farming, fisheries, manufactures, and trade, much of the trade between Egypt and Damascus passing through it. The people were prosperous, industrious, active, enterprising.1 This was good soil in which Jesus could plant his truth, and begin his kingdom. 1 Hon. Selah Merrill's Galilee in the Time of Christ; Schurer's Palestine in the Time of Christ. 40 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4 : 13-17. 13 and leaving q Naz'a-rgth, he came and dwelt in r CS-per'na-um, which is uDy" 'the sea, coast' in the borders of ' i&'SiSn and ^SgffiSSf?1 14 "55? it might be fulfilled which was spoken by tSSS the prophet, say ing, 15 "The land of 1^'S-iSS' and the land of *«*!8!$g$&52F " the sea, beyond J6r'dan,w GaTi-lee of the Gen'tilesJ 16 x The people which sat in darkness BSw a great light; And to them which sat in the region and y shadow of death,' TothemdidSFgiTspring up. 17 IT z From that time " began Je'sus began to preach, and to say, h Repent' ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. q See ch. 2. 23. r ch. 8. 5, al. Cp. ch. 9. 1. s John 6. 1. t Josh. 19. 32-34. n See ch. 1. 22. v Cited from Isai. 9.1, 2. w 1 Mace. 5. 15. z Isai. 42.7. Luke 1. 79. y Job 3. 5. Ps.23.4. Ainos 5. 8. z Mark 1.14. a Actsl.22& 10.37. b ch. 3. 2. 13. And leaving Nazareth, his home for many years, and where he went first to preach to his friends and acquaintances. But they rejected him, and were so incensed that they tried to kill him by throwing him down the precipice over hanging the town. He therefore departed, and dwelt, made his home, in Capernaum, a flourish ing city upon the sea of Galilee, on the north west shore ; in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim (Naphtali), two of the twelve tribes whose boundaries came together near that point. Why did Christ choose Capernaum as the centre of his Galilean ministry? Probably because " Capernaum, more than any other city of Pales tine with the single exception of Jerusalem, was a centre of commerce, travel, and especially of news. . . . Sailors, soldiers, merchants, travellers, princes, men of every class and from many parts of the world, passed through this place on busi ness or pleasure. . . . Christ's gospel was for all the world, and here were messengers from the east, the west, and the south, who would carry tidings of what they had seen to their distant homes." 1 2. THE PHOPHETIC VISION, vers. 14-16. 14-10. That it might be fulfilled, in completer form, in the higher spiritual meaning. Which was spoken by Esaias, Greek for Isaiah, God's message through the prophet. Isai. 9:1, 2. The territory spoken of, the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, were the northernmost tribes, by the way of the sea, or toward the Sea of Galilee, where the great eastern roads entered the country be yond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the por tions of Galilee adjoining the heathen nations. All this was the borderland exposed to attack from the Syrian and Assyrian hordes. These were the people which sat in darkness. For Tiglat.h Pileser, king of Assyria, was invading their land, and Rezin, king of Damascus, was overrunning this region. Great multitudes were carried away captive and slain (see 2 Kings 15 : 29-16 : 9). This was a time when the people sat in the region and shadow of death. But in this darkness came the great light of deliverance from their enemies, for God broke "the yoke of his burden," "and the rod of his oppressor as in the day of Midian " (Isai. 9 : 4), when Gideon overthrew with his three hundred men the mighty host of the invading Midianites (Judges 7). But even Isaiah saw that this outward trouble and darkness were but a type of the spiritual darkness of Israel, and fore saw the times of Christ, when the nation was on the very borders of spiritual ruin, in the chill of the shadow of death, " as the darkening of sight in the dying is a prelude to the night of death." And he saw the Messiah coming, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Prince of Peace, to be the Light of the world, the Dawn of a better day. (Isai. 9 : 6,7.) 3. THE PREACHING OP JESUS, WHICH BROUGHT THE LIGHT, ver. 17. 17. From that time, when he established him self at Capernaum, he began the public ministry which Matthew describes. It was a new and fuller movement. Repent, etc. This is the same message which John brought (see on 3 : 2), only from more heavenly lips, with brighter light, with clearer vision, with fuller help. This was the substance of Jesus' preaching, manifested and expressed in a multitude of ways. Like the motto on the reverse of the United States great seal, Novus Ordo Seculorum, a new order of the ages had begun for the individual and for the nation. See an example of his preaching in Luke 4 : 17-19. J Hon. Selah Merrill in Bib. World, March, 1898. 4 : 18-21. MATTHEW. 41 18 IT cAnd Je'8U8' walking by dthe sea of GaTi-lee, he saw two brethren, Si'mon who is called Pe'ter, and An' drew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. 19 And he saith unto them, Come°yeTfter me, and I will make you "fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left '{& nets, and followed him. 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zgb'e-dee, and John his brother, in tuet'oat with Zeb'e-dee their father, mending their nets ; and he called them. c For ver. 18-22 see Mark 1. 16-20. Cp. Luke 5. 2-11 & John 1. 40-42. d ver. 13. e ch. 13. 47. 4. THE SUMMONS OP OTHERS TO AID ITS FULFILMENT, vers. 18-22. 18. Walking by the sea of Galilee, soon after his arrival at Capernaum. The water of this lake is salubrious, fresh, and clear, and it con tains abundance of fish.1 Simon called Peter, the Rock, and Andrew his brother. These had become followers of Christ at the very beginning of his ministry, more than a year before (John 1 : 35-44). They be longed in Bethsaida. But after being with Jesus for a time they again returned to their business for support. During this period they could quietly tell many about the new prophet and his work. Casting a net into the sea. A casting-net, dis tinguished from the large hauling-net mentioned in chapter 13 : 47. For they were fishers. " It was a humble but respectable occupation, and one well fitted to promote vigor of body, a matter of no little moment, and independence of spirit, a matter certainly of very great moment." 2 .CJhrist does noteajiidle men to work in his vineyard. T9TAnd he saitli unto tnem. The circum- stances in which this call was made are related with much greater fulness by Luke (5:1-11). Jesus was walking by the shore of the lake, sur rounded by a crowding multitude. Seeing a boat belonging to Peter, whom he seems to have recog nized as his former disciple, he enters into it, and from that pulpit teaches the people. At the close of his address he bids Peter return to his fishing. Petor replies that they had toiled all the previous night and caught nothing. But at Jesus' word he and his brother launch out, cast their net, and enclose a great multitude of fishes, so that James and John, their partners, had to come to their help. This miraculous draught so astonished Peter that he exclaimed, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord ! " Then Jesus said unto them, Follow me, not only be a disciple, but spend your time in going around with me, to learn, to help, to be trained for future work. The call to be permanently one of the chosen twelve came later. Every one who came into that num ber must first be tested and tried, like a battleship on its trial voyage, or a candidate for entering col lege. I w ill make you fishers of men. You shall draw men into the kingdom of heaven, as you have drawn fishes ashore by your skill. I bid you come up higher. Your skill with fishes shall teach you skill with men. Note that the higher work comes to the dis ciples while they are faithfully performing their common daily tasks. So the song of the angels was heard by the shepherds while engaged in their ordinary work with wakeful zeal. It is to those who are faithful in the least that the call comes to higher duties. 20. And they straightway. Immediately, the straight way being the shortest distance between any two points. There was no indecision. They knew well him who had called them. Left their nets, and followed him. Their nets were the means of their living, and they gave them up and trusted to the precarious living of a poor man. 21 . James. (The Greek form of Jacob.) He became the first martyr among the apostles (Acts 12 : 2). Son of Zebedee (Jehovah's gift). Husband of Salome, the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus (John 19 : 25) ; who ministered to the Lord (Matt. 27 : 56), though he himself is not mentioned among the disciples of Jesus. Hence the two brothers were cousins of Jesus. " The mention of hired servants (Mark 1 : 20), of the two vessels employed (Luke 5: 7), and the subsequent allusion to St. John's acquaintance with a person in so high a position as the high priest (John 18 : 15), seem to indicate that Zebedee, if not a wealthy man, was at any rate of some position at ' Clear silver water in a cup of gold, It shines — his lake — the sea of Chinnereth — The waves he loved, the waves that kissed his feet So many blessed days. Oh, happy waves ! Oh, little silver happy sea ! " " O Galilee, sweet Galilee, Where Jesus loved so much to be ; O Galilee, blue Galilee, Come sing thy song again to me." B Morison. 42 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 4 : 22, 23. 22 And they IESImw left the loSt and their father, and followed him. 23 IT •'And Je'sus went about m all GaTl-lee, » teaching in their synagogues, and ''preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and' healing all manner of dSe8 and all manner of sicSSess among the people. / Mark 1. ch. 13. 19. 9. Luke 4. 15. g ch. 9. 35 & 13. 54. Mark 1. 21. John 18. 20. h ch. 24. 14. Luke 4. 43. Cp. i ch. 8. 16 & 14. 35, 36. Mark 1. 34 & 6. 55, 56. Capernaum." 1 John (the grace of God). The disciple whom Jesus loved. The writer of the Fourth Gospel, the Epistle General of John, and the Book of Revelation. Probably John was the disciple, not named, who accompanied Andrew in his first visit to Jesus on his return from the forty days' temptation (John 1 : 37-40), when Peter also became a follower of Jesus. 22. They immediately lefc the ship (boat) and their father. Probably with his consent. The call of God is above all earthly demands (Matt. 10 : 37). But we are to note that they did not leave their father unprovided for ; and to show this may have been the reason why hired servants are mentioned (Mark 1: 20). Fishers of Men. First. To be fishers of men is the duty and privilege of the disciples of Jesus. Second. The sea is the evil world. In the oldest Christian hymn extant (by Clement of Austria) Christ is addressed as — " Fisher of men, the blest, Out of the world's unrest, Out of sin's troubled sea, Taking us, Lord, to thee." 2 Out of this restless sea we are to bring men to the rest and peace and holiness of Christ. Third. The line and the net are the gospel, with all its attractions and means of gaining souls. Fourth. The net is of no use without the fish ermen. It is personal work by those who are anxious to save men that brings them to Jesus. A leading Baptist clergyman said not long since that the experience of their missions had taught them that little success was gained by the printed word, without the living presence of the missionary. The personal element is a very important factor in all gospel work. Fifth. The object is to bring men to the shore of eternal life. The very word catch (in Luke) implies, to take alive, to bring living men into the kingdom of God. Sixth. Again, the work of the fisher is rather a work of art and skill than of force and violence. The fisherman attracts rather than drives. Great skill, patient toil, watchfulness, and care are necessary. The use of the right bait, and especially, in much fishing, the keeping one's self out of sight.8 Seventh. Hence the favorite early Christian symbol of the " Fish." " We little fishes," says Tertullian, " after our Fish (IX®YS) are born in the water (of baptism)." The first letters of the title of Christ in Greek — 'LfffoOs Xpior&s ®eov Ytds Scr^p, Jesus Christ God's Son the Saviour, — make the Greek word IXOY2, Ichthus, FISH. " It was quite common 50 years ago for weather vanes or church spires to be in the form of a fish, a reproduction, probably, of the early Christian symbol." 4 5. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIN ISTRY OF JESUS, vers. 23-25. The Broad Field. 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee. This was his first tour of the country. Jesus scattered the good seed every where, knowing that some of it would fall into the good soil of honest hearts and spring up and bear fruit. This is much more effective than spending too large a proportion of time and strength in one place. For" in every place there are some souls that are prepared, that are inclined to receive the gospel. These having been brought into the kingdom, all together form a large body of workers who have a strong, united power over the less impressible. Teaching. Instructing, interpreting the scrip tures, guiding the understanding, showing the truths of God. In their synagogues. The Jewish churches of that day, where any distin guished teacher could speak. Preaching. Heralding, proclaiming the gos pel, the good news from God, concerning the kingdom, the Messiah's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.5 It was the good news of God's fatherly love and care, of his forgiveness of sin, of know ledge of the way of life, of the power of the Holy Spirit, of new light breaking over all the earth. Illustrating the Gospel by Deeds. Heal ing all manner of sickness. Severe, dangerous 1 Cambridge Bible. - Rrv. Com. 3 A fisherman gave three rules for catching trout. " The first is, Keep yourself out of sight ; and the second is, Keep yourself farther out of sight; and the third is, Keep yourself farther still out of sight.' Good for catch ing men, too, I thought." — Mark Guy Pearse. 4 George M. Adams, D. D. c See on the title of Matthew's Gospel and notes on ch. 3 : 2. 4 : 24, 25. MATTHEW. 43 24 And the report S! urn, went ^ZZfZZ all •>' Syr'l-a : and they brought unto him all that were sick, i*°^ t^r uken with divers diseases and 'torments, imcl Uuwe *"tahw™ 'possessed with devils, and "' those wn^ ™t™ ilunatkk' and " those Uia,t, u'sied!'epalsy: and he healed them. 25 -And there followed him great multitudes o£people from GaTl-lee, and/r<"" " De-cap'6-lis, and /ro"> Jg-ru'sa-lgm, and from Ju-dse'a, and from beyond J6r-dan. j Luke 2. 2. k ch. 8. 6. I ch. 8. 16 & 9. 32, al. Cp. John 10. 21. m ch. 17. 15. 3. 7, 8. Luke 6. 17. p Mark 5. 20. ch. 9. 2, 6. o Mark diseases. "Homer always represents vdo-os (dis ease) as the visitation of an angry deity." Of disease. Debility, weakness, malaise. 24. And his fame. The report of what he was doing, his reputation. Went throughout all Syria. " The fame passes to the north and east, rather than to the south. Galilee is comiected by trade and affinity with Damascus, rather than with Jerusalem . " i And th ey brought unto him . In consequence of what they had heard of his works of healing. Torments. Diseases attended with excruciating pain. Torment (Bio-avos) originally meant the "Lydian stone, or touch stone, on which pure gold, when rubbed, leaves a peculiar mark. Hence, naturally, a test; then a test or trial by torture." 2 It meant the rack or instrument of torture by which one is forced to di vulge the truth, and hence simply torture, acute pains fi And those which were possessed with devils. Demons. See on 8 : 28. The demoniac seemed to be completely under the power of the unclean spirit. It was a most terrible form of disease. And those which were lunatick. Epi leptic. The word lunatic is derived from luna, the Latin word for moon, from the ancient belief that the changes of the moon affected mad persons. Palsy. Paralysis. See on 9 . 1-8. And he healed them. These healings were the natural accompaniment of his teaching and preaching, for (1) they were God's signature endorsing the claims of Jesus. It has been said that it would be easier to believe the gospel without the mira cles. It is true in one way, but the faith would be worth so much the less. Great power lies in the fact that Jesus is so mighty that he can work miracles. (2) They were object lessons, express ing the love and forgiveness and comfort from God. Every one was a parable and a sermon. Every one made it easier to trust in God and love him. (3) They caEed the attention of the people to the gospel. They rang the bell that summoned them to spiritual blessings, as we see in the next verse. On the nature of miracles, see under 8 : 16, 17. Success. 25. And there followed him great multitudes.4 "Imagine, if you can, the con dition of a country in which there are no doc tors, where tho healing art is only practised by a few quacks, who rely more on charms than on physic for their cures. Such is now, and such was Palestine in our Lord's day. Until the medi cal missionaries were sent by several English societies, there was not a physician in the land, and even now there are very few. In such a country as this, with sick and crippled in every village, picture the eager excitement when the news spread that there is a good physician arrived in town ; that he has healed a fierce demoniac by a word, and a great fever by a touch. " 6 Decapolis. (Ten cities.) In the northeastern part of Palestine, east of the Sea of Galilee and the upper Jordan. Practical Suggestions. 1. If we would succeed in saving men, we must (1) preach the word of God with the authority of divine truth and of our experience ; (2) we must teach, train, instruct ; (3) we must confirm the Word by good deeds, helping the poor, visiting the sick, cheer ing the despondent, aiding the unfortunate, com forting the lonely, looking out on every side for some one whom we can help, and whose burdens we can bear. Thus we can prove the strength and the sincerity of our efforts to save men's souls. 2. Jesus Christ is living now and is working through his people in the same directions as when visible on earth. As he promised his disciples (John 14: 12), he is healing more sick, opening more blind eyes, binding up more broken-hearted than he did in Palestine 1800 years ago. The gospel multiplies friends, and sympathy, and aid to the sick. It inspires the spirit which builds hospitals and asylums, and provides every possible means for relieving distress, especiaHy of the poor and friendless. It cultivates, encourages, and makes possible the true science, which is discovering the nature i Cambridge Bible. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. > Thayer's Greek Lexicon. * R. F. Horton's Cartoons of St. Mark, " The Cartoon of Healing ; " Whittier's Poems, " The Master ; " Trum bull's Studies in Oriental Social Life, " Calls for Healing in the East." An example is given in Mark Twain's In nocents Abroad, pp. 147, 148. ' H. D. Tristram, LL. D., in Sunday-School Times. 44 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 of disease, and the true remedies, skill in nursing ever in answer to prayer he guides to the right and surgery, and the triumphs of modern medical physicians and the right means of cure, he as investigation. reaUy heals men as if he worked a miracle of The gospel conquers disease by giving victory healing. The tree that grows from the seed is as to the soul. God makes all things work together truly a work of God as if created at once by a for good to those that love him. He manifests word. his own especial presence. He gives larger and „ The healing oJ his seamIeffi. dress sweeter spiritual life. He gives new experiences IS by our De(js 0j pain and revelations of his goodness. God may some- We touch him in life's throng and press, times now work wonders of healing. And when- And we are whole again." SECTION VII. CHAPTERS 5-7. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM. We now come to one of the most marked epochs in the development of the ministry of Jesus. This sermon was delivered after the call of Matthew described in 9 : 9, so that he could report from what he heard, and perhaps recorded at the time. Whether it was all delivered at the same time, or is a coUection of the sayings of Jesus spoken at different times, is uncertain. But Jesus, like every great teacher, repeated his great truths on differ ent occasions and to different audiences as well as frequently to his own disciples. So that he may well have spoken them all at this time, and also in parts at various other times. This sermon is only a part of the teachings of Christ, not his complete doctrine. There is much that he taught, especially about the way of attaining the state they describe, which could not be given till later on in his ministry. The Time was about the central point of his ministry, the summer of his second year, A. D. 28. The Place was on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee. According to tradition, it was the Horns of Hattin, or Mount of Beatitudes, a square-shaped hill, about sixty feet in height, with two tops, near the centre of the west coast of the Sea of Galilee, two or three miles from the sea, and seven southwest from Capernaum. A Night of Prayer. — From Luke 6 : 12, we learn that the new epoch in the development of Christ's kingdom was preceded and ushered in by a night of special prayer. Although to Jesus prayer was daily bread, vital air, the gate of heaven, yet there were times when battles were to be fought, great questions to be settled, guidance given, power to be received, when eternal issues depended on the decisions of the hour ; at these seasons Jesus would be a long time alone with his Father, in closest communion and earnest prayer (Luke 3 : 21, 22 ; Mark 1 : 35). The Selection of Twelve Apostles, for instruction and training for the great work of building up his kingdom. — Luke 6 : 12-16. For the names of the apostles, and their characteristics, see chapter 10: 2-4. The Theme. — This sermon has been called, — Jesus' Inaugural Address (Maclaren). The Great Opening Lecture in a Course of Instruction (American Com.). The Great Charter of Christianity (Tail). Laws of Christ for Common Life (Dale). Christ's Biography, A Portrait of the Ideal Man ; " The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are Christ's biography. Every syllable he had already written down in deeds. He has only to trans late his life into language." — Wm. Burnet Wright, D. D. The Great Fundamental Principles of the Kingdom of Heaven, without which it is impossible to belong to that kingdom. The inhabitants of heaven live according to these principles as naturally as they breathe ; and when all the people of earth do the same, heaven will be on earth, and the city of God will have come " down from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." 1 The Plan is radiate, rather than vertebrate. Each precept is a line in the portrait of the ideal man 1 There are many excellent books on the Sermon on the The Great Charter of Christ, Bp. W. Boyd Carpenter Mount. Among the very best are : Studies in Mountain The Charier of Christianity, Canon Andrew Tait, LL. D. Instruction, George D. Boardman, D. D. ; Master and Lawsof Christ for CommonLife, Rev. R. W. Dale, LL.D. Men, Rev. William Burnet Wright, D. D. ; The Master's Law of Love and Love as Law, Pres. MarkHopkius.LL.D. Blesseds, a devotional study of the Beatitudes, J. R. Prof. Shailer Matthews' The Social Teaching of Jesus ; Miller, D. D. ; The Kingdom, Gecrge D. Boardman, D. D. ; Trench's Augustine on the Sermon on the Mount. 5 MATTHEW. 45 in God's kingdom, and all are so drawn as to complete the picture. The connection is not so much with one another, as with the picture as a whole.1 1. The Beatitudes, the inner spirit of the heavenly life ; the principles, the source, the fountain, whence right conduct flows. 5 : 1-10. 2. This Spirit tested by Persecution. 5 : 11, 12. 3. This Spirit expressed, as salt and light. 5 : 13-16. 4. The truth shown by contrast of the new with the old, and its misinterpretation. 5 : 17-48. 5. Applications to the Religious Life. 6 : 1-18. A Lesson on Almsgiving. A Lesson on Prayer. A Lesson on Forgiveness. A Lesson on Fasting. 6. Applications to the Aim and Purpose of Life. 6 : 19-34. The supreme choice (1) of Treasure, (2) of a Master. Helps toward a right choice. 7. Guards against Insidious Dangers to the Religious Spirit. 7 : 1-6. Judging others. Motes and Beams. Pearls and Swine. 8. The Means of obtaining and sustaining the New Life. 7 : 7-11. 9. The Golden Rule. 7 : 12. 10. Persuasives toward entering the New Life. 7 : 13, 14. 11. Tests for Ourselves and Others. 7 : 15-27. How to know who really belong to the Kingdom. The following Analysis is given by Rev. E. P. Burtt in a recent Biblical World : — Theme: Christianity, a Spiritual Religion. Introduction : Its subjects congratulated. Matt. 5 : 3-16. 1 . Their qualities and privileges ideally expressed. 5 : 3-12. 2. Scope and aim of their work indicated. 5 : 13-16. 1. Relation to the Jewish Religion. 5: 17-48. 1. Continuity. 5: 17-20. 2. Superiority. 5: 21-48. a. In its regard for others' rights. 5 : 21-26. b. In its estimate of purity. 5 : 27-32. c. In its estimate of truthfulness. 5 : 33-37. d. In its spirit of meekness. 5 : 38-42. e. In its spirit of love. 5 : 43-48. H. Its Nature. 6: 1-34. 1. Spiritual, as opposed to external, nominal religion. 6: 1-18, a. Stated. 6:1. 6. Illustrated. 6: 2-18. (1) Alms. 6: 2-4. (2) Prayers. 6: 5-15. (3) Fasts. 6: 16-18. 2. Sufficient. 6: 19-34. a. Imperishable. 6: 19-21. 6. Essential. 6: 22-25. c. Involves all lesser good. 6 : 26-34. III. Application. 7: 1-12. This spiritual religion demands : 1. Charitableness. 7: 1-5. 2. Wise use of holy things. 7:6. 3. Prayerfulness. 7 : 7-11. 4. Ethical perfection. 7 : 12. ' Compare Ruskin's statement as to his own writings, — grow on their stalk, to be gathered by handfuls. Modern not like cherries tied, as in Pomona, in orderly rows on a Painters, Part IV., ch. 1, stick for convenience of carrying, but in clusters as they 46 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 1-3. IV. Closing Appeal. 7:' 13-27. 1. Invitation. 7: 13-14. 2. Warning against false teachers. 7 : 15-23. 3. Issues of obedience and disobedience. 7 : 24-27. CHAPTER 5. Section VII. — THE PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The Inner The Spirit 1. The Seven Beatitudes ; Spirit, vers. 1-9. 2. The Eighth Beatitude ; Tested, vers. 10-12. 3. The Spirit expressed, vers. 13-16. 4. The Truth made clear by the Old, and by Contrast with False Interpreta tions of the Old, vers. 17-48. Time. Midsummer, A. D. 28. Place. A mountain near the Sea of Galilee. 1 And seeing the multitudes, q he went up into the mountain : and when he "haa^atdo'wn, his disciples came unto him: 2 and s he opened his mouth' and taught them, saying, 3 ' Blessed are " the poor " in spirit : for w theirs is the kingdom of heaven. q ch. 15. 29. r Luke 4. 20. s Ps. 78. 2. Acts 8. 35 & 10. 34, al. Isai. 61. 1 & 66. 2. v Cp. ch. 11. 29. w Cp. Luke 12. 32. t For ver. 3-12, cp. Luke 6. 20-23. u Cp. I. THE BEATITUDES, vers. 1-10. These are to the whole sermon what the Salon Carre1 is to the whole Louvre of Paris, — a small room, containing the choicest pictures, the gems of art. 1. And seeing the multitudes, described in ver. 25 above. He went up. From the level place on the mountain (Luke 6 : 12, 17), where the people were gathered, to a slight elevation, from which he could more easily be seen and heard by them. Into a mountain.! The mountain, a well-known place. When he was set. " This was the custom of the Jewish doctors, who taught sitting in token of their authority." 2 His disci ples, the twelve, came unto him. They gathered close to him, while the multitude were farther off, but within hearing. 2. And taught them, saying. We will first study the Beatitudes in detail, and then consider them as a whole. THE FIRST BEATITUDE. 3. Blessed. " Blessedness is the express sym bol of happiness identified with character." It is more than " happiness," the joy that happens to us, that comes from without. It is the joy that grows out of the soul itself, a part of its very nature, increased by happy outward surroundings, and perfect only in them as in heaven, but inde structible by any outward power. Happiness is heat reflected from without. Blessedness is a fire within, that sheds light and warmth whatever the weather outside. The Hebrew equivalent in Delitzsch's Hebrew New Testament is the same as "blessed" in Ps. 1. It is in the plural number to express the manifold nature of the blessedness, at all times, from all sources, in all departments of life, in all circumstances ; blessed in body and in soul, in time and in eternity. The Character that is Blessed. Are the poor in spirit. Those who are conscious of their sin and need and spiritual incompleteness, so that they seek the aid that can come only from God, " and kneel at heaven's gate for heaven's supplies." Poverty of spirit is the opposite of pride, self-righteousness, self-conceit. It is the same spirit that is required when we are told that we must become as little children if we would enter into the kingdom : willing and anxious to learn, to ask, to seek. It is forgetfulness of self 1 Ruskin's Modem Painters, vol. iii., chap, xiv., on the sanctity of mountains. '10, 5 : 4- MATTHEW. 4 Blessed £i * they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. a; Isai. 61. 2, 3. John 16. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 7 & 7. 10. Rev. 21. 4. Cp. James 4. 9, 10. 47 in the service of God and man. Blessedness, like wisdom, — " Is ofttimes nearer when we stoop, Than when we soar." It is not mere poverty in worldly goods, though that often leads to this spirit.1 But one may be poor and proud. It is not poverty of mental fac ulties and gifts. It is no mean, abject feeling ; no Uriah Heep humbleness, — no want of self- respect, no apologizing for one's existence, no cringing before man. The Reward. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not chiefly a locality, but the char acter, or state, where God rules, where every ex cellence and glory of heaven prevails, where all feelings, all deeds, all hopes, all purposes, are heavenly, where every perfection is at home. It is heaven on earth. It is heaven for evermore. To the poor in spirit belongs this kingdom, be cause they only are in a condition to receive it. They only really want it and seek it with all their hearts. They only have the heavenly spirit be gun in them. It is a present as well as future blessing. Pride, conceit, self-esteem, selfishness, lock and bar the door to heaven and heavenly blessedness. But the poor in spirit have entered the door like children, and live henceforth in the kingdom of heaven. THE SECOND BEATITUDE. The Character. 4. Blessed are they that mourn. " The Greek (invtmhrm) signifies grief manifested; too deep for concealment."2 (1) Lt This is an absolute promise to all those who in the kingdom of heaven are brought into the ex perience of mourning, and is to be interpreted by such passages as Rom. 5: 3-5; Heb. 12: 11; and Rev. 7 : 14 ; " 3 those who are in great tribu lation for Christ's sake. (2) But chiefly the blessing refers to those who mourn over ignorance and sin, both in themselves and in others, who feel the sorrows of others, who realize the sins and needs of the world lying in wickedness. The Reward. For they shall be comforted. An echo of Isai. 61 : 1-3. The Greek word for comfort means called to one's side for aid, strength, encouragement, consolation. It is the word from which one title of the Holy Spirit is derived, " The Comforter." Our word " comfort " is de rived from two Latin words, con, together, and fortis, strong, made strong together. It is not the taking away altogether of sorrow, but transform ing and transfiguring it, and compelling it to be stow blessings otherwise impossible. It is not so much soothing as strengthening, inspiring, invig orating. It is the imparting of courage and fresh life.* An Example op Comporting. How did the Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter, comfort the disciples after the death of Christ ? "' The eleven frightened men, who had been scattered as sheep without a shepherd, became lions ; Peter, who a few days before had lied in terror of a maid servant, stood firm, immovable, before the mag nates who had crucified his Master." They all received strength, hope, assurance, light, courage. They were changed into heroes. And the death of Christ, over which they had mourned, became the power of God for the salvation of the world. Thus they were comforted. HOW THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED. -The comfort comes from the divine grace shining on the mourning, as the rainbow on the drops of rain. Each one shall be comforted according to that for which he mourns. " If we mourn in poverty of spirit for the deepest reason, namely, sin, then the sweet assurance of pardon and the infusing of power to overcome our sin bring com fort, compared with which the stanching of other wounds is poor." s Those who mourn for the sins of the world shall be comforted, for that state of heart most impels and best fits us to save men from sin ; and the labors for that end shall be successful ; the world shall be redeemed ; the kingdom shall come ; and then every one who mourned over the sin of the world will rejoice " with joy unspeak able and full of glory." God comforts those that mourn by giving for giveness, and insight, and larger hearts, and purer consciences, desire to relieve, courage and hope and heroism in relieving. Every noblest power of the soul is enlarged. Those who mourn in the sicknesses, cares, bur dens, and losses of which life is so full can find in Jesus a comfort beyond all expression. He comforts us in our sorrows by making them work out good, ennobling the character, enlarging the sympathy and the power of helping others. He comforts us also by revealing the world be- 1 The Emperor Julian mockingly said that he wished to confiscate the property of Christians in order that, as poor men, they might enter the kingdom of heaven. — Am. Com. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. 3 Lyman Abbott. 1 See Aldis Wright's Bible Word Book, pp. 146, 147, for examples of this use ; also Wm. Burnet Wright's Master and Man, on "Comfort." G Maclaren. 48 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 5, 6. v the meek : for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed Zt they wlthatd0 hunger and z thirst " after righteousness : for they shall be filled. y Ps. 37. 11. z Ps. 42. 2. Isai. 55. 1, 2. John 7. 37. a 2 Tim. 2. 22. Cp. ch. 6. 33. yond this, for which all this hard training is pre paring us. God will make all our sorrows to work out good to us (Rom. 8 : 28), and when we see God's meaning and God's results we will be comforted. Many of the best blessings can come in no other way. He that never mourns for him self and others is narrow, and dull, and blind. THE THIRD BEATITUDE. Character. 5. Blessed are the meek. The Century Dictionary defines " meek " as " gentle or mild of temper ; self-controlled and gentle ; not easily provoked or irritated ; forbearing under in jury or annoyance." "Christian meekness is a converted wolf," says Dr. J. R. Miller. It is " the soft answer that turneth away wrath." It is the unselfishness which forgets self in the desire to help others. It is the doing good to enemies. It lives in the serene heights of an angel dealing with a passionate child. This is meekness to ward man. Webster defines meekness as " submission to the divine will; patience and gentleness from moral and religious motives," with the emphasis on the last words. This is meekness toward God. Its root lies in the control of all earthly tempers by the spirit. It implies great faith and great self-control. It is not a weak, but an heroic quality. " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city " (Prov. 16 : 32 ; comp. 19 : 11). Christ's Example. The meek Christ drove out the moneychangers from the Temple. He had perfect control of his temper. He was meek when Judas betrayed him, and when he stood be fore Pilate. So Moses, in his management of the Israel ites. The Reward. For they shall inherit the earth. This earth. (1) They get the most out of the world and all its good things. Passion and revenge are unhappy feelings. Trust in God, control of temper, shed peace and happiness over everything. Every earthly blessing has a hea venly flavor. "It is because of the special con nection of meekness with contentment that it is promised that the meek shall ' inherit the earth.' Neither covetous men nor the grave can inherit anything ; they can but consume. Only content ment can possess." l (2) The meek have a surer title to their earthly possessions ; they are less likely to be dispossessed by enemies ; they are apt to live longer than the passionate and revenge ful. (3) Christ's kingdom, whose members are characterized by meekness, is yet to possess the whole earth. The final and lasting conquest of the earth will be not by force of arms, not through worldly conquerors, not by force of intellect, nor by political shrewdness, but by the spiritual power of the meek, by the gospel of the meek and lowly Jesus. THE FOURTH BEATITUDE. The Character. 6. They which do hun ger and thirst after righteousness. Hunger and thirst are the sharpest spurs to action. " Traverse the desert, and then you can tell What treasures exist in the cold, deep well. Sink in despair on the red, parched earth, And then you may reckon what water is worth. The gnawing of hunger's worm is past, But fiery thirst lives on to the last." 2 Here the Master " declares in a figure that those whose strongest desire is for goodness shall be ' satisfied." All great good is gained through in tense desires for that good. He that is not hungry cannot grow strong. He is sick, and nigh unto death. Appetite is a sign of health. He that does not hunger after knowledge, — uni versities and libraries cannot fill him with know ledge. The hunger is for righteousness, to be like Christ, like God, to be pure, honest, loving, free from every stain of sin, every imperfection, cost what it may. Riches, success, pleasure, popu larity, must be of small value in comparison. Men think they want to go to heaven. But do they really hunger, not for a beautiful place free from pain and filled with joys, but for the heavenly life, the heavenly spirit, all that is essential to heaven ? The Reward. For they shall be filled, not by the destruction of the desire, but by its satis faction. The Greek word for filled is " a very strong and graphic word, originally applied to the feeding and fattening of animals in a stall. Used also of the multitudes fed with the loaves and fishes. (Matt. 14: 20.) It expresses complete satisfaction." s Filled with that for which they hunger, right- 1 Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. v., " The Hesperid 2 Eliza Cook. » Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 5 : 7, 8. MATTHEW. 49 for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed ££? c the pure in heart : for d they shall see God. b Matt. 18. 33 & 25. 34-36. Prov. 19. 17. Luke 6. 36. 2 Tim. 1. 16. Heb. 6. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 22. d Heb. 12. 14. 1 John 3. 2, 3. Rev. 22. 4. Cp. 1 Cor. 13. 12. c Ps. 24. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 22. Cp. eousness.1 But this really includes every lesser good, in the only way in which the hunger and thirst for them can be satisfied. Without God and his righteousness, worldly things cannot satisfy the soul. They are like the waters of the sea, the more you drink the thirstier you are : u Dropping buckets into empty wells And growing old in drawing nothing up." Even the wants of our physical nature are not perfectly satisfied except through God and his righteousness. Our food is not perfect unless we eat and drink to the glory of God, and have with it not only " the feast of reason and the flow of soul," but the flow of gratitude and love. Our natural wants must be transfigured to be perfect. Jesus transforms the whole life, and makes the desert to blossom like the rose. Life is » series of desires, and their satisfac tion. The greatness of any being is measured (1) by the number of his desires and hungers ; (2) by their quality ; (3) by their capacity, intensity. Civilization, religion, progress, goodness, always increase the hungerings of the soul. * Each desire is a cup which it is possible to fill. The civilized man is higher than the savage because he has more and better desires. He has more strings to his harp, more stops to his organ, and better music is possible. The true Christian has still more hungerings, and the highest and best of all is to be perfectly righteous, to be like God, to have the beauty of holiness. Heaven is not the quiet of Nirvana, but larger vision, more and purer desires to be satisfied. You can not be satisfied without the desires. Every time we thirst after righteousness, and the thirst is satisfied, we have a larger vision of what righteousness is, a more heavenly thirst, and a larger, fuller, sweeter satisfaction. All our growth is by means of these desires and their satisfaction. Contentment is not in difference, not deadness of desire ; but content ment " with such things as we have," which in cludes God and heaven, and the Holy Spirit, all divine influences and all the possibilities of our nature. To be content without these is to be con tent with infinitely less than we have. THE FIFTH BEATITUDE. The Character. 7. Blessed are the merci ful. Those who have hungered after righteous ness will express that desire toward men in acts of mercy. Mercy is near of kin to love. It is love to the needy, the troubled, the sinful, even those who have wronged us. It relieves spiritual want and darkness as well as temporal ; would give the gospel to the heathen as well as food to the hungry. It is an active virtue. It is opposed to unkind and harsh judgment of others.2 The Reward. For they shall obtain mercy. From man and from God. Like begets like. The echo is like the original voice. But most of all do we need God's mercy. And showing mercy to others proves that we have a state of heart which makes it safe for God to forgive us. For him to forgive the unmerciful would be to mul tiply sins and wrongs. " The quality of mercy is not strained ; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath ; it is twice hless'd : It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." 8 THE SIXTH BEATITUDE. The Character. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart. Pure, sincere, unmixed with evil or im perfection in motive, purpose, and love. Trench makes it correspond with " simple " in its original meaning of simplex, sine plica, without fold. It is also " sincere," i. e., sine cera, without wax, honey pure, without any particles of wax. But most modern etymologists derive "sin" from sim (Latin simul), altogether, and cerus from the same root as the English sheer, pure, clear ; hence wholly, altogether clear. " The beatitude is not for the sinless, but for sinners forgiven. The pure are those who have been purified, — their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, ' as white as snow.' "4 " Gold is pure when it has been separated by fire from all foreign matter. The diamond is pure, the crystal is pure, when there is nothing in them which hinders the refraction and reflection of light." The heart is pure when it loves only the good, when all its motives are right, all its desires are for the good and true.6 1 " Still through our paltry stir and strife Glows down the wished ideal, And longing moulds in clay, what life Carves in the marble real." Lowell. 2 Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, " The Legend Beautiful ; " The Colony of Mercy ; Drummond's Greatest Thing in the World; Hood's Poems, " Charity ; " "Doing Good," in Foster's Cyclopedia of Poetry, 905. 3 Merchant of Venice. i J. R. Miller. 5 The poem " Beautiful Snow," in The Snow Flake Album. Ruskin's Modern Painters, vol. v-, " The Law of Help." 50 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 9-11. 9 Blessed Zee the peacemakers: for' they shall be called « the s^8dren of God. 10 * Blessed are they thauiawlieen persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 'Blessed are ye' when men shall reproach you, and persecute ?ou; and sha11 say all manner of evil against you falsely/ for my sake. e James 3. 18. / 1 John 3. 1. 1 Pet. 4. 14. j John 15. 21. g Rom. 8. 14. h 2 Tim. 2. 12. James 5. 11. 1 Pet. 3. 14. i Heb. 11. The Reward. For they shall see God. There must be a likeness of nature and feeling, in order to understand another. So only the pure can see a pure God. The impure, the bad, cannot even see him, much less enjoy him. They do not understand his nature. They do not know the meaning of his character. They are color-blind. The selfish do not believe that un selfish love exists. The vile do not believe there is real purity. When do we see God ? Not only in heaven, but here and now. Just as far as any one is pure he sees God. What a privilege this is, to see God, his goodness, his glory, his love ! How it enlarges the vision, widens the horizon, and ex pands the soul ! What an ideal it sets before us I " The words of the dying Kingsley," says Dr. Tait, "find an echo in every Christian heart, 'How beautiful is God! ""¦ THE SEVENTH BEATITUDE. The Character. 9. Blessed are the peace makers. "The founders and promoters of peace." 2 The exact opposite of the quarrelsome, the passionate, the fighters, the faultfinders, the murmurers ; and also those who are indifferent whether there is peace or not. (1) Those who try to reconcile men at variance. (2) Those who try to bring peace to the restless and" troubled. (3) Those who, from this same disposition, seek, Hke their Master, to reconcile men to God, to bring divine peace into sinful souls by leading them to the Prince of Peace. Dr. Maelaren says : " It is the last outcome of all the preceding graces. The other steps must have been climbed before we stand on the sum mit. Christ's peacemakers must have the peace they bring. Inward tranquillity is won by pass ing through the preceding stages." This does not mean that we are not to oppose that which is wrong or disturb the quiet of corruption and crime. Nothing is settled till it is settled right. There can be no peace to the wicked. Our first duty therefore is, at any cost of disturbance, to get things where peace is possible. So the gospel, Matt. 10 : 34, but always with peace as the object.3 The Reward. They shall be called the children (better, sons, full grown) of God. Because they are hke their Father. They inherit his nature, and, being children, are also heirs of God, of his home, his joy, his blessings, his love. God is ever seeking to bring peace to men. The very song of the angels at the birth of Christ was "Peace on earth." Jesus and the Holy Spirit are ever seeking to reconcile men to God. The gospel ever brings peace, restoring the lost harmony of the soul with God and with nature and with itself. The reign of the gospel will be the reign of peace. II. THE GREAT TEST. A beatitude for those who suffer because they obey the above beatitudes. THE EIGHTH BEATITUDE. 10-12. The Character. 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, as those are sure to be who try to live up to these Beati tudes, and promulgate them in an evil world. Blessed are they who are such positive factors in making the world good that they arouse the hatred and opposition of bad men, as described in ver. 11. Note that there are two conditions. (1) It must be for righteousness' sake . . . (ver. 11) for my (Christ's) sake. So far as we use bad methods, or censorious language, or passion, or false denun ciations, we lose the blessing. Many a person has been persecuted more for his un-Christly way of reform than for the reform itself. (2) It must be falsely. The charges against us must be un true. Persecution and suffering in themselves do not inherit the blessing. The Reward. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 1 See Prof. Drummond's Natural Law in the Spir itual World, where he shows that a lower order of being can have no possible comprehension of a higher. Prof. Thomson's illustration of " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," in his Parables and Their Home, p. 3. 'Una' in Spenser's Faerie Queene. Milton's Comus. Sir Galahad in Tennyson's Holy Grail. The little booklet, The Sister's Dream of Heaven. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. 8 Ruskin's Modem Painters, vol. v., " Peace," is capital ; so is Longfellow's Poems, " The Arsenal at Springfield " and " The Christmas Bells." 5 : 12. MATTHEW. 51 12 * Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great II your reward in heaven : for ' so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. k Acts 5. 41. Rom. 5. 3. 1 Pet. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 12. 10. Col. 1. 11, 24. Heb. 10. 34. James 1. 2. I See ch. 21. 35. 12. Great is your reward in heaven. After eousness' sake with the assurance that they are the battle comes the crown of victory, after faith- not suffering in vain. They are a perpetual in- fulnessin doing well comes the benediction, Well fluence for good. done ; enter into the joy of your Lord. Only For so persecuted they the prophets which those who have fought in the battle can join in were before you. This is in confirmation of the the triumph. Only those who have done well assurance of reward. The best and the greatest can receive the "well done." Only those who men, who stand highest, have suffered just as have been faithful in the little can receive the you are suffering now. Their success means your wider kingdom. Any ship can sail on a calm sea, success. God's favor to them means that his but these are the tested ones which are sure to favor still belongs to you. Their shining robes reach the harbor of heaven. The completeness mean white robes for you ; their crowns are the of the reward must of necessity be in the future. promise of your crowns. Their cause will succeed. Their endurance of " Upon thy brow persecution proves their fitness for the reward. A wreath whose flowers no earthly soil have known, The persecution itself developed their character, Woven of Beatitudes." enlarged their goodness, made a higher heaven pos- " yye desire immortality, not as the reward of sible, and so was a present reward. Their endur- virtue, but as its continuance." ance of persecution declares to the whole world „ rf yht^ tQ fight] t0 BtTUggl^ tQ right the the value of the religion of Jesus, the greatness of wrong — his love, the preciousness of his truth. They are uayi but she aimed not at glory, no lover of glory insensibly moulding the character of God's peo- she : pie. They comfort those now suffering for right- Give her the glory of going on, and still to be." 1 THE BEATITUDES AS A WHOLE. I. The Relation of the Beatitudes to one another. 1. The Poor in Spirit. (The condition out of which all the others grow.) ( The inner life \ (Its outward manifes-\ \toward God. J \lalion toward man. ) 2. They that Mourn. 3. The Meek. 4. They that Hunger after Righteousness. 5. The Merciful. 6. The Pure in Heart. 7. The Peacemakers. 8. The Persecuted. Those who live such a life in this evil world are often persecuted, and must always be ready to endure this test. They who do stand the test will have these virtues in a high degree, and have the fuller blessedness of them all. Poor in spirit is the necessary condition, the soil in which the others grow. It is " the trunk of the tree, of which the others are the branches ; " the hall of the house, of which the others are the rooms. The, first column shows the natural development and progress of the inner life. The second column shows the similar development of the outward life. Correspondences. Each characteristic in the second column is the natural expression of its corre sponding inner life, given in the first column. II. The Making of a Saint. The first three Beatitudes expressing the inner principles, the fourth the endeavors after moral perfection, the other three some of the results in life. The first step. The second degree. Third degree. Fourth degree. The test. Poor in spirit Meekness, the first step Hunger after righteousness. Purity. Persecuted. mourning over sin. expressed in life. Mercy its outward expression. Peace. The result. By the sevenfold character thus set forth, a complete character is depicted, and by the sevenfold bless edness attached to it, a. perfect blessedness is intended. All rays together make the perfect glory. 1 Tennyson. 52 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5:13. 13 IT Ye are the salt of the earth: m but if the salt have lost Its savour, where with shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out' and t0 be trodden under foot of men. m Mark 9. 50. Luke 14. 34. III. Active, Heroic Virtues. Dr. George D. Boardman, in his Kingdom of Heaven, pp. 59-61, shows beautifully that these virtues are masculine as well as feminine, positive more than negative, heroic graces full of courage, pluck, energy, conquest. "For every one man who illustrates the Beatitudes there are a. hundred who illustrate their opposites. They are the very essence and pith of genuine manhood. It is the fashion to talk about ' muscular Christianity.' I will declare what requires Christian muscle — it is the living up to the Beatitudes. . . . The conquering forces in Christ's kingdom, for time and for eternity, are precisely these beatific graces." IV. The Heart of Reformation. Here is found the only true method by which the needed moral revolution can be realized. " What men needed first was a change, not in their circum stances, but in themselves. Blessedness, Jesus affirmed, comes not from outward conditions, but from inward states. It consists not in posi tions, but in dispositions." Reformers try in vain " to construct a stable and happy community from persons who are selfish, weak, and miserable. Their first cry is : ' Get your circumstances changed.' Christ's first call was : ' Get yourselves changed, and the things that stand around you will be changed.' When the torch is lighted, even the dark crystals in the cavern will spar kle." i V. Cause and Effect. Each "blessed" is an effect, of which the character described is a cause. Thus in the words of Dr. W. B. Wright : " The Beatitudes are not arbitrary enactments. God himself cannot change them. While a man hates his brother, God cannot make him happy. Omnipotence cannot give us peace while we hug the worm that does not die, and wrap ourselves in the flame that is not quenched." The rewards are rewards of character, not of any outward condition. They grow out of the characters to which they are attached, as natu rally as peaches grow on a peach-tree or roses blossom on a rose-bush. There are no other trees on which these blessings will grow, except the ones named in the first part of each of the Beati tudes. Grapes will not grow upon thistles. VI. Comparisons. (1) The Beatitudes are the sevenfold rainbow around the throne of God. (2) They are the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of Holiness. (3) They are a training school for the kingdom of heaven. (4) The first portions of each Beatitude are like a prism through which our life rays pass and by which they are changed into the corresponding rewards, all concentrating on one point, Love, the perfect character, a fife like Christ's. (5) They are like " the eight- columned Propylseum of the Acropolis of the king dom of God." (6) The Ten Commandments are negative, the Beatitudes positive. The one for bids, the other enjoins. The one was delivered on Mount Sinai, cold, bleak, barren, inaccessible, — a type of merely law morality ; the other on Mount Hattin, built of solid rock, but covered with fertile soil, beautiful with shrubs and trees, a picture of the morality of the gospel of love. III. THE SPIRIT EXPRESSED ; or THE RELATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM TO THE WORLD AROUND THEM, vers. 13-lti. First. The Relation op Salt. 13. Ye, the citizens of the kingdom of God, ye who are try ing to live the life and possess the characters just described. Are the salt of the earth, the pre servers of the earth, as the ten righteous men would have saved even Sodom (Gen. 18 : 23-32). Salt seasons food, and preserves it from corrup tion, so that it can give life to men. Salt cleanses, and sweetens, and gives wholesome flavor to human existence. (1) Their whole spirit, teachings, lives, and in fluence counteract, are antiseptic to, the unright eousness which is the great destroyer of indi viduals and nations. The ancient civilizations have perished by this poison. Greece and Rome did not fall until they were permeated with un righteousness. And if ever Maeaulay's vision of " some traveller from New Zealand " who "shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's," or on Brooklyn Bridge to sketch the ruins of New York, it will be because of un righteousness alone. The righteous leaven the community. They are a positive preserving force. They make war even to death with evil. I have heard that Robert Ingersoll said that if he had made the world he would have made health W. B. Wright in Master and Men. 5 : 14. MATTHEW. 53 14 "Ye are the light of the world. A city thatis set on T hill cannot be hid. n Eph. 5. 8. Phil. 2. 15. Cp. John 8. 12. catching and not disease. But it is true now that in a wide view health is more contagious ; that goodness has more power to change a people than evil has. A few earnest, determined, right eous men can leaven the nation. Salt has a mis sion. It is active. It permeates society and puri fies, sweetens, flavors it. (2) They are the salt of the earth by spreading the truth of the gospel, by proclaiming Jesus Christ to all the world. " Salt in a barrel is of no use to anybody ; it must be brought into con tact with the objects which it is to preserve and to purify." 1 But if the salt have lost his savour, its saltness, that which gives it its preserving power, and becomes a mere form. "There is a whole sermon in the definitions of the Greek word for have lost its savour, p.mpavBg, the kindred noun of which means first, dull, sluggish ; then stupid, silly ; then insipid, flat. These all describe a Christian who has " lost his savour." The salt in the East is gathered with impuri ties, and coming in contact with the ground, loses its saltness, and "undergoes, with other sub stances, «. chemical process by which it becomes really another sort of stuff while retaining its old appearance."2 Dr. Thomson relates similar facts.8 This is a picture of what is possible to those who are outwardly disciples of Christ. While retaining their profession, their character is bad, their deeds are evil, their principles have evaporated, they are dead bodies with out a. soul. 'Wherewith shall it be salted. How can they preserve the world from ruin when they have lost all that gives them preserving power ? It is . . . good for nothing. " It cannot be used at all ; and such salt soon effloresces and turns to dust — not to fruitful soil, however. It is not only good for nothing itself, but it actually de stroys all fertility wherever it is thrown ; and this is the reason why it is cast into the street."4 Cast out . . . trodden under foot. " The sweeping out of the spoiled salt and casting it into the street are actions familiar to all men." "I have seen large quantities of it literally thrown into the road to be trodden under foot." 4 So it is that Christians in form, without the Spirit, churches in name and ceremony, but without godliness, without Christ, without spiritual life, are not only useless, but are a positive injury to the world. They are destroyers of good, and must be cast out, despised, trodden under foot, destroyed. Second. The Relation of Light, vers. 14- 16. 14. Ye are the light of the world. " Salt operates internally, in the mass with which it comes in contact ; the sunlight operates exter nally, irradiating all that it reaches. Hence Christians are warily styled ' the salt of the earth,' with reference to the masses of mankind with whom they are expected to mix ; but ' the light of the world,' with reference to the vast and variegated surface which feels its fructifying and gladdening radiance." 5 Light set in motion by life is the source of life, of beauty, of manifested reality, of warmth, com fort, and joy, of health, and of power. It destroys all darkness ; it unites in itself purity and clear ness. Without it the world would be but a mass of coldness and death. Now, what light does for the natural world Jesus, the Light of the world, does for the world of man, for mind, soul, and spirit. He reveals God, and heaven, and truth ; he shows the way ; he cheers, comforts, vivifies, renews. In the spiritual world, as in the natural, there are three kinds of rays : (1) the light rays ; (2) the heat rays ; (3) the chemical or life-giving rays. And the disciples of Jesus are to let the light shine which Jesus has kindled within them. "Christians," says Augustine, " are the Light lighted ; Christ is the Light light ing." The diffusion of light in our world is caused by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the parti cles in the air, from the clouds, from the earth and all that is on it. Otherwise we could see only the sun, and in all other directions would be darkness. But by the dispersion of light every particle be comes a miniature sun, and the world is full of light even to those who do not live in the direct rays of the sun. It is this work which every Christian, and every Christian word or act is to do for the moral world. A oity . . set on a hill. The city of Safed, 2650 feet above the sea, and " commanding one of the grandest panoramic views in Palestine," may have been shining in the morning sun in full view 1 Theodore Cuyler. So Livy calls the Greeks sal gen tium, " the salt of the nations." Dr. Van Dyke has said that God has condensed the Whole Duty of Man (a large volume considered indispensable to a clergyman in the last century) into one word, — Salt. " True intelligence is that which acts not as Cayenne pepper, to sting the world, but as salt, to cleanse and conserve it." 2 Maundrell. 3 See a very interesting illustration in Thomson's Land and Book, new ed., vol. ii., pp. 361-363. 4 Thomson, Land and Book. 5 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown. 54 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 15, 16. 15 "Neither do ™£ light a fESR and put it under &» bushel, but on "SSffiSi?" and it giIhine'tSht unto all that are in the house. 16Evenesoiet your light s0 shine before men, ''that they may see your good works, and q glorify your Father which is in heaven. o Mark 4. 21. Luke 8. 16 & 11. 33. p Philem. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 12. q John 15. 8. 2 Cor. 9. 13. Phil. 1. 11. Cp. ch. 9. 8. of Jesus' hearers. " In the East, cities are often built on hills for protection and for purer air. No image could so vividly set forth the calling of the Church of Christ as a visible society. For Assyrian, Terra-cotta, and Glass Lamps. Chaldean Lamps. good or for evil, it could not fail to be prominent in the world's history, a city of refuge for the weary, or open to the attacks of the invader." 1 15. Neither do men light a candle, rather, a lamp. An earthenware or metal cup in form like the engraving. And put it under a bushel, a wooden measure holding about a peck ; a com mon article of household furniture. Thus the light would be hidden.2 How Disciples may conceal their Light. (1) By letting their light burn dim, having little spiritual life. (2) By living in an atmosphere of worldly-mindedness and the cares of the world, which are hke a misty air dimming the radiance of the sun. (3) By faults and sins and disagree able ways. (4) By not making a public profession of religion. (5) By not speaking to others of their spiritual experiences. (6) By not doing all they can to spread the light of the gospel. (7) By pride and ostentation. But on a candlestick, rather, lampstand ; its proper place, an elevated holder or stand, not un like a tall candlestick, so that its light might be diffused as widely as possible. The Church is Christ's golden candlestick with its branches. Compare the description in Zecha- riah's prophecy, ch. 4. The business of Christians is to hold up the true light, to let the light shine over the world, to kindle other souls that they may shine too, till the whole world is flooded with the light of heaven. The church, each branch of the church, each heart, should be a " candle of the Lord," lighted by him ; burning continually, be-" cause continually fed from the beaten oil of the sanctuary ; shining in the dark places ; in a can dlestick of pure, solid gold, very precious, true, incorruptible, sincere all through. 16. Let your light so shine, as a lamp on its stand,8 that, as a result, they may see your good works. Not contradictory to 6 : 1-4, for we should " distinguish between doing right in order to help others, as when one lights a beacon in order to guide the sailor ; and doing right in order to be praised by others, as when one stands in the full blaze of a chandelier in order to dis play his own jewelry. It is one thing to shine for the sake of illuminating others, and so helping them ; it is another thing to shine for the sake of illuminating ourselves, and so be seen to advan tage." 4 To let the light shine is to live in accord- Lamp with Christian Inscription. ance with it, and let it prompt and guide the out ward life. How Disciples may let their Light shine. (1) By keeping their light brightly burning. (2) By a pure and holy life. (3) By special good deeds and self-sacrifices for others. (4) By doing i Ellicott. 2 Compare the illustration of the lamps in the tomb of Terentia, used by Jeremy Taylor, and quoted in Roger's Reason and Faith. 3 See Spurgeon's Sermons in Candles. Phillips Brooks' Sermons, " The Candle of the Lord." i George D. Boardman, The Kingdom. 5:17. MATTHEW. 55 17. IT r Think not that I a' to destroy, but ' to fulfil. r Rom. 3. 31. to destroy > the law' or the prophets : I a,tTherre/ore jhere(ore * thou artboane?ing thy gift 1° the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aSfHt against thee; 24 lei™6 there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25 ¦'Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art with him in the way; with mm; legt at any time ^ a(jversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge de liver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. h Cp. ch. 6. 15 & Mark 11. 25. J ch. 8. 4 & 23. 18. j Luke 12. 58, expresses more than want of wisdom ; it means stupid fool, vile apostate, impious wretch. It ex presses a stronger degree of reproach and con tempt than Raca, and hence an intenser passion and hate which led to its utterance. Shall be in danger of hell fire, "the Gehenna of fire." Gehenna is Greek for " land or valley of Hin nom," the narrow glen south of Jerusalem, where the " refuse of the city, the bodies of criminals, the carcases of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast. ' ' The fires were continually burning, and the smoke ascended without ceasing. It thus became the natural metaphor and symbol of the punish ment of the wicked, the moral refuse of mankind. Note that Gehenna, the symbol of punishment, " should be carefully distinguished from Hades, which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits without refer ence to their moral condition. This distinction, ignored in the Authorized Version, is made in the Revision." 1 Note. (1) " The most important thing to keep in mind is that there is no distinction of kind between these punishments, only of de gree. In the thing compared, the Judgment in flicted death by the sword, the Council, death by stoning, and the disgrace of the Gehenna of fire followed as an intensification of the horrors of death ; but the punishment is one and the same, — death."2 (2) Hate, passionate anger, is deadly to the soul in which it dwells. If not banished, cast out, it leads to certain spiritual death. He that has it is in danger of the Gehenna of fire. " Whoso hateth his brother is si, murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3: 15). » (3) Distinguish between anger that is unreason ing, hating passion, and the indignation against wrong which every good man must feel, which God feels. God's wrath, often mentioned, is not passion, not hate, but indignation, and I always translate the word thus in my mind. Compare John 2 : 15 ; Eph. 4 : 26 ; James 1 : 19. So our Lord called the Pharisees "fools," etc. But these expressions were not ebullitions of anger, and did not express hate. They were the warn ings of love. 23. Therefore. That is, seeing the danger and guilt of all anger or wrong feeling, and lest you incur the penalty. If thou bring thy gift (thy sacrifice) to the altar. In the Temple. To bring a sacrifice to the altar was the Jewish method of public worship. The modern equiva lent would be, " If thou goest to church." * . . . Hath ought against thee. That is the right time for recollection and self-scrutiny. The worshipper is to ask himself, not whether he has a ground of complaint against any one, but whether any one has cause of complaint against him, which might arouse anger in his brother, and also in himself. 24. Leave there thy gift before the altar. " The whole language implies the urgency of the case. It is better to let even the worship of God be interrupted than that brotherly love should not continue ; and indeed there is no true worship where the heart fails in brotherly love. Com pare with this teaching John 14 : 21, 23 ; 15 : 12, 17 ; and 1 John 4 : 7, 8, 20. It gives a hint why prayer is often unavailing and worship un satisfying." 4 First be reconciled to thy brother. Remove the offence, have the right feelings, make friendly overtures. Then come and offer thy gift, when you have the right spirit, and show it. Then you are in a frame of mind in which you can truly worship God.5 25. Agree with, come to an agreement, settle your difficulty. Thine adversary. The one who has a grievance against you, that he is carrying to the law courts. Do not let anger, which has been shown to be so dangerous, prevent or delay you. In the way with him, on the road to the judge, after reaching whom the action must go on. The judge, having decided against you. The officer, our police officer or sheriff. » Prof. M. R. Vincent. 2 Alford. 3 "Anger is a brief madness." "Angry men turn bees and leave their lives in the wound." * Abbott. c For an illustration of reconciliation to man, before we can worship God, see Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Part IV., and the two verses preceding the last two in Part VII. 5 : 26-29. MATTHEW. 59 by them of old time, „ rphou ghalt nQt commit 26 Verily I say unto thee,* Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou {£& paid the uWK0St farthing. 27 IT 'Ye have heard that it was said, adultery : 28 Sit' I say unto you, " ttlt1 every°oB£! that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 "And if thy right eye* WsetSS thimble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not "wt thy whole body should be cast into * hell. * Cp. ch. 18. 34, 35. I See ver. 21. m Cited from Ex. 20. 14 &'Deut. 5. 18. n Job 31. 1. Prov. 6.25. Ecclus. 9. 8. Cp. 2 Sam. 11. 2. o ch. 18. 8, 9. Mark 9. 43^8. p ch. 15. 12 (mg.) & 17. 27, al. Cp. ch. 13. 41 & Luke 17. 1. q ch. 10. 28 & 23. 15, 33. Luke 12. 5. Cp. ver. 22. 26. TU1 thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Farthing, in English, means " fourth thing," and is one fourth of a penny. Pennies were once made with a cross upon them, so that they could be broken into four parts. Farthing here is the quadrans, the fourth part of a Roman as, and was a very small brass coin, worth about one quarter of a, cent, the two mites of Mark 12: 42. Verses 25, 26 are still a warning against the folly, and sin, and danger of anger, the spirit of murder. Unsettled quarrels lead to murder and crime, and to their natural punishment in this life and the life to come. Of course they may also be taken as a parable of the necessity of immediate reconciliation with God. Second. An Example from the Seventh Commandment, vers. 27-32. Note the order of the argument ; (1) the com mand ; (2) the true interpretation of it ; (3) an earnest appeal that it be obeyed at any cost ; (4) a correction of the Pharisee's false application of it. 27. Thou shalt not commit adultery, a sin that destroys the family, which is an institution dear to God, and necessary to the building up of his kingdom, and to the welfare of God's children. This commandment is the wall around the family, the city of true love, with its homes, its children, its heavenly life of love, — the type of the city of God. This wall defends the home against the demons of selfishness, the dra gons of sensual love and divorce, the storms of vile literature, the armies of evil thoughts and bad companions. This commandment is also a wall to keep men from entering another city, the city of False Pleasure, a city of destruction like that from which Bunyan's pilgrim fled. In its centre is a burning whirlwind of flame, filled with diseases, remorse, and death. This vortex of fiery evils is hidden from the sight of those with out by being surrounded with palaces of sensual delight, magnificent temples of lust, brilliant saloons of intoxicating drinks, conversation halls of lewd stories, libraries of obscene literature, whose walls are hung with obscene pictures. 28. But I say unto you. Here, as in the case of murder, Jesus shows that the real evil is in the heart and the character which leads to the out ward crime. Cleanse the fountain and the stream w*U be pure. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, not forbidding, as some have said, the love that leads to marriage, but the lust after the forbidden that leads to adultery and un- chasteness of life. It is " the indulgence of an evil imagination." Hath committed adultery with her already in bis heart. He has committed the real essence of the crime. He that would commit a sin if all restraints were removed, but is prevented by them from the act of sin, does not harm others so much, but he has the criminal character, and sins against his own soul.1 This does not refer to the desire, if it is checked and conquered. " You can't prevent the devil from shooting arrows of evil thoughts into your heart ; but take care that you do not let such arrows stick fast and grow there. Do as a good old man of past times has said : ' I can't prevent a bird from flying over my head, but I can pre vent him from making a nest in my hair.' " 2 This command does not forbid the attraction which draws persons together toward marriage, and true family life. As the act of eating may become a sacrament, spiritually and intellectually elevating, " a feast of reason and a flow of soul," so while lust and unbridled imaginations are de grading and sensual, yet marriage, true love be tween husband and wife, may be a sacrament, spiritually uplifting, a means of grace, steps to ward heaven. 29. And if thy right eye, the best and most precious. Of course this is a figurative expres- 1 See Plato's Republic on the just man, with his illus tration from Gyges' ring. 2 Luther. 60 The teachers' Commentary. 5 : 30-33. 30 And if thy right hand causethSSltiunbie, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not """ thy whole body sn°nldg^' into hell. 31 It hatwab8een said- also, 'Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement : 32 -SSf I say unto you, ^t^SS'^iS^a away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, ^Ta^hrhe0r^amiitoressfy: and 'whosoever shall marry her whenthJis^way committeth adultery. 33 If Again, ye have heard that it 1a^ea said & them of old time, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but " shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths : r ch. 19. 7. Jer. 3. 1. Cited from Deut. 24. 1. s ch. 19. 9. Mark 10. 11, 12. Luke 16. 18. Cp. 1 Cor. 7. 10, 11. ( Rom. 7. 3. u Lev. 19. 12. 1 Tim. 1. 10. v Num. 30. 2. Deut. 23. 21. Eccles. 5. 4. Ecclus. 18. 22. sion. The literal plucking out of an eye would not change the character or remove the diffi culty. Offend thee, cause thee to stumble into sin. The kindred noun is skandalon (from which our words scandal and slander are both de rived), the stick in a trap on which the bait is placed, and which springs up and shuts the trap at the touch of an animal. Hence generally, a snare, a stumblingblock. Christ's meaning here is : If your eye or your hand serve as an obstacle or trap to ensnare or make you fall in your moral walk, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, lose anything, rather than sin. The connection of this verse with the previous ones lies in the intensity of lustful desires, which often sweep away all barriers, all laws, all hopes. They are compared to the right eye, the right hand and foot. But they must be conquered at any cost. The comparison is a general one, applying to all appetites and desires. Compare the appetite of the drunkard, the passion of the gambler, who find it easier to give up character, property, family, friends, health, heaven itself, rather than resist their appetites. Note that the hand and eye, like the appetites they represent, are not only innocent, but very important in themselves. But if you cannot es cape from their misuse except by giving them up, then cut them off, as you would a diseased limb to save the life of the body. It is profitable for thee. The wise man al ways looks forward to the consequences of his actions. Body, standing for the whole life here, because the sin referred to is a sin against the body. Hell, "Gehenna, not Hades; the place of punishment, not the place of the dead ; hence, spiritual, not physical death is referred to." 1 .30. And if thy right hand. The argument is the same as in verse 29, repeated for the sake of emphasis. The Teacher now returns to the com mandment under discussion. 31. It hath been said. See Deut. 24 : 1, 2. A temporary civil enactment, misinterpreted by the Rabbis. Shall put away his wife. The School of Hillel, widely prevalent in Christ's time, allowed a husband to put away his wife for the most triv ial causes, such as bad cooking, or even for not being as handsome as some other woman he liked. The only condition was, Let him give her a writ ing of divorcement. This was a restraint on hasty action, and a protection to the wife's char acter. 32. Whosoever shall put away his wife, sav ing for the cause of fornication, the one " ground of separation by which the nature of mar riage and its obligations is, as u, matter of fact, directly and immediately destroyed." 2 Oauseth her to commit adultery, for she is, by the divine ordinance, still the wife of him who put her away. Divorce, except for the above cause, leads to all the sins and evils and dangers against which the seventh commandment is a guard.8 Third. An Illustrative Example from the Third Commandment, vers. 33-37. 33. Thou shalt not forswear thyself, etc. Practically one application of the third com mandment (Exodus 20 : 7), expressed in other words in Lev. 19 : 12 ; Num. 30 : 2 ; Deut. 23 : 21 . This commandment was limited by the Scribes to false swearing. They interpreted it to apply only to oaths which contained the name of God ; other oaths were not binding. They were exceedingly particular about using the sacred name of Jehovah, refusing to pronounce it even in the sacred books. Compare Matthew 23 : 16-22. The Jews of Christ's time, like the Orientals of to-day, " are fearfully profane. Everybody curses and swears when in a passion. No people that I have ever known > Schaffi. 2 Meyer. 3 For a full discussion of this question, of the reasons for divorce laws, and separate maintenance as dis tinguished from divorce, see Pres. Woolsey's Divorce and Divorce Legislation, Martensen's Christian Ethics, vol. ii., pp. 29-46. 5 : 34-39. MATTHEW. 61 34 buf I say unto you, '"Swear not at all; neither by the heaven : for *it is God's throne : ' the throne of Uod; 35 S,0/ by the earth; for it is S| footstool: 0f hfileetT nor by JS-ru'sa-iem; for it is » the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, befc0fie thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your °°™rion be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: & « whatsoever is more than these ™ifh of « the evil one. 38 IT Ye have heard that it hatwabseen said, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : 39 g? I say unto you, eTto&Sif* not him that is evil: but " whosoever « **&Eg* thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. w James 5. 12. .r ch. 23. 22. Isai. 66. 1. Acts 7. 49. See Kev. 4. 2. y Ps. 48. 2. z Cp. Prov. 10. 19. a See ch. 13. 19. b Cited from Ex. 21. 24 & Lev. 24. 20 & Deut. 19. 21. c 1 Cor. 6. 7. 1 Pet. 2 23. see Luke 6. 29, 30. Cp. Rom. 12. 17. e ch. 26. 07. Isai. 50. 6. Lam. 3. 30. ! For ver. 39-42, can compare with these Orientals for profane- ness in the use of the names and attributes of God. The evil habit seems inveterate and uni versal." " The people now use the very same sort of oaths that are mentioned and condemned by our Lord. They swear by the head, by their life, by heaven, and by the Temple, or, what is in its place, the church. The forms of cursing and swearing, however, are almost infinite, and fall on the pained ear all day long." x 34-3H. Swear not at all. Why? Because swearing by created things, as heaven, earth, Jerusalem, parts of your body, is really swearing by him who created them. Do not try to confirm your statements by oaths. 37. Let your communication be, Yea, yea. So live, so keep your word, show such a character, that your simple statement, especially if repeated, will be more readily believed, than that of a swearer when confirmed by an oath. Whatso ever is more than these cometh of evil. Has its source in the evil in the heart and in the world. It increases both lying and profanity. " The more swearing, the more lying," said Coleridge. The Authorized is better than the Revision here. Note. (1) This does not forbid what are called " judicial oaths," that is, a solemn affirmation, as in the presence of God. This is not "swearing," and does not take the name of God in vain. The breaking of such affirmation is punishable by law as perjury. (2) But the taking these oaths so carelessly and irreverently, as is sometimes done, is profane. (3) The root of profanity is irreverence, whether it be taking God's name in vain, or swearing falsely. It is the very opposite of worship, reverence, and love to God. It takes away the moral restraint and the elevating power of the conscious presence of God. Men excuse them selves because they do it thoughtlessly. But that is their very condemnation. It is taking God's name in vain. Men always lose faith in that which they take lightly on their tongues. This is the deadly nature of profanity. Because to take God's name in vain is to raise up an army of doubts. There is no way in which you can make God seem a myth, an unreality, and destroy his power over men more easily than by taking his name lightly on the lips. (4) This law forbids (a) perjury ; (b) all care less and trifling use of God's name ; (c) all pro fane swearing by anything God has made, (d) It forbids all irreverent use of the Bible, hymns, sacred things ; all joking and punning upon them, or connecting funny stories with them, (e) It forbids all irreverence, thoughtless laughing and talking in the house of God. (f) It forbids all empty forms of religion, without its spirit. Fourth. An Example from the Treat ment of those who injure us, vers. 38-42. 38. An eye for an eye. A rule for punish ment of offences coming before the civil court, and founded in justice, much more so than any modern system of fines, which favor the rich. The Pharisaic perversion of this rule was the application of it to private wrongs, and the deal ings of man with man, while it really applied to magistrates, to government. Most of the diffi culty in this command comes through confound ing civic with private duties. 39. But I say, . . . Resist not evil, or " him that is evil." The Greek can be read either way. Resist not evil by evil, or by force, but as Christ did, by love and goodness. This is explained by the four instances which follow, and they show that the command applies to private injuries and 1 Dr. Thomson in Land and Book. 62 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 40-42. 40 And if any man wouidsgotoieilww1ithIthee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41 And whosoever shall f compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain. 42 " Give to him that asketh thee, and * from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. / ch. 27. 32. Mark 15. 21 (& mg. for mg.). g Ps. 37. 21. Prov. 21. 26. A Deut. 15. 8. Ps. 37. 26 & 112. 5. Luke 6. 34, 35. forbids revenge or retaliation. It does not apply to courts of law ; it does not overthrow all gov ernment penalties and punishments, or defence of the community against violence. But even these must never be performed in revenge or retalia tion, but only in love. The spirit with which the Christian is to meet evil men and the evil deeds they do to him is one of love and peace ; seeking the good of the injurer. Your business is to over come evil with good, to feed your hungry enemy, and give him drink if he thirsts (Rom. 12 : 18- 21).1 Smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, not literally, for that would be like the Rabbis' interpretation, but act in that spirit ; exactly as Christ did to the man in the trial who struck him with a rod. He did not turn the other cheek, but expostulated in a digni fied manner, and did not resist by force, or ask for revenge. To obey this command literally would demand little effort, seldom required ; but never to feel personal resentment against those who recklessly misrepresent us, who slander us, who insult us — this is a much more difficult mat ter, and is what Christ requires of us.2 40. If any man will, wills to, proposes to, sue thee at the law, has some quarrel with you or thinks you have wronged him, and wants to go to law about it, and would take away thy coat, the undergarment or tunic, implying violence, for he would first have to take away the cloke or large and more costly outer garment. Then yield more than he asks, rather than quarrel with him. 41. Compel thee to go. The Greek word (ayyapeucrei) "throws the whole injunction into a picture which is entirely lost to the English reader. A man is travelling, and about to pass a post-station, where horses and messengers are kept in order to forward royal missives as quickly as possible. An official rushes out, seizes him, and forces him to go back and carry a letter to the next station, perhaps to the great detriment of his business. The word is of Persian origin, and denotes the impressment into service, which officials were empowered to make of any avail able persons or beasts on the great lines of road where the royal mails were carried by relays of riders."3 A mile, Greek niAioi/, that is, a thou sand paces. Go with him twain, two. Do more than is required. Make a free, joyous service of that which was meant for a slavish one, and thus outwit and overcome evil by doing more and better with a higher motive than a lower one would lead you to do. This would commend to the heathen the Christian spirit, while resisting would be not only vain, but kindle passion and cruelty in the oppressor's heart. 42. Give to him that asketh thee, not liter ally, but in spirit. "Seize the spirit in the let ter; the seed in the shell."4 Always have the spirit that loves to give and to help as many as possible. Give always to him that asks, not always what he asks, but what is wisest and best ; as God answers our prayers. " Love is not to be divorced from wisdom and experience." "These precepts are not meant for fools."5 Alford well remarks : "To give everything to every one — the sword to the madman, the alms to the impostor, the criminal request to the temptress — would be to act as the enemy of others and ourselves." Indiscriminate giving is often a great evil to the individual and the com munity. But the spirit that loves to give, that gives as much as possible in the wisest way, is Christlike and divine. A stingy Christian is a con tradiction in terms. And from him that would borrow. (See Deut. 15: 7-11.) Here the same principle applies. Delight to help by lending. Note. " A modern philosopher, Mr. J. S. Mill, has said that Christ, in giving such instructions, had done wonders for the ideal of humility and charity in the world, but had failed to inculcate manliness and that courage which was so amply developed by the laws of mediaeval chivalry. Mill thought, therefore, that the Christian ideal was one-sided, and required to be supplemented by the warlike type, which resents insult, and challenges the aggressor to defend himself. 1 There are some capital illustrations in Arvine's Reli gious Anecdotes, No. 159, "William Ladd and his Neigh bor;" and 160, "A Christian Colony," by Mrs. Lydia Maria Child. See Ruskin's Modern Painters, Vol. V., the chapter on "Peace." Whately's Annotations, p. 315. 2 See R. W. Dale, Laws of Christ for Common Life, pp. 57-75. 3 Prof. M. R. Vincent in Word Studies. 4 Boardman, The Kingdom. c Spurgeon. 5 : 43-45. MATTHEW. 63 43 IT 'Ye have heard that it ,mV™seen said/' Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and *hate thine enemy: 44 gBf I say unto you, ' Love your enemies, m a„dpSy for them that persecute VOU'- d0 e°0& t0 """" tllat lmte you' anci play £or them wnicu despitefully use you, and persecute you ; 45 "SiS4 ye may be theSnsdreu of your Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and ° sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. i See ver. 21. j Cited from Lev. 19. 18. See ch. 19. 19. k Cp. Deut. 23. 6. I Luke 6. 27, 28. Rom. 12. 20. Cp. Ex. 23. 4& Job 31. 29,30&Ps. 7. 4. m Luke 23. 34. Acts 7. CO. 2 Tim. 4. 16. 1 Pet. 3. 9. n Luke 6. 35. Cp. Eph. 5. 1 & Phil. 2. 15. o Acts 14. 17. Bravery is of all qualities that which most at tracts the human race. But the one feature which stands out prominently in the society founded by Christ and his apostles is the extraor dinary heroism which was shown in the face of death and tortures, not only by men, but by feeble women and tender children. It amazed the heathen magistrates, who were striving after fortitude by the aid of philosophy. It amazed the wild savages, who mistook gentleness for cowardice, when they found that it was harder to terrify the missionary who came with the gos pel than the invader who came in battle array. Quiet endurance may be more heroic than violent resistance, and the Christian law of bearing per sonal insults and injuries meekly tends to the de velopment of the highest courage and of the truest manliness. There is nothing more courageous, more heroic in all history than the living up to the laws of Christ we have just been studying." 1 Fifth. Illustrated by the Doctrine of Love, vers. 43-48. 43. Thou shalt love thy neighbour. A pre cept foundin Lev. 19 : 18, with the addition, " as thyself." This was good teaching. Neighbor, i. e., nigh-bor, one who is outwardly near, every one who can be reached by personal influence. So the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 : 30-37). The Jewish teachers misinterpreted this in two ways : (1) by limiting it to those of their own race and religion ; and (2) by the addition and hate thine enemy, which is not in the Old Testament. On the contrary, they were told (Ex. 23 : 4), " H thou meet thine enemy's ox or ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again," and (Prov. 25 : 21), " If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat." They probably inferred the addition from the instances in which they were taught to utterly destroy their enemies (Deut. 7: 2 ; 23 : 6 ; Ps. 137 : 8, 9), where the destruction of their enemies was ordered, not from hate, but be cause it was necessary for the preservation of the kingdom of righteousness on earth. The Jews were separated from other nations, not to hate them but to help them, as Christians are to be separate from the world for the sake of helping and saving the world. 44. Love your enemies. The word here used for " love " (iyawdm) is equivalent to the Latin diligo, emphasizing choice, friendship, well-wish ing, rather than delight in their character. It is the word that is used of God's love to sinners. According to President Hopkins, in Law of Love and Love as Law, there are three elements in love. (1) Desire for, awakened by a perception of worth as distinguished from worthiness. (2) Attraction toward, delight in, the object of love. (3) A rational choice to do him good and seek his welfare, so strong that we are willing to make sacrifices for him. We cannot always delight in the character of our enemy, but we can choose to do him good, and delight to do it. Note the entirety of the love and its various modes of expression. (1) The feeling (2) expressed in words, (3) in acts, (4) in prayer. (" Bless " and the second " pray " are omitted in the R. V. But they are true, and recorded in Luke.) Bless. Invoke blessings upon, and speak well of, in return for curses. Conquer bad words and feelings by good words. Examples. David's treatment of Saul (1 Sam. 24 : 4-7) ; Joseph and his brethren (Gen. 45 : 5-15) ; Moses (Num. 12 : 1, 13) ; Stephen (Acts 7: 60) ; Paul (2 Tim. 4: 16). Do good. So in Prov. 25 : 21, 22 ; Rom. 12 : 20. The only possible way of overcoming evil is by good. To hate our enemies is to have two bad people instead of one, with no power to help that one to become good. And pray for them. Seek the highest influences for their good. Which despitefully use you. A forcible word, meaning " to vex out of spite, with the sole object of inflicting harm."2 The best commentary on. these matchless counsels is the bright example of him who gave them. (See Luke 23 : 34 ; 1 Pet. 2 : 21-24 ; and cf . Rom. 12 : 20, 21 ; 1 Cor. 4 : 12 ; lPet. 3: 9.) 3 First Reason. 45. That ye may be the | 1 Condensed from an article in the Sunday-School Times, by Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 2 Cambridge Bible. 3 See Plato's Crito ; Lowell's Poems, Sir Launfal." • The Vision of 64 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 5 : 46-48. 46 p For if ye love them wthath love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others I do not „,mn J-"U~ a publicans so? even tne ' Gen'tiles the same '! 48rYlye therefore shaiibe 'perfect, even (as your neavemy Father whlctl is in heave" is perfect. p Luke 6. 32. q ch. 6. 7, 32. r Cp. Luke 6. 36. s ch. 19. 21. 1 Cor. 2. 6. Phil. 3. 15. Col. 1. 28 & 4. 12. James 1. 4 & 3. 2. See Gen. 17. 1. t Cp. Lev. 19. 2 & 1 Pet. 1. 15. children of your Father which is in heaven. Not only by creation, in his image, but spiritually, born into his likeness, with his character, heirs of his home, partakers of his joy. Sun to rise on the evil and on the good, etc. God thus ex presses his love to all men, and attracts them to himself ; and most of all in sending his Son to save the lost. He imparts to all alike, but all do not receive alike : men may sit in darkness in spite of the sun, or suffer hunger for idleness in spite of the rain. And there are lost souls in spite of God's love that would save all. Under the blest influences of sun and rain there may spring up thorns as well as flowers, and thistles as well as wheat. / Second Reason. This is the spirit which dis tinguishes disciples. 46. If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye P What meritorious thing have you done ? What that marks you as a disciple of Jesus ? Do not even the publicans so P the men that are notorious sinners, the meanest sinners who are despised and outcasts. If you do nothing more than these, why are you any better than they ? What has your religion done for you ? 47. If ye salute your brethren only, an act which demands no piety, no goodness, no nobility. What do ye more than others 91 Disciples ought to do more than others, because they have received more ; they know better their duty ; they have professed more ; they are able to do more ; they are under deeper obligations. Do not even the publicans, R. V. the Gentiles, the heathen. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, or as R. V., "Ye therefore shall be perfect;" if you live up to the precepts of this chapter. This is a command and a promise, and a guide of the way to perfection. Perfect. " Complete in all the elements of moral goodness." 2 " Completion in Christian character in contrast with a half -fin ished and partial character, a character that is Christian in some parts and worldly and selfish in others." "In brief, one may be an imperfect, but one cannot be a partial Christian. He may obey Christ imperfectly, but he cannot obey in part and disobey in part (6 : 24 ; compare Eph. 4 : 13 ; Col. 1: 28; 4: 12)." "A complete obedience embraces the whole man, and brings the spirit as well as the members under allegiance to these laws." 8 Perfection is simply the sum of the com mandments. " The goal is not brought to the racers, but the racers must strive to reach the goal."4 The Perfect (re'Aeioi) "are those who have reached the goal, have attained maturity." In Eph. 4: 13, 14, "perfect" describes full-grown men in contrast with babes. "It is the goal of human excellence," complete development of being. Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. With every element of goodness which shines in him, with all the fulness of which our natures are capable, without flaw or imperfection in spirit or in action. The lamp, though infinitely smaller than the sun, shines with perfect light. Every color, every power of the sunbeam may shine in the candle ray. The image on the retina of the eye may be a perfect picture in every detail of a landscape that extends over many miles. No Christian wants to be less than this. It is his purpose, his prayer, his hope, his goal, and some time " God shall make divinely real The highest forms of thy Ideal." B " God never permitted us to form a theory too beautiful for his power to make practical." " Sweet Cynosure far fixed in spotless fields High in the regions of the night, Thou servest a waymark to the sons of time." 1 Wm. Seeker's The Nonesuch Professor develops thia idea finely. 2 Morison. c Mrs. Preston. > Abbott. 4 Conder. 6 : 1, 2. MATTHEW. 65 CHAPTER 6. Section VII. -THE PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM (continued). The supreme choice (1) of Treasure, (2) of * Master. Helps toward a right choice. 5. Applications to the Religious Life, 6- 1-18. A Lesson on Almsgiving. A Lesson on Prayer. A Lesson on Forgiveness. A Lesson on Fasting. 0. Applications to the Aim and Purpose of Life, 6: 19-34. Time. Midsummer of A. d. 28. Place. A mountain near the Sea of Galilee. 1 Take heed that ye " do not your rightfulness before men/ to be seen of them : ye have no reward w^h your Father which is in heaven otherwise else 2 - ^IrtherSfoVe thou doest7**" alms, d°"°' sound Ifa trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do m the synagogues and in the streets, that they may r have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have » received their reward. u 1 John 2. 29. Cp. Tobit 12. 8, 9 & 14. 11. v ver. 16. ch. 23. 5. w Cp. 1 Cor. 13. 3. x John 5. 44. y Luke G. 24. V. APPLICATIONS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE, 6 : 1-18. A LESSON ON ALMSGIVING, vers. 1-4. 1. Take heed. Emphatic ; because the evil to be avoided is very great ; the temptation to it is very great ; the danger of falling into this sin is very great on account of its insidious nature. That ye do not your alms. R. V., according to the best MSS., " your righteousness," your good actions both moral and religious, before men for the purpose or design to be seen of them. " The Greek verb is a strong word (the root from which comes theatre), and suggests the being gazed at as a spectacle." " What our Lord forbids is therefore not publicity in performing good deeds, which is often necessary and therefore proper, but ostenta tions publicity, for the purpose of attracting atten tion and gaining applause." J " We may be seen to do good, but not do good to be seen." 2 This is not opposed to letting your light shine (Matt. 5 : 16), for good done with this selfish motive prevents your light from shining. The purer the motive, the brighter the light. Otherwise, i. e., else, if you do not take heed. Ye have no reward of your Father. You may have a certain reward of praise and esteem from men, for whose sake you perform the action, but none from God, for you have done nothing for him, nothing of the kind he wants done, nothing to please him, or in accordance with true virtue ; why then should you expect a reward from him ? Of your Father, rather, " with" as R. V. " The preposition (irapa) means with, by the side of, so that the true sense is, reserved for you and awaiting you by the side of your Father."1 The Principle, immediately applied to giv ing, to prayer, and to fasting, is that it is the mo tive which gives virtue-value to a deed. It is not the deed, but the motive, which shows the char acter, and cultivates the character. The same outward deed may be heavenly or devilish accord ing to the purpose of the doer ; as a doctor may give poisonous medicine, or cut off a limb to save life, and a murderer may do the same to destroy life.* 2. Therefore, on account of this principle, when thou doest thine alms (IXcnp-oavv-nv), the virtue or quality of one who is if.eyp.iov, merciful, hence mercy shown in giving to the needy. Our word alms (singular, not plural), contracted from almesse, is an abridged form of the Greek word, and eleemosynary is a transliteration. Do not sound a trumpet before thee, a com mon figurative expression derived from the cus tom of calling the people to see a spectacle, or calling attention to a cavalcade of noted people, by sounding a trumpet, as we ring a, bell or have a brass band. 1 Prof. Broadus. 2 Bp. Wordsworth. 3 Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. * See McCosh's Divine Government. 66 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6:3,4. 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth : 4 Sat4 thine alms may be in secret : z and thy Father which seeth in secret himself al,„ii reward +>,„„ openly. aixaiii recompense u-i-ioc. z ver. 6, 18. Some think that the figure was suggested by the ten trumpet-shaped chests in the Temple, into which the people put their offerings. (Luke 21: 1-4.) "Do not make a trumpet of the box; it looks like one, but do not use it for the purpose of calling attention to what you are about to put init."i As the hypocrites do, (vjtokplto.1,) actors, those who play a part upon a stage, usually, in ancient times, in a mask. The player appears in one character, while he is really another ; the beggar may be dressed like a king, and a fool act the part of a wise man. Hence the word came to mean, pretending to be one thing while really an other. These men gave their alms in the syna gogues, their places of religious assemblies, and in the streets, where crowds could see them. That they may have glory of men. They were hypocrites because they pretended to be benevo lent and religious, when in reality they were caring only for themselves. They have received their reward. Emphasize their. The reward they seek, the reward that be longs to such deeds done with such motives. In the Greek (iire'xovcn), " the preposition (an-o) indicates receipt in full. There is nothing more to receive." 2 The reward was a certain reputa tion for benevolence and piety, with a large dis count from the tendency of men to impute bad motives. They had the comfort of self-conceit and complacency. They aLso had, what they did not count on, a reward in a development of a bad character, of selfishness and pride. The bitterest reward of sin is more sin.3 Note that this warning is for the persons them selves, not for those who watch others in their giving, and who should carefully study Christ's lesson on judging in the next chapter. No one has a right to impute to large givers ostentatious and selfish motives. If he does, he simply pro claims that if he gave it, it would be from those motives. 3. Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.4 Let the deed be so natural, so unconscious, so entirely absorbed in the good done, that it is not worth while for one hand to tell the other, and it never thinks of doing so.6 Possibly in many cases the left hand would be ashamed of what the right hand gave. 4. That (not so that, but in order that) thine alms may be in secret. Here is a principle rather than a rule. In many cases it is impossi ble that others should not know a part of the giver's gifts, but publicity is to be avoided if pos sible, and never should it be sought. " Distin guish between doing right in order to help others, as when one lights a beacon in order to guide the sailor, and doing right in order to be praised by others, as when one stands in the full blaze of a chandelier in order to display his jewelry. It is one thing to shine for the sake of illuminating others, and so helping them ; it is another thing to shine for the sake of illuminating ourselves, and so be seen to advantage." 6 So it is one thing to try to please others, and another to try to be pleasing. The centre of one is our neighbor, of the other, self . And thy Father. " He will reward thee as thy Father ; not as a master who gives his servant just what he earns and no more, but as a father, who gives abundantly more, and without stint, to his son that serves him." 7 Which seeth in secret. Who knows everything, even the most secret deed or hidden motive. Himself shall reward thee, recompense thee. A differ ent word from that used in speaking of the reward of the hypocrites, which is wages (p-itr96i>), the servant's pay. God does not pay these givers, but rewards them freely from his overflowing love to do them good ; and because they are, by their character, capable of receiving this reward, which the others were not capable of. The re ward is not a paying back the gift, but divine approval, a. nobler character, a more generous disposition, a likeness to God, a part in the mak ing of the world happier and better, a share in the final victory of good. "In the strength of the endeavor, In the giving of the giver, In the loving of the lover, Lies the hidden recompense." Openly, this has slight authority. But still it is true. There will be a recognition of the char acter formed, shining forth among men, but not traced directly to any one act. 1 Joseph Parker, D. D. * Prof. M. R. Vincent. 3 See some powerful words in Ruskin's Modern Paint ers, vol. v., chapter on "Peace." Rogers' Greyson Letters, " The Fit Punishment of Hypocrisy," is very Bhrewd and interesting. 4 Jacox's Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts, vol. i. 259, "The Open Right Hand's Secret from the Left." D See Hudson's Lectures on Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 103, for some capital remarks on unconscious virtue. » Dr. Boardman, The Kingdom. ' Matthew Henry. 6 : 5-8. MATTHEW. 67 5 1 And when ^SE^Egaf*1' not be as the hypocrites: are: for they love to " stand and pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. b Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into ^Mne^rXmber, and when^X"ast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; " and thy Father which seeth in secret shall teS^Se. theeopenly- 7 BAndinpryaey^|y' use not vain repetitions, as the e Sufe" & for / they think that they shall be heard » for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore hke unto them : * for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. a Mark 11. 25. Luke 18. 11. b ver. 2, 16. /IKin. 18. 26. g Prov. 10. 19. Eccles. 5. 2. c 2 Kin. 4. 33. Isai. 26. 20. h ver. 32. e ver. 32. ch. 5. 47. " Dante, describing the angels whom he met, in the Paradiso, impresses us at once with their external glory and their spiritual effulgence. In variably he makes the former the result of the latter." The angel " Became a thing transcendent in my sight As a fine ruby smitten by the sun." 1 A LESSON ON PRAYER, vers. 5-13. 5. Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, who do not really pray, do not desire or expect what they ask, or hold communion with God ; but desire to appear very religious to men, and hence stand apart like the Pharisee in the parable, as if absorbed in devotion, in the synagogues, the proper places of worship, where the worshippers can see them, and in the corners of the streets, where they could be seen from four directions. That they may be seen of men, who will praise them for their piety and think them very good.2 They have their reward. Wages ; what they have earned ; the reward they sought. They re ceived no answers, for they did not seek anything from God. They had merely an envied reputa tion for piety, the brief praises of envious men, a tarnished and fading glory. Th ey sold their birth right of prayer for a mess of pottage. 6. But thou, when thou prayest, your real purpose being to pray, enter into thy closet, or secret chamber, where others can neither see nor hear. The Greek word means a place of supplies, a treasury. This secret chamber of prayer can well become a treasury of divine blessings. Shut thy door, to keep out all other persons, as well as to shut out worldly thoughts. Pray to thy Father, who is your friend, who loves to aid his children. "Which is in secret. The invisible spiritual God. Which seeth in secret. Knows every secret place, every hidden desire. Shall reward thee openly. Better, as in R. V., recom pense thee, answer your prayers. Give you the things you ask for, or, if these are not good for you, give you the better things you would have asked for, had you seen as God sees. The an swer will appear openly in the results. The true reward is not pay of any kind, but that which comes " as surely as the flowers .spring from the soil where the seed has been sewn," and chief est of these is communion with God. Applications. (1) This does not forbid sin cere prayer in the presence of others, for Jesus and the apostles prayed before others ; but only formal prayers, made for the sake of appearing to pray. (2) We can pray in the secret places of our own hearts, even while we are walking the streets, or are busy with men. (3) But we all need places and times of retirement, when we can commune alone with God. 7. But when ye pray, use not vain (empty, without heart, formal, mechanical) repetitions. The repeating over and over of set forms, as if there were some virtue in the mere act of pray ing ; as if God would do something for them, on account of their much speaking. As if "say ing " their prayers at night were a talisman with some magic power against harm ; as useless as the prayer-wheels of Thibet. But a repetition is not vain so long as it is the expression of a long ing heart. 8. Your heavenly Father. No earthly father cares for a lot of heartless repetitions. Nor does our Heavenly Father. The fault above described shows a total misapprehension of God's nature. Knoweth. Appreciates ; he feels for you, there fore you can come to him with freedom, and ask what you will. True prayer answered is the best means of becoming acquainted with our Father. i See Joseph Cook's Monday Lectures, Conscience, ' Solar Self-Culture." 2 See Dr. Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life, ' Prayers and Praying in the East." 68 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6:9. 9 ' After this manner therefore pray ye : ¦>' Our Father which art in heaven, * Hallowed be ' thy name. i For ver. 9-13, cp. Luke 11. 2-4. I John 17. 6. j ver. 1. k Isai. 29. 23. Cp. Ecclus. 36. 4 & Luke 1. 49 & 1 Pet. 3. 15. THE LORD'S PRAYER.' 9. After this manner therefore pray ye. With no vain repetitions, but as children asking of a father the things they need. (1) The fact that Christ gave his prayer in two different forms shows that no exact form of words was required ; and the fact that Luke, writing at least twenty- five years after the formation of the Church, gives one form, and Matthew another, shows that no obligatory form was in use in the churches. Christ and the apostles prayed in other words. (2) It is right, and often blessed, to use the Lord's Prayer as a form for bringing large numbers into the unity of worship, provided it is always filled with the spirit ; but it must not be imposed upon the worshippers as a law, nor its mere repetition vie wed as a virtue. (3) It is always a model indicating the spirit of true prayer. The Seven Petitions. " The first three refer to the Holiness, the Kingdom, the Will of God ; the next four to the Needs, the Sins, the Temp tations, the Perils of life." 2 The Envelope Form. Professor Moulton, in his Literary Study of the Bible, arranges the first part of the prayer in what he calls the envelope form, regarding " in earth as it is in heaven " as belonging to each of the previous petitions. Thus:- Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, In earth as it is in heaven. That is : — Hallowed be thy name, in earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come, in earth as it is in heaven. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Our Father which art in heaven. Therefore not any earthly parent. Wherever God is, there is heaven. The expression implies a Spirit with omnipresence, omnipotence, infinite and lovable goodness. Jesus Christ in his own person, as well as his teaching, has revealed God to us as our Father. God is Creator, but the Creator is our Father. God is the Ruler, but this Great King is our Father. God is glorious, but this glorious being is our Father. God is the Judge, but this Judge is our Father. If from all literature, all history, all experi ence, all poetry, all imagination, we could gather together into one picture the noblest qualities of fatherhood and motherhood, lovingkindness and tender mercies, self-sacrifice, longsuffering and forgiving love, a care that is wise and gracious, seeing the good more gladly than the evil, — we would have some faint vision of what our hea venly Father is. Note 1. Our implies that all men of every race and condition are brothers, because children of the same Father ; implying, too, our fellow ship with Christ, our elder brother. " You can not have God for a father without taking man for a brother." Note 2. The fact that God is our Father en nobles man. His soul is kindled from the divine, and partakes of the divine nature. Note 3. Only so great a being could hear the prayers of each and give individual love to every one of his myriads of children. It is because God is so great that we can go each one to him for help, and friendship, and love. Note 4. It becomes every parent so to live be fore his children as to give them a high idea of what the fatherhood of God means. First Petition. Hallowed. Held in rever ence, treated as holy, loved and worshipped by ourselves and by all, just as it is in heaven, where they know him best. Be thy name. God's name means " Himself as revealed and mani fested." This name differentiates him from all other beings ; it stands for his nature, attributes, and character, as when a man signs his name to a note, that name stands for all the man is and has ; it is the sum of all the many names and titles applied to him in the Bible in order to ex press, as far as possible, every side of his nature. (1) This prayer must be answered first in our own hearts. We are to be absorbed in devotion to our Father. (2) The more we know of God, the more clearly we see our Father's face, the more we see him in his Son, — the more will we rever ence and love his name. (3) We need to culti vate a reverent spirit, for country, for the flag that 1 Expectation Corner (8 cents) is the best extended illustration of prayer I have seen ; The Lord's Prayer, by Farrar ; by Charles Stanford, D. D ; by Washington Gladden ; The Model Prayer, by George D. Boardman, D. D. ; The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, by Prof. Mar cus Dods, D. D. ; Thy Kingdom Come, by Rev. Henry Wilder Foote ; With Christ in tlie School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray ; Lessons in the School of Prayer, by A. T. Pierson. 2 Farrar, The Lard's Prayer. 6 : 10, 11. MATTHEW. 69 10 '" Thy kingdom come. " Thy will be done, in earth' ° as u is in heaven; so on earth. 11 » Give us this « day our daily bread. m Cp. ch. 3. 2 & 4. 17. rech. 26. 42. Luke 22. 42. Acts 21. 14. Cp. ch. 12. 50 & Heb. 13. 21. o Ps. 103. 20 21. Dan. 4. 35. p Prov. 30. 8. q Cp. ver. 34. represents it,1 for the noble and good everywhere, most of all for our Father and his Word. Every one needs the uplifting power of reverence for the noblest and best.2 (4) We should do all in our power to lead all men to hallow God's name, especially by living, as his children, in a manner worthy of him. (5) All profanity, all irreverence in church or Sunday-school, all light speaking of sacred things, hinders the answer to this prayer. Second Petition. 10. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. That is, the reign of God through Christ in the hearts of all men. The prayer is for the redemption of the whole world, the universal prevalence of the principles of right eousness and the love of God. This petition asks for the most magnificent blessings the world can receive. It asks (1) that Christ shall reign supreme in our own hearts, reign over body and spirit ; every power, every desire, submissive to his sway, and praying for this means that we are sincerely de sirous that he should reign over our hearts and fives. (2) "We pray for the extinction of all tyranny, whether in men or in multitudes ; for the exposure and destruction of corruptions, out ward and inward ; for truth and righteousness in all departments of government, art, science ; for the banishment from trade of every form of fraud and chicanery." 3 (3) It means that we be en abled to do all we can to bring this state of things to pass ; that we work and give for it, do our po litical duties, send missionaries, or go ourselves. The prayer thus taught us gives us faith and hope that his kingdom is coming. The sun's dawning rays on the mountain tops are the assur ance that the perfect day will come. The best things in individuals and in nations increasing each decade are the proof of their final preva lence. The last chapter of the Bible, toward which the whole book tends, is a picture of " the earth as it is in heaven." Third Petition. In the second petition we are thinking of the Father in heaven, that he may rule and be king over all. In this petition the point of view is his people as subjects obeying the king. Thy will be done in (on) earth, as it is in hea ven. As the perfect angels obey it, universally, perfectly, cheerfully, from choice, with delight, as in perfect accordance with their nature. (1) This prayer is first that we ourselves may do God's will thus perfectly. There are those who want the Lord's will done if only they can be on the committee of "ways and means," and God's will be done in their way. (2) God's children are not to lose their wills ; their wills are not " broken " nor absorbed in God's will, so that they have no will of their own ; but they are to choose God's will as theirs, to will what he wills, strongly, posi tively, gladly, freely. (3) This petition implies that we desire God's will to be done in his provi dence toward us. This is much more than to be submissive. It is to recognize that whatever is God's will, and we know it to be so, we choose for ourselves as wisest and best. (4) It implies the desire that the whole world may obey God as perfectly as the angels. What changes, what revolutions, this requires in business, customs, fashions, habits ! what thrones will be cast down ! what fortunes dissipated ! No wicked man dare pray this prayer. (5) It is a great privilege to be permitted to do God's will, to live on this higher plane, to ennoble every duty. " A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine ; V'ho sweeps a room as for thy laws Makes that and the action fine." Fourth Petition. 11. Give us this day our daily bread. New light is thrown upon this peti tion by a comparison with its slightly varied form in Luke. Matthew says 80s, give, in one act : Luke says SiSov, be giving, continuously. Mat thew says this day, Luke says day by day. Daily, in the original, is a peculiar compound word, and may mean (1) requisite, sufficient, "a supply that just comes up to and covers our real wants without overflowing." i Or (2) ''for the incoming day, the day just beginning." 5 " Give us to-day food sufficing for the next." 6 1. This petition shows that God cares for our bodily wants. He knoweth that we " have need of all these things." He delights in our comfort, and " giveth us all things richly to enjoy." " In the present age, it is especially important to urge that men shall pray for temporal good, since so many think that the recognized presence of law in all temporal things puts them beyond the sphere of prayer, as if that would not exclude God from his universe." 7 The body is the in strument of the soul, and should be cared for as a musician cares for his violin, or an engineer for his engine. At the same time we are to note that out of seven petitions, "three for God's glory, 1 Read E. E. Hale's Man Without a Country. 2 See Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship. s F. D. Maurice. 4 Morison. G Cambridge Bible. 6 Thayer. 7 Dr. Broadus. 70 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6 : 12, 13. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we aiso hlv^orgiven our debtors. 13 And r bfnfg us not into temptation, but " deliver us from ' the evil: kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For thine is the one. w r ch. 26. 41. Mark 14. 38. Luke 22. 40, 46. Cp. 1 Cor. 10. 13. t See ch. 13. 19. u 1 Chr. 29. 11, 12 (for mg.). s John 17. 15. 2 Thess. 3. 3. Cp. 2 Tim. 4. 18. and three for our souls," there is but one, this central one, for earthly things. 2. Give us. Every worldly good comes from God. No matter how much we must work for our daily living, still it is the gift of God, for he gives us the strength to work, and the opportuni ties, and controls the course of nature which sup plies our wants. " Money is as powerless against flood and drought, frost and fire, rot and grub, as Pharaoh was against frog and fly, locust and darkness."1 " All the science in the world can not create one grain of wheat." Nor can all the wealth. This fact tends to make all worldly things draw us toward God. For on every worldly good we see the image and superscription of our heavenly Father, and a proof of his love. " Each blessing to my soul most dear Because conferred by thee." 3. It includes supplies of spiritual food, — food for the hungry heart, food for the taste, for every right hunger, food for the mind, food from hear ven for the soul. Of what use is earthly food without the heavenly ? 4. Give us. " Christ would not have us say, Give me. We will not ask anything for ourselves alone." 2 It is hard for us to realize how much benefit it is to our families to be gathered together two or three times a day around the table. No thing but the necessity of eating could accomplish this. Eating together promotes friendship, socia bility, generosity, and the intellectual life. Dr. Hamlin says that one of the greatest difficulties in Christianizing the East is that families do not eat together. 5. Give us our daily bread. The bread adapted to our needs, the bread we have earned by honest labor, if we are able to labor, not the bread of other people obtained by begging, or violence, or dishonesty. It is vastly better for us that we have a part in gaining what God gives us. We are co-workers with God. 6. Our daily bread. For we need it every day. Especially is this true of our spiritual sup plies. The bread comes daily to teach us trust in God, and to recall daily to our minds the source of our supplies, with thanksgiving. 7. Our daily bread. The simple, necessary food, the best for us in kind and amount. Fifth Petition. 12. And forgive us our debts. Take them away from us, both the pen alty and the sins. Blot them out of the book of his remembrance, and restore us to God's favor, and home, and approval, so that we shall be treated as if we had never sinned. Our debts oqV-i.wjuara. That which we owe to God and have not paid, as love, gratitude, obedience. Sin is recorded in our characters, our memories, in the world, and needs blotting out ; and only God can do it, taking away the sin from our hearts, and taking away the evil consequences. "Duty — i. e., that which we owe, or ought to do — and debts are, it may be noted, only different forms of the same word." s Duty is from due. Ought is the old preterite of owe, owed, ought. Sin is an unpaid threefold debt against our selves, our neighbors, and God. Two other words are used in connection with the Lord's Prayer to express sin. In the verses following the Lord's Prayer in Matthew trespasses is used, — a falling away or throwing one's self aside from truth, and righteousness, and a true life. In Luke the word used means missing the mark, sin as failure, — a failure to reach the destiny and the life God has prepared for us. As we forgive our debtors, or better, as R. V., " as we have forgiven " before we offer the prayer, or as we are accustomed to for give. As expresses the manner in which we for give. We ask God to forgive us in the same manner that we treat those who wrong us. See the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, ch. 18: 21- 35. It also expresses the condition on which alone forgiveness can be granted. (See on vers. 14, 15.) A Warning. How terrible it is for an unfor giving man to pray this prayer 1 4 There are many words in the Bible to express sin in its many aspects, — as i(fiei^ijf»oTa, debts ; djaapTta, missing the mark; aw/ua, lawlessness; trapujcojj, hearing amiss or disobedience ; irapa/Wts, trespass, going across the boundary, transgression ; nap£iTT(i>p.a, fault, falling aside, moral aberration ; TJTnjjua, defeat, discomfiture ; da-c'jSeia, impiousness ; irAi)(ip.e'Acia, disharmony, a metaphor from music. For all these kinds of sin we need forgiveness. And there are as many words for forgiveness as for sins, — forgive, remit, send away, cover up, blot out, destroy, wash away, cleanse, make them as if they had never been. Sixth Petition. 13. And lead us not into 1 Boardman, The Kingdom. 2 Farrar. 3 Ellicott. 1 See " The Prayer of the Unforgiving Man," in Arbp. Augustus Hare's Alton Sermons. 6:13. MATTHEW. 71 temptation. The R. V. translates " bring us," but the meaning is the same, — Thou, who art the guide of our life, lead us, but away from tempta tion. Temptation is trial, proving, the conditions meant to test our characters, our choices. Now God tests us thus, as gold is tried in the fire. "But God brings us into temptation knowing that he can bring us safely out." Satan uses these same trials to seduce, allure, and incite us to do wrong. Temptations come from three sources : from the adversary the devil, from outward circum stances, and from our own natures. Temptations are of two kinds, — one typified by malaria, a bad moral atmosphere, weakening the nature, and bringing disease before we are aware of it ; the other, like the sudden assault of an army, attacking from an ambush. Farrar typifies the first by the adder, which comes noise lessly, gradually, insidiously ; of the other his type is the wild beast, suddenly springing on its prey, "terrible with tiger's leaps," representing the violence, the fury, the raging assaults of sin. Note. (1) We desire to be led away from temp tation, because we know something of our weak ness and danger. For to yield is ruin. Who ever wishes to be led into temptation, and is not afraid lest he fall, is already more than half fallen. " Above all, you who are young be sure of this : he who tampers with temptation is lost. There is but one rule about temptation ; namely, ' Think it as a serpent's egg, Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, And kill it in the shell.' " 1 (2) If God in his wisdom brings us into trials and tests, then " we may count it all joy," and by God's strength gain the victory (James 1 : 2). (3) While trials and temptations are necessary to the highest virtue and noblest character, we do not know what trials are best for ns. We do not know our weakness. God only knows. What is a test to one is destruction to another. The fire that purifies the gold destroys atree. (4) "No one can ask honestly or hopefully to be delivered from temptation unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it." 2 (5) Whenever God leads us into trials, we may know that he has provided a way of escape.3 (6) We have an example of this prayer in Christ's threefold prayer in Gethsemane. Seventh Petition. But deliver us from evil. "The evil," not "the evil one," as in the R. V., for that narrows and belittles the prayer, but from evil, every evil, temporal and spiritual, including the evil one. The great evil of the world is sin, the source and fountain of nearly all the other evils in the world. The Greek may mean either " the evil " or " the evil one." This is the climax of the prayer, as it is the object of Christ's coming into the world. " When we pray ' Deliver us from evil,' we pray against everything which ruins and makes us wretched ; against the slavery of sin ; against all the fury, cunning, and malignity of the devil or of man ; against ' Wasted lands, Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands, Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships.' It is against all the trouble, and pain, and con fusion, worse than death, which sin has brought into the world we should uplift our souls in prayer."4 How God delivers us prom Evil. (1) By redeeming us from sin, the source of all evil, for giving the past, renewing our natures, taking away the love of sin, and the practice of sin, through Jesus Christ, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. (2) He delivers us from evil, by helping us to watch and pray and fight against it. We are not to run into temptation, but when we do meet it, we are not to run away, but to fight like men and heroes against it. (3) God does permit his children to suffer from many outward evils and wrongs. There are two ways in which God may deliver us from them : one is by warding them off, protecting us from them, and this he does every day of our lives ; the other is to compel them to work together for our good, for deliverance from the far greater evil of sin. They work out for us " a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 5 Outward evils to a wicked man are entirely different from the same evils to a good man. The latter is like Daniel in the lions' den, with the angels shutting their mouths ; the former like his enemies who were consumed before they had reached the floor of the den. (4) He drives out evil from the heart by filling it with good, with joy, and all the fruits of the Spirit. (5) He delivers us from evil by setting us to work for him. The top stands as long as it spins. (6) The mark on the forehead of a child of God is the intensity of his desire to be delivered from all sin, from every speck and stain of sin. The Conclusion. The rest of this verse is not found in the oldest MSS., and the R. V. puts it in the margin. But it has some good authority, and almost every word of it is found in other parts of the Scripture, and " in all probability deriving its sanction from the teaching of the 1 Farrar. 2 Ruskin. with what care hast thou begirt us round ! " quoted in 3 The tract Parley the Porter. Rogers' Greyson Let- Hare's Mission of the Comforter, p. 80. lers, "The Madman and the Devil," The poem "Lord 4 Farrar. B See Dante's Purgatorio. 72 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6 : 14-16. 14 'For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.: 15 w But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father for give your trespasses. 16 IT Moreover *when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may Tile™!0 men to fast. » Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. v Mark 11. 25. Luke 6. 37. Eph. 4. 32. Col. 3. 13. w ch. 18. 35. See James 2. 13. : Isai. 58. £ y ver. 2, 5. Spirit of God, as far back as the age of the apostles. ' ' 1 For. Here is the reason why God can answer all this prayer ; why we can come to him in confidence. Thine. Belonging to thee, as thy right and as thy actual possession. The king dom. The rule over all things, nature, man, the hosts of heaven, all natural and spiritual forces. All belong to our Father. He controls all. The fact that some rebel and disobey his laws does not take the kingdom from him, any more than criminals in a country destroy its government. The complete rule over all hearts is our Father's right, and his kingdom is sure to come. The power. The ability to answer these petitions, and to grant these gifts, implying absolute omnipotence. And the glory. Nowhere on earth does God's glory, the outshining of his goodness, shine so brightly as in answering this prayer. For ever. This word widens the vision, ennobles the soul. The issues of the prayer are eternal. Amen. So be it. So may it be ful filled. The word means truth, reality, verily. In the Old Testament it is given as a title of God (Isai. 65 : 16), and in the New as a title of Christ (Rev. 3: 14). A LESSON ON FORGIVENESS, vers. 14, 15. Jesus takes up one of the points in the prayer, and enlarges on it, because of its importance, its difficulty, and of its being a necessary condition of true prayer, and absolutely essential to its being answered. He gives, as Trench expresses it, " one blow more to the die, so as to make the impression sharper and deeper on the minds of all." 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses. See on ver. 12. The word indicates reckless and wilful sin, conscious violations of right ; the hardest sins to forgive. The forgiveness must be real, from the heart, a forgetting, a. practical blotting out, a treating the repentant one as if he had not sinned. Your heavenly Father will . . . forgive you. Because it shows that we are in that penitent condition which makes forgive ness possible for us, and good for us. We realize what sin is, and what it means to forgive, and we hate the sin whose sting we have felt. 15. But if ye forgive not. God cannot for give under such circumstances without by the very act increasing sin, and injuring the one for given. For it shows that we have not repented.2 God is forgiving, ever ready to forgive, but the forgiveness would be like rain on the desert. "You say that the desert is a desert because no rain falls upon it ; but that is only half the truth. No rain falls upon it because it is a desert. So in your heart this forgiving disposition must be, else you cannot rejoice in the fulness of God's forgiving grace. The pardon may wait in the sky above you, but it cannot descend to you." s A LESSON ON FASTING, vers. 16-18. Jesus now reverts again to the great principle of morality he laid down in ver. 1, and makes another application of it. 16. 'When ye fast, present tense, "are fast ing." The Pharisees had reduced fasting to a formal system of outward observance (Luke 18 : 12). As the hypocrites, see on ver. 2. Of a sad countenance, sour, dreary, with a downcast look of grief or pain, as if they were exceedingly sorry for their sins, which sorrow fasting was in tended to express. For they disfigure their faces, conceal, mask them, so that they do not appear as they really are, "by putting ashes on their faces, neglecting the ordinary washing and anointing, and the dressing of the hair and beard." 4 In the Greek "disfigure" is the negative of the word for " appear," that follows. There is a kind of play on the words. They cause their natural looks to " disappear," that they may appear unto men to fast, and thus seem to be deeply religious, so that men will say, " How good, how pious these men are ! " It was a rabbinical proverb, " Whoever makes his face black in this world, God shall make his face to shine in the world to come." They have their reward, see ver. 2. They 1 Farrar. 2 Seethe soliloquy of the king of Denmark in Hamlet, Act III., Scene 3. 3 Washington Gladden, D. D. ' G. W. Clark. 6 : 17-19. MATTHEW. 73 17 But thou, when thou fastest, ' anoint %f head, and wash thy face ; 18 Aiaf thou apEeear not JZSftt men to fast, but aT thy Father which is in secret: a and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shaU recompense thee. °1)enly- 19 1 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where "moth and' rust doth oSme, and where thieves " break through and steal : z Ruth 3. 3. 2 Sam. 12. 20. Dan. 10. 3, al. 6. 9, 10, 17-19. Heb. 13. 5. c James 5. 2, 3. a ver. 4, 6. b ch. 19. 21. Luke 12. 21, 33, 34 & 18. 22. d ch. 24. 43. Luke 12. 39 (& mg. for mg.). 1 Tim. gained in some measure what they sought, but Paradise was but an apple of Sodom filled with the gall of envy; and the seeming fruit of the honey of man's applause was mingled with the ashes of blighted character and a consumed heart. 17. But thou, when thou fastest. It was purely voluntary whether they should fast or not. It should depend on whether a time came when it would accomplish a spiritual purpose. Evi dently Jesus expected that they would fast (Mark 9: 29 ; Luke 5 : 33, 34). The Use op Fasting. (1) Fasting would seem to have its basis in, first, a grief over sin so deep and intense that all desire for food is taken away; or such a strong desire for holiness, for the progress of God's work, for the removal of all that hinders it, that we forget to eat. (2) Therefore it implies that we are doing that which fasting expresses. It is saying, I desire this good gift of God more than food, more than bodily pleasure, more than all else besides. So putting away every sin at any cost, taking up hardest duties, confession of sin to our neighbors, doing all we can for the love of Christ, are. expres sions of the same principle which underlies fast ing. (3) The second basis of fasting is in the aid to devotion furnished by a body unburdened with food, so as to leave the mind and heart in their most active and free condition. The Puritans called it " sonl-fattening fasting," and so many have found it. Both bodily and spirit ual disease may sometimes " be starved out of the system." Exactly the same principle is employed by all our college athletes in preparation for a great contest. They go without, they fast from, many good things which they freely use at other times. They exercise rigid bodily self-denial. There are spiritual conflicts which need the same regimen. (4) Every good feeling is increased by its natural expression. Anoint thine head, and wash thy face. Appear before men as in your usual condition. Draw not the attention of men, by any peculiarity of appearance or demeanor, to thine own secret transaction with God.1 18. Unto thy Father . . . in secret. For it is a religious act ; and the outward form, for the sake of seeming what one is not, ruins all its spiritual power. Reward thee openly. See on ver. 4. VI. APPLICATIONS TO THE AIM AND PTJHPOSE OF LIFE, 6: 19-34. The Supreme Choice of Treasure. It must be Treasure on Earth or Treasure in Heaven. Five Reasons for laying up our Treasure in Heaven. First Reason. Because earthly treasures are transient, and heavenly treasures are eternal. 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Literally, treasure not treasures for your selves. 'J- Our treasure is that which we regard as first and chief, to gain which we will sacrifice other things ; accumulating them for their own sake, setting our heart on them, making them the ob ject of life. We treasure up earthly treasures, such as money, wealth, honors, pleasures, not when we merely possess and use them, but when we obtain or retain them at the cost of honesty, truth, religion, benevolence, when we make them an end instead of an instrument. The smallest of earthly possessions may be "a treasure on earth," and the greatest may help to lay up treasures in heaven. ¦Where moth and rust doth corrupt. The Orientals had no savings banks, no bonds, in which to invest their wealth; hence costly gar ments were a favorite way of hoarding wealth. But these had one deadly enemy, the moth. " Ori ental travellers speak of whole suits of garments being reduced to a lace-work of shreds in a single night." 3 " The moth-eaten, moth-destroyed gar ment is but a sample of the ephemeral nature of all earthly treasures." 4 And rust. Rust is from a word meaning to eat, as corrode is from the Latin rodo, to gnaw. Corrupt is the same Greek word that is used of the fasting hypocrites who disfigure their faces, cause their beauty to dis appear ; hence, to consume, to destroy. It is spoken not only of treasure hidden in the ground, but of houses, books, and perishable treasures. 1 Morison. 2 A good illustration is the beautiful legend of King Gondoforus and St. Thomas, told in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. It is found also in poetic form. 3 Compare the ravages of white ants, in Prof. Drum- mond's Tropical Africa. 4 Boardman. 74 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6 : 20-23. 20 b but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal : 21 fo°rr where ythyr treasure is, there will ythyr heart be also. 22 e The limp of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 eBut if f thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great '„,*£' darkness ! 6 See under ver. 19. e Luke 11. 34, 35. / ch. 20. 15. Deut. 15. 9. Prov. 28. 22. Mark 7. 22, al. Where thieves break through. Lit., " dig through " the mud walls of a house. The Greek name for a burglar is " wall-digger." In a multitude of ways earthly treasures are lost or stolen, — property, health, friendship, honors, pleasures, are all fleeting and uncertain in out ward form. 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.1 God wants us to be rich, but with riches toward God, heavenly treasures. This re fers indeed to the blessedness of heaven, all its rewards, its. glories, its joys, but chiefly to the kind of treasures which make these things natural and possible, which make heaven what it is, — treasures of character, of enlarged being, of good deeds, of blessed work done, of souls made better, of faith, love, peace, godliness, brotherly kind ness, honesty, meekness, and all the fruits of the spirit. These heavenly riches we may acquire and enjoy here. They cannot be taken away because they are a part of our being ; we take them with us wherever we go. Second Reason, ver. 21. 21. For where your treasure is. That which you most prize and love and seek for ; that into which you put your life. There will your heart be also.2 " The heart is spoken of in Scripture, not according to our modern view, as the seat of the affections only, but as the seat of all the powers of the soul, both intellect, sensibilities, and will." 3 (1) The treasure is a test as to where the heart is. How do we know where our heart is ? Find our treasure. (2) The treasure is a means by which we can bring our heart into the right place. It is a loadstone which draws to it our affections, our thoughts, our care. We complain that there are some good things in which we can not feel much interest. The cure is to invest in them, put labor, care, thought into them, and the heart will follow. Thus we become interested in the Bible, in the poor, in missions, in any depart ment of Christian work, by investing our treasures in them. Third Reason. Because this alone can CARRY US SAFELY THROUGH LIFE. Shownbyan illustration, vers. 22, 23. 22. The light. " Rather lamp, or candle as it is translated in ch. 5 : 15. The eye is not itself the light, but contains the light, it is the lamp or candle of the body, the light-conveying principle.4 The actions of the whole body, both in providing for its own wants, and in its work for others, are guided by the eye. Just so the heart, the supreme affection, and choice of the soul, determine the life and conduct. If therefore thine eye be single, (anAoS;, without folds, like the Latin sim plex, from semel, once, and plico, to fold), if the eye see only one image, and that clearly and not double, giving a dim and confused picture. Thy whole body shall be full of light. Everything shall be clear and plain for the whole body which is guided by the eye. The man will not grope blindly, groping about, and uncertain which is the way because the eye sees two of each thing, and the man does not know which is the real one. So if the heart, the eye of the soul, has one su preme purpose to serve God and lay up heavenly treasures, and is not confused by seeking other aims, and by worldly attractions, the path of duty will be clearly seen, and the questions as to what to do easily decided. 23. But if thine eye be evil, be a bad eye for seeing, so that one is confused, sees double, " sees men as trees walking." Thy whole body shall be full of darkness, groping in ignorance, uncer tain as to truth and duty, and certain to go astray. Compare Lot's wife. " All seems infected that the infected spy, As all seems yellow to the jaundiced eye." The heart colors everything. Nothing is seen in its true colors, but as if seen through a Claude Lorraine glass.5 The light that is in thee, that which is meant to guide you, which you trust, be darkness, misleading, confused, so that the more you follow 1 See Trench's Poems, " The Banished Kings." 2 See the story of the students who found a stone in scribed, " Here lies the soul of Peter Garcia," and taking it up found 100 gold pieces, in preface of Gil Bias. 3 Broadus. 4 Cambridge Bible. 5 See Scott's Redgauntlet. Allan Fairford's letter to Darsie Latimer. 6 : 24, 25. MATTHEW. 75 24 IT "No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and * mammon. 25 * Therefore I say unto you/ &*£' for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment ? g Luke 16. 13. Cp. Rom. 6. 16 & James 4. 4. h Luke 16. 9, 11, 13. i For ver. 25-33, see Luke 12. 22-31 j ver. 27, 28, 31, 34. ch. 10. 19 & 13. 22 (Gk.). 1 Cor. 7. 32 (Gk.). Phil. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 7. it, the farther away you will be from the right place. Tou will form wrong judgments, because they are founded on wrong impressions. How great is that darkness. The light that misleads is worse than darkness. The false guide is worse than none. The eye that presents phantoms for realities is worse than no eye. The will-of-the-wisp that seems a lighthouse is worse than no light, and leads to certain disaster. Fourth Reason. Because every one must choose between one or the other, and therefore should make choice of the best, ver. 24. 24. No man can serve two masters. Who are distinct and opposite in character and de mands, who belong to different kingdoms, each with its own separate interest. The Greek word for the other (erepov) in this verse means not merely another person, but one of different quality. " It gives the idea of two masters distinct and opposite in character." To serve two such masters is simply as impossible in the nature of things as going in opposite directions at the same time. Either he win hate the one, and love the other. Because they are diametrically opposed to one another. If one loves truth, he must hate lying. If one loves goodness, he must hate evil. And despise the other. By refusing to obey his com mands, or carry out his principles. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is a Syriac word meaning riches or wealth. It is the com monest form in which Satan appears and in which men serve him. " Satan is the prince of this world, but mammon is his prime minister." " The love of money is a root of all evil." 1 " Mammon led them on : Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven ; for e'en in heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, Than aught divine or holy, else enjoyed In vision beatific." 2 " God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing he will not put up with in it, — a second place. He who offers God a second place offers him no place." 8 Wealth can be used for either master. The real test comes when we must choose between right and wrong, between riches and character, between honest poverty and selfish wealth. It is not a question of the amount of riches, but of the way it is obtained, and of the use of what we have honestly gained. It is not the being rich, that is wrong, but the serving of riches, instead of making them serve God and our neighbor as well as ourselves. Riches are like fire, which is a good servant but a bad master. Fifth Reason. Because God himself will care for the Earthly Needs of those who lay up their Treasure in Heaven, vers. 25-34. 25. Therefore I say unto you, in order that you may choose the service of God, without fear ; for anxiety about worldly things is one chief rea son why men serve mammon. Take no thought. Be not anxious, troubled, y-if fj.epip.vaTe, from p-epis, a part, p.epi£io, to be drawn in different directions, distracted. Or it is derived from a Greek word meaning earnest thoughtfulness. The translation in our common version has misled many, and troubled many a tender conscience. " Take thought, in this passage, was a truthful rendering when the A. V. was made, since thought was then used as equivalent to anxiety or solicitude. So Shakespeare (Hamlet) : — ' The native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' And Bacon (Henry VII.) : ' Hawis, an alderman of London, was put in trouble, and died with thought and anguish.' Somers' Tracts (in Queen Elizabeth's reign ) : ' Queen Catherine Parr died rather of thought.' The word has entirely lost this meaning. Bishop Lightfoot (On afresh revi sion of the New Testament) says : * I have heard of a political economist alleging this passage as an 1 Jacox, Scripture Proverbs,]}. 509, "Mammon Wor ship," gives many references to literature. A capital il lustration of the attempt to serve two masters, if a fail ure, is found in Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. On the other hand, the victory of the good by throwing off the yoke of the bad master, and serving the good is set forth in Lynde Palmer's John-Jack. 2 Milton's description of Mammon, in Paradise Lost, I. 678 if. 3 Ruskin. 76 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6 : 26, 27. 26 * Behold the birds8 of the heavenf that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; ISd your heavenly Father feedeth them. 'Are not ye "r much more'vSue than they ? 27 And winch of you by 'bfmfaS" can add one cubit unto his™ stature? k Cp. Job 38. 41 & Ps. 147. 9. I ch. 10. 31. m Luke 2. 52. Cp. Ps. 39. 5 (for mg.). objection to the moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future.' It is uneasiness and worry about the future which our Lord condemns here, and therefore R. V. rightly translates be not anxious. This phase of the word is forcibly brought out in 1 Pet. 5 : 7, where the A. V. ignores the distinction between the two kinds of care. ' Casting all your care tp.epip.vav, R. V., anxiety) upon him, for he careth (avTwp.4\et) for you,' with a fatherly, tender, and provident care."1 For your life, what ye shall eat, to support life. Your body. Shelter and clothing, together with food, constitute a large part of the natural, physical wants of man. Most of the business of the world centres in these things. It is a curious fact that there is far more anxiety about the future in Christian countries than in many heathen lands, and that Christian lands lay up more wealth, toil harder, look out more for the future.2 1. The circumstances are very different. In heathen lands there is a hopeless uncertainty that makes care for the future more useless. 2. A large part of the anxiety is from worldly people, not Christians. 3. The promise in ver. 33 assures the abundance which permits and even tempts to this anxiety, and the warning is given because this danger was foreseen. Where there is no opportunity there is no temptation, and no victory over it, resulting in character. 4. This command does not tend to idleness or want of thrift, or to poverty, but, on the contrary, to the best prosperity, and to the best enjoyment of whatever God gives us. While over-anxiety tends to dishonesty, to crime, to selfishness, to disappointment, and to bitterness of spirit. If God cares for the Lesser, may you not be sure that he will care for the Greater ? Is not the life more than meat, which sus tains the life ? The argument is twofold. (1) Since God has given life, will he not see that means of sustaining life are given with it ? For the one gift is vain without the other. (2) We should give our chief attention to the life, the true life, and the lesser things will come in due measure. Our business is to forget self and its anxieties in the desire to serve God and man. " A heart at leisure from itself To soothe and sympathize.'' 8 If God cares for the Birds, will he not care for his Children? 26. Behold the fowls of the air. "Fowls" was used in Old English for birds in general. Birds were exceedingly abundant in Galilee, and doubtless Jesus at this very time could point to the birds within sight of his hearers. For they sow not, neither do they reap. " The birds are not idle ; in their own way they work, and work for their daily food." God has many means besides barns for supplying our daily wants. Yet your. Note the your, not their, the Father whose children you are. Your heavenly Father feedeth them. Not in idle ness, not by putting food in their mouths while they sit still in the trees and sing and wait ; but by providing the food which they can obtain, and providing them with the means of seeing and obtaining food. Not idleness, but industry, is taught us by God's care of the birds. They build nests, they migrate to warmer climes when food fails them in the North, they are up early seeking food. Are ye not much better, of more value, than they ? Did you ever hear of a father who fed the birds, but starved his chil dren? Again, Anxiety is Useless. 27. Which of you by taking thought, by being anxious. No degree of anxiety can add one cubit. A measure 18 to 21 inches long, originally the length from the elbow to the end of the middle finger, and hence varying with the size of people. " Ell" has the same derivation. Unto his stature, or his age, the duration of his life. The Greek word has both meanings, age and stature, and either one gives an adequate meaning. Many a very short person would give a fortune to add a cubit to his stature. I knew one person who said that an increase of stature would have been worth a thousand dollars an inch to him. But nearly every one would be glad to add a cubit to his age, regarding his age (as in Ps. 39 : 5) as a span, or 1 Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 2 See Wm. B. Wright's Master and Men, " Puzzles," the title of the first chapter on the u Sermon on the Mount." See, also, Van Dyke's Gospel for an Age of Doubt, pp. 283, 284. 3 Miss Waring, Poems. See the whole poem. 6 : 28, 29. MATTHEW. 77 28 And why l££f ye anx&ranienung raiment V Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : 29 And yet I say unto you, SS' " even SoTo-mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. n 1 Kin. 10. 4-7. conceiving of life as a race or journey. One near to death is reported to have said, "Millions of money for an inch of time ! " Yet, since one by carefulness, as Morison says, may lengthen his life, or by carelessness shorten it, but cannot by any means add to his stature, it is probable that Jesus refers to stature and not to life. Still, no one ever added to his life by anxiety. There are a thousand things connected with our welfare that are as much beyond our control as the march of the stars through the sky. " A man," says Bishop Hurst, " can no more create his bread for a single meal than he can create a planet." Let us commit all that part of our lives to God, without anxiety, and only see to it that we do our duty, serving him faithfully, carrying out the principles of his kingdom. The Same Truth is taught by the Flowers. 28. Consider the lilies . . . how they grow. Many were doubtless on every hand within sight of his hearers. " ' Lilies ' is here, as often elsewhere in the original languages, to be taken generally for ' the flower of the field.' In late winter the regions over which Jesus walked are clothed most gorgeously. Most conspicuous, things, like our buttercups, but great wide flowers of two inches or more in diameter, carpeting the ground with patches as gorgeous as masses of Scarlet Lily. perhaps, are the great blue and red flowers of the order Ranuncuiacece, where the anemone and the ranunculus grow together. They are not small Lily of Palestine. our brilliant verbenas. They grow everywhere ; and, like the other herbs, are glorious one day, and the next day literally cast into the oven to bake the peasant's bread." l They toil not, nei ther do they spin. They do not work in man's way for their gorgeous array. They simply live in the way God intended, and fulfil their mission. 29. Solomon in all his glory was not ar rayed like one of these. "The Huleh lily is very large ; and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approaohed, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I met this in comparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods around the north base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent his youth, I felt assured that it was to this he referred."2 " In two respects this declaration is literally true : first, because his glory was external, glory put on, while that of the flower is its own, a be ing developed from within ; second, because the beauty of the most perfect fabric is imperfect, and shows itself rough and coarse under the mi croscope, while the beauty of the flower has no imperfection, bnt, on the .contrary, discloses ' Isaac Hall, D. D., in Sunday-School Times. 2 Thomson, Land and Book. 78 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 6 : 30-33. 30 WheBruftore' if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which &&? is, and fcESw is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,0 O ye of little faith? 31 '^n^The^or^nxious!' saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 {'lr»^£aiSS£fflSSSSSi'aS'SJ£'Jffi!) "for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But '' seek ye first s §1 kingdom, of God' and his righteousness ; ' and all these things shall be added unto you. o ch. 8. 26 & 14. 31 & 16. 8. Cp. ch. 17. 20. p ver. 7. q ver. 8. r Cp. ch. 5. 6, 20. s ver. 10. t Cp. 1 Kin. 3. 11-14 & Mark 10. 29, 30 & 1 Tim. 4. 8 & 1 Pet. 3. 9. under the microscope glories unseen by the naked eye." 1 " The meaning hidden beneath the text should not escape the student. As the beauty of the flower is unfolded by the divine Creator Spirit from within, from the laws and capacities of its own individual life, so must all true adorn ment of man be unfolded from within by the same Almighty Spirit (see 1 Pet. 3 : 3, 4). As nothing from without can defile a man, so neither can anything from without adorn him." 2 30. If God so clothe the grass of the field. All the herbage. To morrow is cast into the oven. "A large jar made of clay." "Owing to Oven. a scarcity of fuel, this dried vegetation is still often used to heat ovens for baking bread." Shall he not much more clothe you, his children, who are trying to serve him. O ye of little faith. In comparison with the faith you ought to have, contrasted with the worthiness of God to be trusted, his loving kindness that delights to min ister to the wants of his children. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the infinite God, who holds the seas in his hand, and controls the stars in their courses, should care for each in dividual soul. We are so small, and God's uni verse is so great ! We are but insects on a world which is but a grain of sand to many of the stars. But it is the greatness of God that he cares for the animalculse that swim in a dewdrop as fish in the ocean, as perfectly as for a world. If God cares for the atoms and molecules, if he provides for birds and flowers, for the insects of an hour, for the bees, " the singing masons building roofs of gold," how much more will he care for the souls and bodies of his children, made in his own likeness ! " I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air ; I only know I cannot drift Beyond his love and care." 8 31. Therefore take no thought. Be not anxious. This is the conclusion of the argu ment. 32. For. Giving the first of two reasons. After all these things do the Gentiles seek. The heathen, the other nations without the true religion. This is what you would expect of those who know nothing of our heavenly Father. Worldliness and distrust are heathenish. For. Giving the second reason. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. He does not forbid your wants, but supplies them. Your distrust arises from not knowing your Father. God loves to have you happy. He delights in your good. It is no pleasure to him to deprive you of any good thing. Only he wants you first of all to be good, to be heavenly, to have those qualities which make blessedness immortal. And sometimes he must deprive us of lesser good that we may possess the greater. 33. But seek ye first. Both in time and im portance. Make it your chief end and aim in all you do. The kingdom of God. God's reign (1) in our own hearts, so that we long to do his will as it is done in heaven, and (2) that his kingdom may prevail over the whole earth. Lest there should be any misunderstanding, he adds, and his righteousness. God's righteousness ; a life and character like God's, which he approves and desires for all his creatures. This righteousness 1 Lyman Abbott. 6:34. MATTHEW. 79 34 »B™£t therefore "ifflS* for the morrow: for the morrow "awSitSe.£W for the tmugs of itgelt yufacient unto the day j8 the evil thereof. u Cp. James 4. 13, 14. is the characteristic of his kingdom. And all these things : food, clothing, and all that is necessary to our welfare. Shall be added unto you. Shall be given in addition. God will see that these necessary wants are supplied. So Jesus a little later on said to his disciples: "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or breth ren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life ever lasting " (Luke 18 : 29, 30). " He who buys a trea sure of jewels hath the cabinet into the bargain." 1 " He who buys goods has paper and twine flung in."2 So many of them as are needed shall be added, or thrown into the bargain, as it were ; and, if it would be well, they shall be added in great abundance.3 " Other things being equal, the good man prospers better in worldly affairs than the bad man. All the vices are expensive and losing, as all the virtues are gainful and thrifty." 4 The map of the world is unimpeachable proof of this statement. The more Christian a nation, the more it has of this world's blessings. And most of the losses, strikes, failures, disasters in busi ness, come directly or indirectly from seeking mammon first, and not the kingdom of God. This is true of communities. It is a general law that any city or State which cares most for religion, and education, and righteousness, that puts spirit ual things first, is on the road to the highest and truest prosperity. But it does not mean that worldly success is given to individuals in propor tion to their piety, or there soon would be little piety to reward. But the seeming loss is made up in spiritual things, in inward peace, useful ness, and character.5 34. Take therefore no thought for the mor row. Be not troubled, distracted, anxious, about the future. For the morrow shall take thought for . . . itself. "Not 'take care of itself,' but bring its own cares and anxieties ; ' do not fool ishly increase those of to-day by borrowing from the morrow."6 "But also with the anxiety, it will bring the grace that is needed to bear it, or the guidance that is needed to escape it." 7 Suffi cient unto the day is the evil thereof. For each day God has appointed just enough of trials and burdens for that day's good. It is a great bless ing that we do not know the future, for if we did, every sorrow and trial would be lived over and over, and cast its terrible shadow upon the whole life. Nor would there be the necessary training of faith. Moreover, it is a dismal folly to be bor rowing trouble and crossing bridges before we come to them. The French proverb is true, " The worst misfortunes are those which never arrive," and a large part of our unhappiness arises from the dread of that which never comes. The cure is simple trust in the goodness and love of our heavenly Father. 1 Reynolds. 2 M. Henry. s Morison. 4 Livermore. 6 See Whately's Annotations, p. 370, for excellent re marks on this distinction. 6 Schaff. ' Lyman Abbott. 80 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 7:1,2. CHAPTER 7. Section VII. — PRINCIPLES OF THE KINGDOM (continued). 7. Guards against Insidious Dangers to the Religious Spirit, 7 : 1-6. Judging Others. Motes and Beams. Pearls and Swine. 8. The Means op Obtaining and Sustaining the New Life, 7-11. 9. The Golden Rule. The Sum op the Ser mon, 12. 10. An Exhortation to enter the New Life, 13, 14. 11. Tests, for Ourselves and Others, 15- 27. Time. Midsummer, A. d. 28. Place. A mountain near the Sea of Galilee. 1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 w For with what jSdfSnt ye judge, ye shall be judged : and x with what mea sure ye mete, it shaU be measured unto you. ai''aln• v For ver. 1-5, see Luke 6. 37, 38, 41, 42. Cp. Rom. 14. 13 & 1 Cor. 4. 5 & James 5. 9. JameB 2. 13 & 4. 11, 12. x Mark 4. 24. Cp. Judg. 1. 7. w Rom. 2. 1, 3 & 14. 10. VII. GUARDS AGAINST INSIDIOUS DANGERS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE, 7: 1-6. A Warning against judging Others, vers. 1,2. 1. Judge not. The word "judge " here does not mean form an opinion, for every one must do this of many persons and things (Luke 12 : 57 ; John 7: 24). It means censorious judging, con demning, imputing wrong motives, putting the worst and not the best construction on the actions or words of others. This command forbids us to sit in judgment upon the conduct of others, form ing and expressing opinions upon that of which it is impossible for us to know all the facts. "Condemn not, that ye be not condemned." " Even a very silly man's actions are often more to the purpose than his friends' comments upon them." We tend to judge others by one fault, and forget their many virtues ; to judge of the bay when the tide is out, and the career by one mistake. The chronic faultfinder cannot be a true critic or judge ; for criticism is not fault finding, but forming a true estimate. The small est mind can see flaws. The largest capacity is needed for true criticism. Examples. (1) Christ gives two examples in Luke 13: 1-4, where those who saw men slain by a falling tower, or Pilate's sword, immediately judged them to be worse than others. (2) Paul, in Rom. 14 : 1-13, shows how men judged others when they saw them eating food or keeping the Sabbath in a, different way from themselves; and, in 1 Cor. 8, gives another example in regard to things offered to idols.1 That ye be not judged. Condemned and cen sured, and misunderstood by others, as they have been by you. 2. For with what judgment, etc. The sim ple fact is stated, that if you are harsh and censo rious, you invite others to be censorious toward you, and they will be sure to accept your invita tion. (1.) Men will naturally return the same kind of judgment which you give to them. Harsh and unkind judgment and severe criticism awaken the same in others, and make the judge pecu liarly open to censure. It is a moral echo. (2.) God will give just judgment upon such men, just as he does to those who refuse to for give, because they are unforgivable. The habit of criticising to find fault, of censuring others, culti vates a very bad character in the one who has it. It makes him blind to his own faults ; it cher- 1 Capital illustrations are given by Mr. Ruskin in his preface to vol. iii. (Part IV.) of Modern Painters; and by May Ellen Atkinson in her Poems, " The Architect of Cologne." See, also, Jacox's Secular Annotations, vol. i. p. 208, " Judge Not ; " Arthur Helps' Friends in Council, vol. i., series 2, p. 149, " Criticism." 7 : 3-6. MATTHEW. 81 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but ycon- siderest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me SS out the mote out of thine eye ; and. b?S,°thea beam & in thine own eye ? 5 Thou hypocrite, rtrst cast out nrst the beam out of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 6 *Give not that which is holy unto " the dogs, neither cast ye your b pearls before the swine, lest haPiy they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. y Cp. John 8. 7-9. z ch. 15. 26. Cp. Prov. 9. 7, 8 & 23. 9. a Cp. Phil. 3. 2 & Rev. 22. 15. b ch. 13. 46. ishes the pharisaical spirit ; it makes him five in a bad atmosphere of faultfinding that deteriorates his own character ; it makes him unlovely and unheavenly. Hence such a person must be se verely condemned by a just judge. With what measure ye mete, measure, it shan be measured to you again. This is an other statement of the same law of retribution. The tendency to judge others grows sometimes out of differences of character. We look at others from our standpoint ; the logical misjudges the enthusiast, and the enthusiast, the logical ; and so throughout the virtues.1 Illustrated by the Mote and the Beam, vers. 3-5. The inconsistency and folly of judging are shown by the illustration in these verses. It is one of the dangers to which .new converts are specially exposed, in their sincere desire to do good and reform the church and the world. 3. "Why beholdest. Starest at from without, gazest at, examinest carefully. Thou, who art judging others. The mote. " The word ' mote ' suggests dust; whereas the figure is that of a minute chip or splinter of the same material with the beam."'2 That is in thy brother's eye, obscuring .his vision. But considerest not. " Apprehendest not " from within, " understand- est " not. The beam that is in thine own eye. Beam, a graphic and almost droll representation of a comparatively great fault. The word means a log, joist, or rafter. The Saviour draws a pic ture, and shows how morally grotesque the con duct of the faultfinder is. " Their own defects, invisible to them, Seen in another, they at once condemn, And tho' self-idolized in every case, Hate their own likeness in a brother's face." 3 " O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us ! It wad frae monie a blunder free us And foolish notion." ' 4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, etc. How can you have the face to say, How be guilty of such hypocrisy, such absurdity ? " The gift of removing motes from other men's eyes seems to me as rare as that combination of qualities which makes a surgeon a skilful operator."5 As, for instance, in the supreme operation of the oculist, the removal of a cataract. 5. Thou hypocrite. Because he professes to be sorry for the faults he reproves, when he is not, or he would hate them in himself. He rejoices to see a sin in his brother to find fault with. He would appear to be good by condemn ing the faults of others, while he is not really good, for he overlooks greater faults in himself. Bright Sayings. (1) " Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our neighbors are of less con sequence to ms than one of the smallest in our selves." 6 (2) " To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer in others is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so." 7 See clearly to east out, etc. (1) Because he has had experience in getting rid of faults. (2) His vision will not be distorted by his own love of sin. This implies that we are to help our brother overcome his faults, but only in the right spirit and at the right time ; and only when we are still more earnestly trying to overcome our own faults. Pearls before Swine. A Warning, ver. 6. While you must not condemn others, you must keep your eyes open, and distinguish between lambs and dogs, between children and swine, so far as to guide your actions in regard to them. ' ' Two classes of opposers are mentioned : the dogs, representing the unclean, debased ; and the swine, like wild boars, the fierce and bitter opponents." 8 6. Give not that which is holy. The sacri- 1 See Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast-table, on the three Johns and the three Thomases. So, also, the " Jour ney of the Virtues " in Bulwer's Pilgrims of the Rhine. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. a Cowper. * Burns. 0 R. W. Dale, D. D. « Arbp. Whately. ? Dean Swift. Jacox's Secular Annotations, i. 187, and his Scripture Proverbs, p. 531, give many illustrations " from literature. 8 Arbp. Trench. 82 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 1:7,8. 7 c Ask, d and it shall be given you ; e seek, and ye shall find ; •''knock, and it shall be opened unto you : 8 fo0/ every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. c Por ver. 7-11, see Luke 11. 9-13. d ch. 18. 19 & 21. 22. Mark 11. 24. John 14. 13 <6 15. 7, 16 & 16. 23, 24. James 1. 5, 6, 17. 1 John 3. 22 & 5. 14, 15. e 1 Chr. 28. 9. 2 Chr. 15. 2. Prov. 8. 17. Jer. 29. 13. Cp. Isai. 55. 6. / Cp. Rev. 3. 20. ficial meats, the holy things prepared for the temple services, to aid men in the worship of God. Unto the dogs. " In the East dogs are savage, unclean ceremonially, and actually filthy and horrible in appearance. They are the scavengers of the cities, and feed upon all the refuse, even when it is far gone in putrefaction. To cast the sacrificed flesh to the dogs would be first putting it on a level with the offal of the shambles, or with that which is cast out as abominable filth, and then giving it over to the charge of abomi nable beasts."1 To give holy things to dogs will not elevate the dogs, but only defile the holy things. Keither east ye your pearls before swine. Because they cannot appreciate their beauty nor understand their value, and you lose your pearls. You must change the nature of the swine before the pearls will do them any good.2 Lest they . . . turn again and rend you. You not only will fail of doing them any good, but they will injure you for making the attempt. Examples. The advice in Prov. 9 : 7, 8, " Re prove not a seorner, lest he hate thee." Christ changing his method of teaching and speaking in parables because of the opposition of the Jews (Matt. 13 : 10-17). Paul turning from the Jews to the Gentiles (Acts 13: 45, 46). Applications. There are those who will only make a misuse of the highest and holiest things in religion. Their natures are so sensual, their hearts so hard, that they cannot understand or appreciate the best things of God. Men often love to argue on religion, and even read the Bible, not that they may get any good, but find some new perversion or false .argument against the truth. In many cases it is wise not to argue with settled errorists. It does not follow that we are to do nothing for them. There are some things even they can understand, — sympathy, loving- kindness, aid in temporal things, the love of Jesus Christ. By these we are to seek to change them into sincere men and Christians, and then they will understand the holy things and appreciate the pearls. VIII. PRAYER. — THE MEANS OF GAIN ING AND SUSTAINING THE MEW LIFE, vers. 7-11. Prayer is the door to the divine treasure house which contains supplies for all our needs. The living according to the principles set forth in the Sermon on the Mount is so difficult an attain ment, and bringing the whole world to obey them is so colossal an undertaking, that without con tinual connection with Heaven, and supplies of grace and power from Heaven, the achievement would be impossible. Hence, the way and the promise of these verses. See, also, on 6 : 5-13, and 21 : 21, 22. First, the Threefold Way of obtain ing. 7. Ask, . . . seek, . . . knock. These words imply three methods of prayer, and per haps three degrees of intensity. Ask, express your desire, go to God with it, including and gathering up in itself the "seek" and the " knock," as in ver. 11, for these are modes of ask ing. Seek by all active efforts, which are acted prayers ; use all possible means, as in the parable of the pearl of great price. Knock at the door of God's treasure house of blessings for the blessings which no seeking can obtain, but which must be given by God. Second, the Threefold Promise of an Answer. 8. For every one that asketh re ceiveth. There is no exception. True asking will combine seeking and knocking. The answer will be given according to the kind of asking. And every one that seeketh findeth. Most of the best things must be sought for, as the graces, education, character. For others, as the gift of the Spirit, special providences, divine guidance, God's tender love, opportunities, revelations, we must knock at God's treasury door, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. There are three ways in -which prayer is an swered : — (1.) The very act of praying brings us into com munion with God, which is the best answer to prayer. The giving and receiving are the means of becoming acquainted with God.8 But this 1 Prof. Isaac H. Hall. 2 Shakespeare's Tempest, where Prospero felt that the jewel of kindness was thrown away on the brutish Cali ban : — "Abhorred slave ; Which any print of goodness will not take, Being capable of all ill." 3 See Trench's Poems, " The Suppliant." 7 : 9-11. MATTHEW. 83 3 give 9 Or what man is there of you, *%£ if his son 8haii ask ium £o?r^1baf, will him" a stone- 10 §? if he shan ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 11 If ye then," being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall d your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? d See on ver. 7. g ch. 4. 3. h ch. 12. 34. Gen. 6. 5 & 8. 21. cannot be without other and direct answers. There is, therefore, (2.) A giving of the exact thing asked for, whenever it is wisest and best. (3.) Since the exact thing we ask for, in the form we ask for it, would often be the worst thing for us, and what we really do not desire, therefore, in such cases God gives us the spirit of our prayer, what we really want, what we would have asked for in form if we had known all things as God does. A child cries for the moon. He does not really want the moon, as he thinks he does, but only some bright plaything, which the parent gives, and thus answers his real prayer, while to have given the moon would not only have not answered his prayer, but would have killed him. We ask for poison, thinking we are asking for honey ; we ask for apples of Sodom, imagining them to be fruits of Paradise. God answers by giving the honey and the fruits of Paradise. " We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise gods Deny us for our good ; so find we profit By losing of our prayers." l True prayer is always answered, but that is not true prayer which puts the temporal before the spiritual, that would rather have some gift than to be good and to do good, " as it is in heaven." Hence God gives, as we should give to him that asks us, that which is wisest and best. It is right and good to ask for temporal blessings. This asking gives us lessons in prayer. But it should always be with the added clause, " Not my will but thine be done." " An answer, not that you long for, But diviner, will come one day ; Your eyes are too dim to see it, Tet strive, and wait, and pray." Compare Christ's prayer that the cup of suffer ing might pass from him, and Paul's prayer that the thorn in his flesh might be removed. A Proof from Each Parent's Experience. 9. If his son ask bread (a loaf), will he give him a stone, which was often found in the shape of their small, flat, round loaf. Dr. Trumbull says that having obtained one of the hard balls of bread at the convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, for a paperweight, he accidentally threw it away by mistake, thinking it to be a stone.2 See on 4 : 3. 10. If he ask a fish, will he give him a ser pent ? Which resembles some forms of fish. Here the substitute spoken of is not merely use less, but hurtful. On the contrary if the child ask for a stone or serpent, — anything injurious, — the father will give him good food instead. It is the world and Satan that give stones for bread and serpents for fish. 11. If ye then, being evil, imperfect, with more or less selfishness mingled with all you do, give good gifts unto your children. The parent that does not do this is a rare monster, probably does not exist. How much more. The differ ence is infinite. Shall your Father which is in heaven. The holy, heavenly, loving, perfect Father, who makes heaven what it is, who is able to answer every prayer, who loves his children, and desires for them every good that is possible. Give good things, whatever they ask that is good for them. He is too wise and good to give harmful things even when asked for. Luke (11 : 13) names the Holy Spirit as the " good things." For he is not only the best of all good gifts, but the sum and source of all. It is like giving life to the dead, making possible to him all enjoy ments and all powers. It is like giving light to those in the dark, or sight to the blind, revealing all the glories of earth and sky. The good Father, who gives this best of all gifts, will not withhold any of the lesser good things. Thus the Argument is complete. Our love for our children shows us a dim image of God's love for his children. We know that our Father will answer prayer, and we learn how he will an swer, and why we must ask. To them that ask him. Why must we ask for them ? God gives many things whether we ask for them or not (5 : 45), because he loves to pour out his love, and would prove to us that he is ready and willing to give. But the best things, and the best blessings of those given to good and 1 Shakespeare. See the poem Strive, yet I do not promise. J. R. Miller's Silent Times, p. 73, " The Blessing of Not Getting." The Choir Invisible, p. 257, on The Blessings of Defeat. 2 Studies in Oriental Social Life. 84 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. to unto 12 ''Autoing? therefor? whatsoever ye would that men should do ye allounto0 them : for this is-7' the law and the prophets. 13 * Enter ye in Dy the narrow gate : for wide g the gate, and broad that leadeth to destruction, and many &y thatenil? in 8Ky: 7 : 12, 13. YOU, even so do the way, i Luke 6. 31. Cp. Tobit 4. 15. j See ch. 22. 40. k Luke 13. 24. bad alike, can be received only by those who care for them enough to ask for them. Books, libra ries, schools, churches, the Holy Spirit, commu nion with God, a higher life, a nobler character, cannot be given to people who care for none of these things until they are desired and sought for. EX. THE GOLDEN RULE. 12. Therefore. Because what follows is the summing up of all the previous precepts in this dis course, as love is the sum of the Ten Command ments, which James (2 : 8) calls the Royal Law, as this verse is called the Golden Rule. Because, also, you are children of God, and therefore should act like your Father ; and if children of the same Father, you are brothers, and should act like bro thers. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you. All that you would have a right to expect from others, not everything criminal or foolish that some one might desire. All that is fair and proper. Do ye even so to them. Equivalent to " Love thy neighbor as thyself." " The rule does not require us to do the things which they ask, but to act toward them in the manner and spirit in which we should wish them to act toward us. This rule works in two ways : while directly it requires us to act toward others as we should wish them to act toward us, in spirit and implication it requires us to wish from others no more than we should be willing to render to themif our positions were reversed." 1 It is easy to see by examples what the rule means. A tramp wants you to give him your house ; a lazy man wants you to turn all your property over to him ; a criminal wishes the judge to let him go free ; a child wishes his father to cease restraining him. These things clearly are not to be given. But we should do what would be fair, wise, and best to have done to us in the same circumstances. For this is the law and the prophets. It is the sum of the duties to man required by the law and taught by the prophets (Matt. 22 : 40). It implies the state of the heart and life which it was their purpose to produce. This is not a new rule. It is found even in heathen writers, especially in a negative form, — as Confucius, Aristotle, Socrates, Seneca. It ex isted in the Old Testament long before Christ. See Lev. 19 : 18. But ' ' Christ, so far from pro pounding the Golden Rule as a novelty, affirms it to be the essence of the Law and the Prophets. It is, in fact, the primitive command of God in the hearts of all nations."2 What Jesus did was to bring it out in clearer light, in a positive form, with new authority, with a universal application, and with the power that enables men to live ac cording to it. The Golden Rule had been covered up, like the pictures by Giotto in the church of Santa Croce in Florence, for ages, and then redis covered and brought to light. " Only the Golden Rule can bring the Golden Age." 3 " The Golden Rule is the golden key to the Golden Age." This rule obeyed will settle all the difficult social questions of the world. X. AN EXHORTATION TO ENTER THE NEW LIFE, vers. 13, 14. The practical precepts culminated in the Golden Rule. But still there were some things needed to complete the sermon. The duty was very clear ; the next thing was to persuade men to enter into the kingdom with its new life and spirit. 13. Enter ye in to the kingdom of heaven, eternal life, the Christian life. In Luke (13: 24) they are urged to strive, to agonize like an ath lete with his whole nature, to enter in. At, or by, the strait gate. The narrow, difficult gate. Strait here is a different word from "straight," and is still used in such expressions as "He is in a strait," i. e., a narrow place ; or "the Straits (the narrows) of Gibraltar." " Some of the city gates contain, in one of their folds, a small door, which is left open an hour or more after sunset. This little door is still more common in the gates of the bazaars. We like to look at those curious little doors, and imagine that when our Lord had uttered these memorable words he had in mind these two gates, — the one wide, easy, and trav ersed by the multitude in broad daylight ; the other, narrow, high in the step, to be found in the dark, and sought amid danger by a few anx ious travellers." 4 For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. There are a mul titude of sins, each of which is a way to ruin. To destruction. The end of sin is destruction. It destroys life, health, happiness, hope, heaven. The destruction often begins in this world ; it is completed in the next. And many there be which go in thereat. It was the popular way, i Abbott. 2 Van Doren. > Frances Willard. * Van Lennep. 7 : 14-16. MATTHEW. 85 'few 14 "ISnaVrowis" the gate, and K?eTeu 'the way, WS' leadeth unto life, and touley that find it. 15 IT "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ° ravening wolves. 1 a n Ye shall know them by their fruits. t\ men ±.i j» , i r. 10 " By their fruits ye shall know them. DO men gather grapes Of thomS, Or flgS of thistles? iPs. 16. 11. Cp. ch. 18. 8 & John 14. 6. m Cp. Luke 13. 23. rach. 24. 11, 24. Deut. 13. 1-3. Jer. 14. 14 & 23. 16. Mark 13. 22. Luke 6. 26. Acts 13. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 1 John 4. 1. Rev. 19. 20, al. o Ezek. 22. 27. Acts 20. 29. Cp. Mic. 3. 5 & John 10. 12. p Luke 6. 43, 44. James 2. 18. and thronged with travellers. It was so then. It still is to-day, but in a less degree. 14. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way (ree\i.p,p.ivr)), compressed, pinched, straitened, . . . which leadeth (a-niyovaa.) , leadeth away from de struction, unto life, the true life, the life of hea ven on earth, eternal life.1 Few there be that find it. A fact at the time. He does not say it will always be so, he does not say it must be so. The parables of the leaven and of the mustard seed, and the numbers given in Revelation, imply that it will not always be so. The picture is that of two cities : one the New Jerusalem, the City of God ; the other the City of Destruction, such as Bunyan describes. The choice as to which we shall enter is before every one of us. Why the Gate and the Way to Good is Narrow. (1) Note that Jesus did not make the way narrow ; he only stated the fact, and used it as a motive. (2) The gate is as wide as the love of God can make it. A gate is made to enter by, not to keep men out. It is a standing invitation to enter. In Revelation the city of God is pic tured with twelve gates, four on each side, to ex press the wide welcome from every direction, for every race and condition. They are never shut, but each one of these gates is so narrow that "there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomi nation, or maketh a lie : but they which are writ ten in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21: 27). And they must be so, or the city would not be the city of God. For (3) the narrowness of the gate is a necessary fact. The gate to every best good must be narrow ; as the gate to knowledge, to success, to wisdom, to courage, to culture. There is one direction to the north star, and a million directions away from it. One would like to join the choir, but the gate is narrow. No one can really enter it without learning to sing, no matter how many other things he may do. There is one right, and a thousand wrong ways. There is one way to be a Christian, and many ways to go astray. A wider way to heaven means a poorer heaven, a wider way to virtue means a weaker virtue. XI. TESTS FOR OURSELVES AND OTHERS, vers. 15-27. First. The Test of Good Fruit. 15. Be ware of false prophets. A prophet is one who speaks under divine influence, a revealer and in terpreter of God's will, an authoritative religious instructor, whether speaking of the past, the pre sent, or the future. A false prophet was therefore one who pretended to speak God's truth, when he did not, one who spoke falsehood in God's name. Come to you in sheep's clothing, hidden under the fleece of a sheep, so as to look like a sheep, as in jEsop's fable. They claimed to belong to God's flock. They put on the appearance of a prophet or teacher. They held that position. But inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ravening (apirayes), those who snatch away by force, like the Harpies in Virgil, whose name comes from this word. They hunger greedily after the sheep to destroy and not to feed.2 " The hypocrite is a goat in sheep's clothing, but the false prophet is a wolf in sheep's clothing." 3 16. Ye shaU know them by their fruits. The Greek for know denotes full knowledge, a decisive test. In time their real nature will ap pear in their acts. The wolf in sheep's clothing cannot always act like a sheep. This is the in fallible test, like Ithuriel's spear in Milton's Paradise Lost. In the Parliament of Religions the theories of religion were presented, but the real test of their value would have been in bring ing together the people made by the religion, the practical results. When some one said to Wendell Phillips that Hinduism was as good as Christianity, he replied, "India is the answer." 1 The Wicket Gate in Pilgrim's Progress, and the many ways in which Christian had to strive in order to enter. Scripture Emblems, with the picture of the man with huge bundles of sin on his back, trying to go through a narrow door. 2 See in Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, his interpretation of " Blind Mouths " in Milton's Comus. Tennyson's Sea Dreams gives a picture of a false prophet. So does Moore's Lalla Rookh in his description of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. See, also, Prof. Drummond's Tropical Africa; the chapter on "Mimicry, the Ways of African Insects." 3 Broadus. 86 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 7 : 17-22. 17 Even so*7 every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but t£e corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither S a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 r Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 YhSore " by their fruits ye shaU know them. 21 1[ "Not every one that ' saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall u enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that " doeth the will of my Father which is in hea ven. 22 w Many will say to me * in that day, Lord, Lord, hale we not « Tropin 1" thy name! and * bny thy name have cast out devils? and Dny thy name dkT many ^"gSty"1 works ? p See on ver. 16. q ch. 12. 33-35. r See ch. 3. 10. s Luke 6. 46. Rom. 2. 13. James 1. 22. t Cp. Hos. 8. 2. u Cp. John 3. 3, 5. v ch. 12. 50. w ch. 25. 11, 12. Luke 13. 25-27. a; Mai. 3. 17, 18. y Cp. Num. 24. 4 & John 11. 51 & 1 Cor. 13. 2. z See Mark 9. 38. Individuals are often better or worse than their teachings for a time. But a community may be tested by the results of its religion. Do men gather grapes of thorns. The Beati tudes, the fruits of the Spirit, from bad hearts and bad principles. 17. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, fruit according to its nature. This is not only the test, but also shows us how to obtain good fruit, as in Luke (6 : 43). If you want good fruit, see that you have a good tree, or graft good wood on the old tree. Corrupt, decayed, unhealthy, of bad nature. Evil fruit. " Of the several words in the New Testament denoting evil, this empha^ sizes evil in its activity." 1 "As to the good tree and the corrupt tree, there is a wild olive and a wild orange, and also a wild tree to represent al most every one of the good fruit trees of Pales tine. If grafted when young, a good tree will result ; but if by mistake or ignorance one is left to the fruiting time before being found out, it has to suffer the axe, and most welcome is it to the fire in a country where good fuel is scarce." 2 Note that there is a difference in time as to when the fruit appears. In some trees it appears early in life, in others after long years. Moreover the green fruit is very different from the same when ripe. It is the same with moral fruits. We must wait until they are ripe before we can fully judge. It sometimes takes years before we see the results of certain teachings. Most good people are like grafted trees, where some branches are not grafted, and it takes time to get rid of them. We must distinguish between the fruit on the new graft and that which grows out of the old nature. 18. This verse states the same fact in a nega tive form, to emphasize this truth. 19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, whether it is entirely barren, or bears bad fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire. It is not allowed to take the place of good trees ; its only use is to be burned for fuel ; its end is complete destruction. This is especially true in Palestine, where trees are taxed, and no one can afford to keep in his orchard a fruitless tree. Fire is used as a symbol of utter destruc tion. What else can be done with bad people who refuse to bear good fruit, after God has exhausted every influence to make them good ? They are fit only to be a warning to others. Second. The Test of Deeds not Pro fessions. 21. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, professing to be his followers and obedient servants shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. God's real spiritual kingdom, where Christ rules in the heart, perfected and completed in heaven. False pretences are of no avail there. But he that doeth the will of my Father. He that obeys God, and does what God wills. Pro fession is good (ch. 10: 32), but he that has only profession is no Christian. Leaves are necessary to the growth of a tree, but a fruit tree that has only leaves is not a good tree. 22. Many wiU say to me in that day, the day of Judgment (ch. 25), Have we not prophesied in thy name, taught as with his authority, and in thy name have cast out devils, demons, the invisible opponents of Christ. They posed as his friends, fighting on his side ; but they cast out some demons that they might retain others, or did it merely as a blind, in order to gain influence for their evil works. Done many wonderful works. The Greek word translated "wonderful i Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 2 Prof. Isaac H. Hall, Sunday School Times. 7 : 23-26. MATTHEW. 87 23 ""And then will I profess unto them, I ° never knew you: b depart from me, ''ye that work iniquity. 24 IT d JIverTo'ne tSerSe'which heareth these Tord? of mine, and doeth them, shlnb^iikenea unto a " wise man, which built his house upon the rock : 25 arid the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it f ell not : for it was founded upon the rock. 26 And every one that heareth these IS of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto " a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand : w See on ver. 22. a ch. 10. 33. Cp. Ps. 101. 4. b ch. 25. 41. Ps. 6. 8. c ch. 13. 41. Ps. 5. 5. d For ver. 24-27, see Luke C. 47-49. e ch. 25. 2. Cp. Ezek. 13. 10-14. works " (Svfdj^ets) is sometimes translated " mira cles," and means powers, or works that require great power to perform. 23. Then will I profess, openly, publicly de clare, as the sentence of a judge, I never knew you. "Never" here is a strong word, nearly equivalent to our " never, never." Knew you as a disciple or follower. This is simply a state ment of fact. He makes public what had been true all the time, but not known. He now makes it known in order to reveal the true nature of righteousness, and to exonerate the kingdom of God from any complicity with evil. So it was with Judas. Depart from me, in place and ap pearance, since you are really far from me in character and life. Persons of your character have part in my home, my heaven, my labors for salvation. A man may have a bad character and yet do many very good deeds, as a stream flow ing in a certain direction may have eddies that flow in another, without changing the direction of the stream. Mr. Ruskin in the preface to his third volume, speaking in answer to some of his critics, says that " it is perfectly possible to pro tect one's self against small errors, and yet to make great and final error in the sum of work : on the other hand it is equally possible to fall into many small errors, and yet be right in tendency all the while, and entirely right in the end. In this respect, some men may be compared to careful travellers, who neither stumble at stones nor slip in sloughs, but have from the beginning of their journey to its close chosen the wrong road ; and others to those who, however, slipping, stumbling, at the wayside, have yet their eyes fixed on the true gate and goal, and will not fail of reaching them." l Third. The Truth Enforced by an Il lustration, vers. 24-27. 24. Therefore, in view of the facts above stated, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine. " Both classes of men hear the word. So far they are alike. In like manner the two houses have externally the same appearance." 2 And doeth them. Thus making them a part of his character, the rock foundation of his life. He is good in fact as well as in name. A wise man, which built his house. " The house is the general fabric of an outwardly religious life." 8 The house contains a man's expectations of happi ness, his prosperity, his success, his whole future, all that into which he puts his labors, his love, his time, his hopes. Upon a rock, rather, the rock, the great underlying bed rock, which no storms can affect or remove. His character is such, built upon the Rock of Ages, that no outward influences can destroy it, or take it away. By do ing what he learns, it becomes a part of himself. 25. The rain descended, . . . floods . . . winds. These represent persecutions, temptations, evil influences, bad companions, worldly pleasures, appetites and passions, all Satan's weapons of at tack. These come like a storm, a hurricane, a flood, a torrent. It fell not : for it was founded upon a (the) rock, Christ Jesus, and the character he implants. "At this very day the mode of building in Christ's own town of Nazareth sug gests the source of this image. Dr. Robinson was entertained in the house of a Greek Arab. The house had just been built. In order to lay the foundations he had dug down to the solid rock, as is usual throughout the country here, to the depth of thirty feet, and then built up arches." 4 " The best Eastern illustration of the building upon the rock and upon the sand is to be derived from the character of the wadies in Palestine and the neighboring countries. In dry weather they are either quite dry or only supplied with a trick ling streamlet. But when the heavy rains come, not only does a deep river tear down the wady, but as the Arabs of Sinai say, ' It is not a river, it is the sea.' Nothing can stand against these floods. Trees are uprooted, huge rocks carried along, and the luckless party of travellers are swept utterly away." 2fi. Every one that heareth . . . and doeth them not, forgets them, or lets them remain in his memory as a mere theory, apart from life. 1 Modern Painters. ' Cambridge Bible. » Ellicott. ' Kitto. 88 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 7 : 27-29. 27 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the faU thereof. 28 And it came to pass, when Je'sus had ended these woros!,/the mffi&i were astonished at his Khml- he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. / ch. 13. 54 & 22. 33. Mark 1. 22 & 6. 2 & 11. 18. Luke 4. 32. Cp. Acts 13. 12. g John 7. 46. 29 "for'' Foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, at the bottom of the ravine or on the seashore. 27. Rain . . . floods . . . winds . . . beat upon that house, as on the other. "The sands, however, are often made quick sands by the force of water ; and that which is a passable road in the dry season would swallow up a horseman in the wet season. In crossing the sandy mouth of a stream by the seashore in those countries, the traveller has always to look out for quicksands. Sometimes, too, the dry approach of wind and sand swallows up a house. Thus the comparison in our lesson suggests many dangers in the East to which a house is scarcely ever liable in our country." 1 The sands represent the surface feelings and emotions and the beliefs of the mind, which are not deep enough to change the heart ; the selfish desires, the love of praise, conformity to custom, policy, which often lead to certain kinds of good works, but are not wrought into character. 28. Were astonished (ei-uir\ijcraovTo, from «, out of, and 7rA>ja- Dr. H. S. Piffard, in Medical Record. 8:3. MATTHEW. 91 3 And he^'Sched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will ; be thou made clean. And Slhtww his leprosy was cleansed. Separating. ceived all the comforts of life, whereas, if he had been locked up in a lazaretto, and his food handed to him through a hole, probably he would have died. The great difficulty in curing leprosy is that as soon as a person learns that he has it he is made to believe that all hope is gone. He is treated as a doomed man and made to believe that he is an object to be shunned by everybody." 1 This is a good illustration of sin. Better surroundings and care are a great aid in the cure of sin. Christ attracted and helped sinners because he brought hope. The sinner is not a doomed man if he will go to the Good Physician and will keep away from evil. Sin, like leprosy, separates from the pure and clean. The sinner is utterly unfit for heaven and the society of pure and holy beings. One of the saddest things about the leprosy is this separation from the healthy and clean. (See Ben-Hur.) In the Sandwich Islands the lepers are all sent to one of the islands, called Molokai, by the Board of Health ; but there is intense opposition to it by many of the natives, on account of the separation from fam ily and friends. Again, Rev. S. E. Bishop, of Honolulu, says: "Lepers themselves appear to especially revolt against submitting to any dis tinction when at large, but seem inclined to push themselves upon their neighbors, and to resent their personal contact being shunned." How apt the type of sinners ! Mr. Scully, who lives in South Africa, has written a touching tale of the lepers in that country. He writes me that the story is founded on fact. Most vividly he de scribes how awful was the separation of the lepers from all that they loved, so that one man led a company of lepers to a precipice to destroy him self and them by sudden death, rather than go into the leper colony. Worshipped him, by kneeling down (Mark), and falling on his face (Luke), in the attitude of reverence and entreaty. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. If thou art willing, thou art able. He knew that he could cure him, be cause of what Jesus had done for those afflicted with equally dreadful and incurable diseases ; though this is the first case recorded of healing the leprosy. But he feared lest he should not be willing to help such a loathsome outcast as he was, whom all others avoided. Note that his emphasis is not on his becoming well, but on becoming clean. More than from pain, he would be free from the pollution, and shame, and repulsiveness which separated him i Dr. C. H. Fox, in Medical Record. from the clean. Cleansing is what sinners need. 3. And Jesus, " moved with compassion " (Mark). Jesus felt for the leper what he and his Father feel for all sinners, — an unutterable com passion and love. Jesus was the expression of God's heart toward men. Put forth his hand, and touched him. This expressed his kindly feeling and sympathy, for no one else would touch him. It showed that Jesus was not afraid of the leprosy, but believed in his own power to cure, and thus strengthened the leper's faith. It connected the healing with Jesus as the source, so that the man would turn to him for spiritual cleansing, and accept of his teaching. I will ; I am not only able, but willing. Be thou clean. Cleansed. Nothing Jesus loves better to do than to cleanse from all the defilement of sin. The question and answer are the same in all three records, showing how deep an impression this miracle made. Jesus willed to cleanse in this case, for he saw that the man had faith, and that the healing would be a blessing to him, and lead him to the greater spiritual cleansing. Jesus always desires to help us out of our trou bles, but sometimes we are not in condition to receive the help with the greatest spiritual advan tage. Immediately. The cure was instantaneous and complete, showing that it was the result not of human, but of divine power. His leprosy was cleansed away from him. Mark says it de parted. Note. What a marvellous change was wrought in the man, — instead of disease, health ; instead of foul repulsiveness, his flesh, like Naaman's (2 Kin. 5: 14), "came again like unto the flesh of a little child ; " instead of being an outcast, he was restored to country and friends and family, and all the joys of social life. The blessing was un speakably great. It transformed his body and his whole earthly life. It was Hke the change of mud into jewels, as described by Ruskin. 2 No one can express the greatness of the change of one defiled with sin, into a saint. It is the dif ference between hell and heaven. Note. Jesus always brought with him an at mosphere of courage and hope. He unlocked for men the dungeon of Giant Despair. They were no longer doomed. They were no longer a part of the picture described in Zola's Le Bite Humaine, of a railway train dragged by an engine whose driver has been killed, dashing at head long speed into the midnight. " The train is the 2 Compare the poem, Beautiful Snow. 92 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8 : 4, 5. 4 And Je'sus saith unto him, * See thou tell no man ; but go thy way, ' shew thyself to the priest, and m offer the gift that Mo'geg commanded, " for a testi mony unto them. 5 % And "when '"he™8 was entered into Ca-per'na-um, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, * ch. 9. 30 & 17. 9. Mark 1. 34 & 5. 43 & 7. 36 & 8. 26. See ch. 12. 16. I Luke 17. 14. 10. 18 & 24. 14. Mark 6. 11. Luke 9. 5. James 5. 3. o For ver. 5-13, see Luke 7. 1-10. mLev. 14. 2-32. n ch. world, we are the freight, fate is the track, death is the darkness, God is the engineer, — who is dead." " 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord " (Rom. 7 : 24, 25). 4. See thou tell no man. Till you have shown yourself to the priest, and the reality of the cure is proved. He was to go immediately, without stopping to talk about his cure. Why this prohi bition ? (1) There was need of solitary thought and meditation on the great cure wrought in the man's body, that it might have the due spiritual effect on his soul. The bodily cleansing was the least of the blessings Jesus would confer upon him. (2) Immediate attention to the prescribed religious duties would lead him and the people to the religious meaning of the cure. (3) There is always danger of attracting too much attention to bodily healing and temporal blessings, which must be averted by ever making these outward things a channel for spiritual blessings. (4) This marvellous cure of what was then incurable, the first of its kind, would draw such crowds as to in terfere with the work of Jesus, filling his time so full of healings that he could not teach as he would, or select such cases as were prepared to gain spiritual advantage from bodily cures. This actually took place, as we see from Mark's ac count. Shew thyself to the priest, at Jerusalem, as was commanded by law (Lev. 14: 1-32). Offer " for thy cleansing," as commanded in the same law. There was a regular, careful, and prolonged examination of the case (Lev. 13), and if the man was shown to be free from leprosy, a ceremonial with various offerings (Lev. 14). For a testimony unto them. (1) Unto the people, who thus would know that he had actually had the leprosy, and was really cured. (2) Unto the Jewish authori ties, who would thus be compelled to be witnesses to the power of Jesus, and would learn the facts concerning the works and teachings of Jesus. It would also be a testimony to them that Jesus kept the Law. The man did not obey Jesus. He seemed to think that he himself knew best what to do, and thus by his false zeal compelled Jesus to keep away from the towns (Mark 1 : 45). II. A CASE OF PALSY ; THE CENTU RION'S SERVANT, vers. 5-13. Time. Midsummer, A. D. 28. Soon after the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 7 : 1, 2). Place. Capernaum. Parallel. Luke 7 : 1-10. 5. Entered into Capernaum. By the Sea of Galilee, where he seems to have made his home Roman Captain or Centurion. during his Galilean ministry, and the centre of his work in that whole region. There came unto him, not in person, but by friends carrying his message, and earnestly pleading his cause (Luke), a centurion, a Roman military officer. " All Palestine was under Roman military gov ernment ; this centurion was probably connected with the garrison at Capernaum. The Roman army was divided into legions, answering to our army corps, varying in size from three thousand to six thousand men." Each legion was divided into ten cohorts, answering to our regiments, and each cohort into six centuries, answering to our companies. A full century consisted of 100 men, but in fact, like our companies, varied from 50 to 100. A centurion was the captain of a cen tury. A Character Sketch. (1) This centurion was a Gentile, as we gather from ver. 10, and from his 8 : 6, 7. MATTHEW. 93 6 £«£ saying, Lord, my servant lieth mftfSgSLe sick of the palsy, grievously tor mented. 7 And Jeneus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. position in the army. (2) He was inclined to reli gion, for he felt kindly toward the Jewish religion, admiring and respecting its pure worship and feeling an affection for the people who practised it. Some think that the ruins of the synagogue at Tell-Hum (the supposed site of Capernaum) are the remains of the very structure which he built and in which Christ preached. They are of white marble, " and even now after eighteen centuries, in their rich and elaborate carvings of cornices and entablatures, of capitals and niches, show with what liberal hand he had dealt his votive offerings."1 (3) His position was extremely dif ficult for one in his surroundings. He was wealthy or he could not1 have built the syna gogue at his own expense. He was a Roman army officer among heathen, who cared little for morals and less for the Jews. His position was one of great temptation and difficulty. (4) He was broad-minded enough to see how much good the religion of the Jews was doing, im perfect as it was, and contrary to all the ideas in which he had been trained, and which were popu lar with his class. (5) He was generous, for he built a synagogue for the Jews (Luke 7:5). (6) He had a good and noble character (Luke 7:4). (7) He was kindly and loving, as is shown by his feeling toward his servant. Compare other centurions mentioned in the New Testament, as the one at the cross ; Cor nelius, the centurion of Cesarea, converted through Peter ; and Julius, who brought Paul to Rome. 0. My servant, his personal servant, a confi dential attendant, like a private secretary. He was " dear unto him " (Luke), or as in R. V. margin, "precious to him," or "honorable with him ; " like Joseph in the house of Potiphar, and Eliezer, the chief servant of Abraham ; each one identifying himself with his master's inter ests. "In that age especially, slaves were often made the favorites and heirs of their masters. Many of the prominent characters in Rome were originally slaves, though they rose to honor only as freedmen." 2 Note. How delightful the relation of master and servant can be, when both are of the right character and filled with the right spirit. This fact is an honor both to the centurion and to the servant.3 Sick of the palsy. ' Palsy " is a contracted form of "paralysis." The term palsy, or paralysis, is used by the ancient physicians in a much wider sense than by our modern men of science. It included not only what we call paralysis, which is rarely very painful, but also catalepsy and tetanus, i. e., cramps and lockjaw. Dr. Hastings (Bib. Die.) thinks the disease of the centurion's servant may have possibly been an acute case of spinal meningitis. " Catalepsy is caused by a contraction of the muscles in the whole or part of the body, and is very dangerous. The effects upon the parts seized are very violent and deadly. For instance, when a person is struck with it, if his hand happens to be extended, he is unable to draw it back. The cramps, in Oriental countries, is a fearful malady, and by no means infrequent. It is caused by the chills of the night. The limbs when seized by it remain immovable, sometimes turned in, and sometimes out, in the same posi tion as when they were first seized. The person afflicted resembles a man undergoing torture, and experiences nearly the same exquisite suffer ings." 4 When I was in the theological seminary at Bangor, I helped take care of a young man who was afflicted most terribly with the tetanus, or cramps, included by the ancients under the disease of palsy. This man would have frequent spasms of the cramp, so severe as to dislocate his arms, his shoulders, and sometimes even his neck, so far, at least, that it took two of us with all our strength to get his head in place after the spasm was over. During the spasms he could not be touched, for a touch then hurt him like the blow of a hammer upon a well person. During the intervals he was not only clear in his mind, but cheerful, and even brilliant in conversation. Grievously tormented (&a. possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits "with 'Is word, and healed all that were sick : 17 a SJaf it might be fulfilled which was spoken by F-S5h the prophet, saying, e Himself took our infirmities, and bare "ou^dSes3' y For vers. 14-16, see Mark 1. 29-34 & Luke 4. 38-41. z 1 Cor. 9. 5. See ch. 4. 24. c Cp. ver. 8. d See ch. 1. 22. e Cited from Isai. 53. 4. a Cp. ch. 9. 25. o vers. 28, 33. 14. And when Jesus was come, from the synagogue where he had been preaching, and where during the services he had cast a fierce un clean spirit out of a demoniac. He went with four of his disciples, Andrew, Peter, James, and John, to Peter's house. Peter and his brother, though natives of Bethsaida (Johnl : 44)^ seem to be now living in Capernaum. All the chosen four went with Jesus. His wife's mother. This distinctly implies that Peter was married, and makes it strange that the Roman Catholics should lay so much stress on the celibacy of the clergy. From 1 Cor. 9 : 5, it appears that his wife may sometimes have accompanied her husband. Note. The French version charmingly trans lates wife's mother, "belle mire," "beautiful mother." Peter and his family had none of that insipid nonsense about mothers-in-law which sup plies so many would-be-witty people with stale jokes. Peter's wife was a part of himself ; and he would not have been worthy to be an apostle, nor even a lowest disciple of Jesus, had he not cared for his wife's mother as he would for his own. Sick of a fever. Luke calls it a great fever, of a severe, malignant, and dangerous type. The Greek for fever is derived from ™p,fire, as our word fever is akin to the Latin fervere, to be hot, to boil. "The quantity of marshy land in the neighborhood, especially at the entrance of the Jordan into the lake, has made fever of a very malignant type at times the characteristic of the locality, so that the physicians would not allow Josephus, when hurt by his horse sinking in the neighboring marsh, to sleep even a single night in Capernaum, but hurried him on to Tarichsea." * 15. Touched her hand. To express his kindly sympathy and courtesy, and to make it evident that the miraculous cure came from him. Luke says, he " rebuked the fever," commanded it to go, as if it were an enemy. The fever left her ; and she arose, and ministered unto them. " Such a fever invariably leaves the patient weak. The period of convalescence is always long and try ing, often full of danger. The fact that she min istered unto them (i. e., served in the ordinary duties of the household) shows that Christ in healing the disease also imparted health and strength, and it demonstrates the miraculous character of the cure." 2 IV. A SUMMARY OF ONE SABBATH EVENING'S WOBK OF JESUS, vers. 16, 17. Time. Spring of A. d. 28. The same day as the healing of Peter's wife's mother. Place. Capernaum. 16. 'When the even was come, as the sun was setting (Mark). The multitude came after sun set, (1) because the heat of the day would have been too distressing to the sick ; (2) because they did not wish to violate the sacred rest of the Sab bath day. At sunset the Sabbath ended ; and so they felt themselves free to act. (3) By this time the news of Christ's miraculous power, two exam ples of which are reported, would have had time to spread over the city. The people recognized both the power and the willingness of Jesus to heal, so that " all the city was gathered together at the door " (Luke), probably of Peter's house. Many that were possessed with devils. With demons or evil spirits. "The word devil or devils is never used in the original when de moniacs are spoken of. It is always the word demon or demons, or the generic term spirit or spirits-" Healed all that were sick, with various forms of disease (Mark). He laid his hands on them as he did with Peter's mother-in-law. " The brow grows cool, the pulse beats calm, Health pours through every vein like balm." a 17. That it might be fulfilled. That the pic ture of the promised Messiah, given by Esaias (Isaiah) in chapter 53, might be seen to be the 1 Geikie. 8 Geo. L. Taylor. 98 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8:17. portrait of Jesus. The description given centu ries before fitted Jesus, thus proving that he was the Messiah. Jesus did not help people because that was foretold, but being the Messiah it was his natural work ; and the prophet in his vision of the Messiah saw him doing these things. Himself took (eAa/3e), the verb means to take, to take in order to carry away.1 Infirmities (aaBevetas, from a, not, and aBivm, strength), debilitating diseases from the weakness they produce. Bare (ipaaraaev), bore as a burden laid upon him. The word means to take up in order to carry, also to bear away, to carry off.2 Our sicknesses (vooows), diseases, allied to the Latin noceo, to hurt, the emphasis is on the idea of something severe, dangerous, painful, violent. He bears even our severest pains and griefs. How did Jesus bear their sicknesses? (1) He bore them in his heart in sympathy. He did not stand aloof, but suffered with them as every one does who cares for the diseased in body or in soul. It brings weariness and exhaustion, as no mere hard work can do. It always costs to really help others. (2) He bore them away by his healing power. Healing the body was one of the ways by which he was enabled to heal the soul. Jesus is not only loving, but divine, and still bears the griefs of his children away, by removing them, or by transforming them into blessings, and by the many ways in which his Gospel lessens the troubles and sicknesses of men. (3) This was an object lesson of his bearing the diseases of the soul, by forgiving, by his atonement on the cross, by his coming from heaven and giving his whole life to delivering men from sin. He bears them on his heart, and he bears them away. "All the experience of modern missionaries in the East goes to show the wisdom of the method employed by Jesus Christ and his apostles in giv ing attention to diseased bodies as a means of access to diseased souls." " The medical mission is the outcome of the living teachings of our faith. I have now visited such missions in many parts of the world, and never saw one which was not healing, helping, blessing, softening prejudice, diminishing suffer ing, . . . telling in every work of love and of con secrated skill of the infinite compassion of him who ' came, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.' " 8 Calls for Healing in the East. " It re quires but a cursory view of the East to give a new understanding of the Bible pictures of a multitude of halt, and maimed, and blind, and diseased needing cure." " Palestine now, as doubtless was the case in the days of our Lord, seems fairly overrun with those afflicted by one form or another of bodily ailment." They fairly thronged the entrance ways to Jerusalem, and the paths to Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives. "And for these there is little help. There are no hospitals or poorhouses. The native doctors have little scientific knowledge of the healing art, so that the Talmud says, ' The best of physi cians deserves hell.' " 4 What is a Miracle ? A miracle is the per sonal intervention of God by his will into the chain of cause and effect in nature. It is such an intervention as shows the presence and action of a supernatural power. It is not a " breaking of the laws of nature," nor " the suspension of the laws of nature," nor any change in the laws of nature, but simply God's doing with his infinite power the same quality of action, though vastly greater in de gree, that we do every hour when we exert our personal will amid the forces of nature. I lift up a book, I turn on the water from the water-works, and make a shower on my parched lawn or gar den. I stop a part of the machinery in the factory and rescue a child caught in its wheels. These acts break no law of nature, they suspend none, they change none. They are simply the interven tion of my personal will into the laws. It is the same when God, by his infinite power, lifts up a mountain or raises the dead. It is his personal will touching nature and showing that God him self is there. Miracles Natural to Christ. If there is a personal God, it is as natural that he should work a miracle, for sufficient reasons, as it is that the owner of a factory should interfere to save a child who is caught in the machinery or the captain of a ship to reverse his engines to save . a drowning man. To accept a miracle when proved is scientific. Even such scientists as Pro fessor Huxley (Popular Science Monthly) agree to this. It is simply a question of proof. If Jesus was the Son of God, the power to work miracles was a natural accompaniment. He bears the same relation to the powers of nature as a watch maker does to the watch when he sets the hands to the right time.5 Miracles were a Testimony to the Au thority of Christ. They are God's signature and seal to the words which his messengers speak. The divine words, which cannot be fully tested in themselves, are proved to be from God by visi- 1 Thayer, Gr. Lex. i Ibid. 3 Isabella Bird Bishop. Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, " Earth's Holocaust," of all burdens, cares, sickness, and pain. Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life, " Calls of Doubt, p. 420. for Healing in the East." A Colony of Mercy describes what Christianity is doing for all forms of disease in a town in Germany. Whittier's Poems, " Our Master." 6 See W. C. Prime's Along New England Roads, "A Village Discussion." Van Dyke's Gospel for an Age 8:17, 18. MATTHEW. 99 ble signs and deeds which only God can produce. These should have three marks which test their truth : (1) They are wrought by good men, (2) in attestation of a message which, while beyond our knowledge, does not contradict our conscience and reason, but is in harmony with the other words of God. (3) They must be worthy of God, helpful, useful, a blessing, never done merely to startle and excite wonder, but expressions of God's holy character, his love, tenderness, pity, good will to men. A distinction here will help us to understand this more clearly. "'Suppose,' says Matthew Arnold, ' I could change the pen with which I write this into a, penwiper, I should not thus make what I write the truer or more con vincing.' Nor would such a miracle prove a Bible doctrine or interpretation to be true. But were I to read the report of a traveller, I could not be influenced in judgment or conduct by it unless I had evidence that he had been in the country he described, and is not spiiming a yam, Defoe- like, out of his own fertile imagination. The philosopher needs no authentication ; his philoso phy is its own evidence. But a witness to facts otherwise not known, and perhaps not otherwise discoverable, always requires some authentica tion. The distinction is perfectly simple ; and we act upon it in e very-day life. Now Christ came as a witness to heavenly facts about God and the immortality and destiny of the soul, and miracles are the authentication of his credi bility. They are God's signature to his testi mony." 1 The Miracles of Christ are Object Les sons. Every miracle is a visible picture before men of the character of God, of the nature of the gospel, of the lovingkindness of our Saviour, of his power to help, of the wonders of grace he can work in our hearts, of his power to deliver from the diseases of sin. There were many miracles of all kinds to show that Jesus has power over all kinds of diseases, all the many forms of evil of which they are a type, over demons, over the forces of nature.2 These Miracles were Types op the Be neficent Effects of Christianity. Christ tells us that those who believe in him shall do greater works than he, and it is true that Christ in his Christianity is doing on a far larger scale the works of Christ than it was possible for him to do in Palestine. The kindly feeling, the de sire to help, the increased skill, which spring up under Christianity as flowers and fruits grow in the sunshine, have made Christ's works through his people greater than those he wrought on earth. They are not miracles, but are better than the power of miracles, as the prolonged sun shine is better than a flash of lightning. Blind asylums have opened many eyes, and caused people to read and work even without sight. Hospitals have cured and eared for multitudes of sick and insane. We cannot raise the dead to life, but the average length of life has been greatly increased. The day laborer has more of the best things in the world — books, libraries, churches, railroads, telegraphs, newspapers — than kings have in heathen lands. Moral Miracles. " When a man declares to me, ' I cannot believe in miracles,' I reply, ' I can, because I have witnessed them.' ' When and where ? ' ' On a certain street in this city is a man who was a week ago given over to every form of vice and brutality, and who is now a good citizen, an honest workman, a kind husband, a loving father, a pure, upright man. Surely that is such a miracle as makes me forever believe in the pos sibility of miracles.' " s V. STILLING THE TEMPEST, AND AS SOCIATED INCIDENTS, vers. 18-27. Time. Autumn of a. d. 28. Some weeks after the Sermon on the Mount. Place. The Sea of Galilee, and opposite shores. Parallels. To vers. 23-27 ; Mark 4 : 35-41 ; Luke 8: 22-25. A parallel to vers. 18-22 is found in Luke 9 : 57-60 (Andrews) ; but others place these incidents later, in connection with Jesus' final departure from Galilee. This passage belongs to the evening of an eventful and a weary day in the life of Jesus. The morning began with miracles ; by noon an immense throng had gath ered around him ; and all the afternoon he taught them in parables. With the evening came the exhaustion of his body and the reaction upon his highly wrought mind. On that busy day our Lord had first healed a demoniac (Matt. 12 : 22), then encountered the accusation of his family (Mark 3 : 20, 21) ; and afterwards the accusation of the Pharisees (Mark 3 : 22-30 ; more fully in Matt. 12 : 24-45), then his mother and brethren had sought him (Mark 3 : 32-35 ; Matt. 12 : 46-50) ; and after some discourses narrated by Luke only (ch. 11 : 37 to 12 : 59), departing to the seaside, he had given the long discourse, parts of which are recorded in Mark 4 and Matt. 13 ; and at last had encountered the half-hearted followers de scribed in verses 18-22 just as the evening was falling upon them (Mark 4: 35). 1 Condensed from The. Outlook. 2 In Tennyson's Idylls of the King, a knight says that he can find God's goodness in the stars, in the flowers, in the fields, but not in his ways with man. But the won drous works of Jesus show his goodness in his ways with man. 3 Prof. Henry Drummond. 100 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8 : 18-21. 18 IT Now /when Je'sus saw great multitudes about him, ' he gave command ment to depart unto the other side. 19 "And %hereaSmetIcribe?' and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 20 And Je'sus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have *' nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 21 And another of u£ disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. /Cp. ch. 14. (for mg.). ! & John 6. 15-17. g Mark 4. 35. Luke 8. 22. h For vers. 19-22, see Luke 9. 57-60. i ch. 13. 32 18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, who had been witnessing his miracles, and listening to his parables and other discourses by the seaside, he gave commandment to depart. He was sitting in the boat where he had been teaching the multitudes on the shore (Mark 4 : 1), when he gave orders to the disciples to prepare the boat for a voyage. During the preparation he probably went on shore (ver. 23), where he met the scribe and disciple. The reasons for his departure were probably (1) he was weary with his long and hard day's work, for he soon fell asleep on the voyage. He could not rest while the multitudes were thronging him, and hence retired to the thinly populated regions on the opposite shore. (2) His disciples, too, would need the quiet and rest. Rest is as essential to good work as is activity. (3) Some think that he dismissed the crowds to avoid the suspicion of fomenting disturbance. (4) He had really done all he could for the multitudes. It was better for them to go home and think, and lay up his say ings in their memory. 19. And a certain scribe, a Rabbi, a teacher of the law, one of the learned profession, came, and said unto him, just as he was leaving. This Rabbi had been impressed by the teaching. Per haps he thought that his learning and position would make the offer attractive to Jesus. He may have thought that this marvellous wonder worker and winning teacher might possibly be the Messiah. He may have hoped to have part in the new kingdom, and possibly partake of Jesus' marvellous power. Master, i. e., teacher, a term of respect, espe cially from one who was himself a teacher. I will follow thee, on his voyage, and also adhere to him as one of those who continually associated with him. 20. And Jesus saith unto him. Christ did not reject the proffered service, but neither did he accept it. Perhaps " in the man's flaring enthusi asm he saw the smoke of egotistical self-deceit." 1 Christ simply showed the scribe, who was accus tomed to home, and wealth, and honor, what his choice really meant. He would never seek to ob tain disciples by hiding the truth. He would have him " count the cost," go forward with open eyes, that his choice might be sincere and from the heart. The scribe was welcome, and more than welcome, if he came truly to the Lord as his master and teacher. The foxes have holes. Caves, dens. And the birds of the air have nests. Literally, " lodging-places." But the Son of man, although the Messiah, the King of the Jews, hath not where to lay his head. Has no settled home, no earthly property. Some one always, doubtless, gave him a place to lodge, but he owned none by earthly tenure. The Son of God, the King of kings, the Creator of all things, voluntarily gave up all in order that he might thus best save men. We do not know whether the scribe accepted Jesus as his teacher when he learned what his act meant, or whether he turned away sorrow fully. "Many a man begins a religious life full of warmth and zeal, and by and by loses all his first love, and turns back again to the world. He liked the new uniform, and the bounty money, and the name of a Christian soldier ; but he never considered the watching and warring and wounds and conflicts which Christian soldiers must en dure."2 21. And another of his disciples. A disciple is a learner. This one was probably a true disci ple, but one who needed confirming and teaching. Said unto him, in answer to Jesus' invitation to follow him. Suffer me first to go and bury my father, who was probably either dead or at the point of death. According to Rev. Ezra Isaacs, the customs of burial in such a case were very cere monious and burdensome, continuing with daily visits from an Elder or Rabbi for a whole month. The young man was evidently not at home when his father died, but may have been on his way there. If he returned, it would mean that he would be under the influence of the enemies of Jesus for a month. 1 Farrar. ! Ryle. 8 : 22-26. MATTHEW. 101 22 But Je'sus Siti unto him, Follow me ; and lea™-' the dead to bury their own dead. 23 H * And when he was entered into a boat', his disciples followed him. 24 And> behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the boa? was covered with the waves : but ' he was asleep. 25 And hisd&7les came to &, and awoke him, saying,™ Ls°$e,TordT we perish. 26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye " fearful, ° 0 ye of little faith? Then he arose, andp rebuked the winds and the sea ; and " there was a great calm. j Cp. John 5. 25. k For ver. 23-27, see Mark 4. 36-41 & Luke 8. 22-25. Cp. John 6. 16-21. I Cp. John 4. 6, 7. m Cp. ch. 14. 30. n John 14. 27. o See ch. 6. 30. p Ps. 104. 6, 7. Cp. Luke 4. 39. q Job 38. 11. Ps. 65. 7. Cp. ch. 14. 32. 22. And let the dead bury their dead. Re ferring not merely to the act of burying, but also to the long ceremonies of mourning. " Let those who are spiritually dead bury those who are natu rally dead."1 Let the higher duties take the precedence over the lower. He should not spend time in useless mourning, as the worldly do. The best cure of his sorrow was earnest work for the Master. All these cases, joined with one more reported by Luke, gain force under the circum stances where Luke places them when Jesus was taking his final leave of Galilee, and going to Jerusalem to be crucified. 23. And when he was entered into a ship, " a boat, the one in which he had been teaching (Mark 4 : 36), the one which, possibly belonging to Peter or the sons of Zebedee, was always ready at their Master's service." 2 His disciples fol lowed him. " They were wise to follow him, and safe in so doing ; but they were not therefore secure from trial. In the boat with Jesus is a happy place, but storms may come even when we are there." 3 24. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea. " A great tempest " (o-eurjios, earth quake), such a commotion of the marine elements as corresponds to an earthquake. Mark and Luke call it Xalkaf, a furious storm, a hurricane. The lake of Gennesaret is subject to sudden and violent squalls and storms. Dr. W. M. Thomson says that on a certain occasion, in his experience, " The sun had scarcely set when the wind began to rush down toward the lake ; and it continued all night long with constantly increasing violence, so that when we reached the shore next morning, the face of the lake was like a huge boiling caldron. The wind howled down every wady from the north east and east with such fury that no efforts of rowers could have brought a boat to shore at any point along that coast. To understand the causes of these sudden and violent tempests, we must re member that the lake lies low, 600 feet lower than the ocean ; that the vast and naked plateaus of the Jaulan rise to a great height, spreading back ward to the wilds of the Hauran, and upward to snowy Hermon ; that the water-courses have cut out profound ravines and wild gorges, converging to the head of the lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the cold winds from the mountains. On the occasion referred to we subsequently pitched our tents at the shore, and remained for three days and nights exposed to this tremendous wind. We had to double-pin all the tent ropes, and frequently were obliged to hang with our whole weight upon them to keep the quivering tabernacle from being carried up bodily into the air." * But he was asleep. " ' In the hinder part of the ship on a pillow,' says Mark ; that is, in a little cabin, enjoying the deep, sweet repose eon- sequent on natural exhaustion. How really and thoroughly human ! It is delightful to realize it." 5 Here he shows his human nature, as his stilling the tempest displayed his divine nature. The two elements together make a perfect Sav iour. 25. And his disciples came to him. This shows they had faith in him, although it was feeble. Lord, save us : we perish. More graphic in the abrupt form of the original as reproduced in the R. V., "Save, Lord; we perish." "TJs" is not in the best MSS. Note the variations in the report, — in Luke, "Master, Master, we perish ; " in Mark, "Master, carest thou not that we perish ? " All three re ports are correct. One disciple cried out in one way, others in different words. Some one puts it thus : Little Faith prayed, Save us ; Much Fear cried, We perish ; Distrust urged, Carest thou not t More Faith said, Lord; Diseipleship called out, Teacher (Mark) ; Faint Hope cried, Master, thou with authority (Luke). The whole made a vivid scene. 26. Why are ye fearful ? Why cannot you trust me ? O ye of little faith, who have seen so much of my power, know me as the Messiah, and yet are afraid of a storm with me in the boat. Why have you not larger faith in me ? 1 Canon Cook. 2 Ellicott. Spurgeon. 4 Land and Book, new edition, ii. 351. ii Morison. 102 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8 : 27, 28. 27 A„d the men ' marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the s winds and the sea obey him ? 28 If 'And when he was come to the other side into the country of the l For ver. 28-ch. 9. 1, see Mark 5. 1-21 & Luke 8. 26-40. r Cp. Mark 1. 27. s Cp. Luke 5. 9. He arose, and rebuked the winds, by saying, according to Mark (4: 39), " Peace, be still ;" ir«f.f- ptacro, be muzzled like an ox ; be silent, the same word that Christ uses to the demon in Mark 1 : 25. And there was a great calm. Mark adds, "the wind ceased," inonacrev, grew weary, tired, "a beautiful and picturesque word. The sea sank to rest as if exhausted by its own beating." i 27. The men marvelled. Meaning the disci ples, and other sailors if any were in the boat (see Mark 4: 36). 'What manner of man is this ? The inconceivable wonder of arresting a hurricane was a new revelation of Jesus' power even to his disciples. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. This experience was Christ's School of Faith, wherein he taught his disciples the lesson of faith in him, wrought into their very natures ; and thus prepared them for the greater moral tempests which were soon to assail them. 2. This storm is the type of the Tempest of Sin. Sin always raises a storm, as it did in Jonah's case. All the diseases, oppressions, cruelties, gnawings of conscience, lives without hope, and hearts without rest, are a part of the tempest raised by sin. But the greatest fury of the storm is in the future. There is no true human escape from this storm. No earthly voice can bid the winds and waves to cease. But Christ, by his forgiving love, says, "Peace, be still," for all that call on him, and arches over all the bow of peace. 3. This boat in the storm on Galilee was a Sym bol of the Soul in the Storms of Life which overtake every individual at times. Our life is a voyage. We are not like a ship safely anchored in the harbor, but like one ploughing its way over an ocean, battling with storms, exposed to a thou sand dangers, seeking a harbor in a better land. " 'TiB wonderful! And yet, my boy, just such is life. Life is a sea as fathomless, As wide, as terrible, and yet sometimes as calm and beautiful. The light of heaven Smiles on it, and 't is decked with every hue of glory and of joy. Anon dark clouds Arise, contending winds of fate go forth, and Hope sits weeping o'er a general wreck. And thou must sail upon this sea a long, eventful voy age. The wise may suffer wreck, The foolish must. Oh, then, be early wise ! Learn from the mariner his skillful art — To ride upon the waves and catch the breeze and dare the threatening storm and trace a path, 'Mid countless dangers, to the destined port, uner ringly secure." But on this voyage, if we are disciples, Christ is with us, though like the guardian angel in Cole's series of pictures of Voyage of Life, he is sometimes seen plainly, and sometimes, as in the picture of Manhood, unseen by the voyager. He seems asleep or hidden, but the angels can see that he is ever with us to guide and guard. 4. This boat in the storm is the Type of the Church of Christ. (1) " The boat is the Church of Christ, and it sails across the ocean of the world's history to the ' other side ' of the fife beyond the grave."2 "Ours is a ship on a voyage, not a ship in a harbor ; a ship in pro gress." 3 (2) The disciples are in this boat toiling and laboring anxiously to take the boat to the place where the Lord commanded. (3) Their Lord Jesus Christ is in the boat with them. There is no church in which Jesus does not dwell. (4) The tempest represents the storms of persecu tion, of opposition, of worldliness, of false doc trine, and every opposing force which the great enemy of good can excite against the people of God. (5) Jesus sometimes seems asleep in the storm. He lets the storm rage and does not at once interfere. The delay seems long, and the faint-hearted, looking at the waves rather than at Jesus, sometimes lose courage. But the object of the delay is to increase our faith. (6) Our hope lies not in the absence of danger, but in the pre sence of Christ, who is able to control the'storm. No church with Christ in it can be wrecked or lost. More of the living Christ, more of his love, more of his teaching, more faith in him, more prayer to him, more of his Holy Spirit, more of his holy life — these are the salvation and hope of the Church. VII. EVIL SPIRITS CAST OUT; THE GADARENE DEMONIAC, vers. 28-34. Time. Autumn of a. d. 28. The morning fol lowing the storm. Place. In the country of the Gadarenes on the southeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. Parallels. Mark 5 : 1-20 ; Luke 8 : 26-39. Other Similar Miracles. Matt. 9 : 32-34 ; 12 : 22-30 ; 15 : 22-28 ; 17: 14-21 ; Mark 1 : 23-27. ' 28. ' When he was come to the other side, of i Prof. M. R. Vincent. 2 Ellicott. 3 Macdonald. 8:28. MATTHEW. 103 oad^-iS8,' there met him two "possessed with devils, coming f0rth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man Suw pass by that way. u ver. 16. Cp. Rev. 18. 2. the Sea of Galilee. The voyage had been in a southeasterly direction from Capernaum. Into the country of the Gergesenes, or, as best MSS., Gadarenes. This region is variously called Gadarenes, from the large region of which the city of Gadara was the chief city ; or Gergesenes, from Gergesa or the modern Gersa, a town in the immediate vicinity of the event described ; or Gerasenes, from the city Gerasa, which is either a different pronunciation of Gersa, as is most probable, or designates the territory of the city of Gerasa, thirty miles from the Sea of Galilee. In which case Gerasenes designated the people of the larger territory which included the Gadarenes and their small village of Gergesenes, as New York State includes Long Island and its city of Brooklyn, and the same event may be said to have taken place in any one of the three. There met him two, one of which was the more prominent and remarkable, and hence is alone mentioned by Mark and Luke. " A familiar example will illustrate the principle. In the year 1824 La fayette visited the United States ; and was every where welcomed with honors and pageants. Historians will describe this as a noble incident in his life. Other writers will relate the same visit as made, and the same honors as enjoyed, by two persons, viz. : Lafayette and his son. Will there be any contradiction between these two classes of writers ? Will not both record the truth?"1 The Scene. Early morning. On a narrow strip of shore, with a steep cliff rising high in the background, on the level summit of which swine are feeding ; and in the foreground the lake beneath. On this narrow strip stand Jesus and his disciples, while the demoniacs are approach ing. Possessed with devils. Better, demons. Mark calls them " unclean spirits." Demons are called unclean because they are impure, un holy, defiling, and produce such effects both in the body and the spirit of those whom they possess. The outward filth was a type of the moral defile ment. The devil's characteristic work is to ruin both body and soul. Coming out of the tombs. " These were natural or artificial excavations in the rocks, frequently cut laterally in the hills, and often left uncovered, which like other caves would be resorts for wild men and beasts." 2 " Many are so constructed as to form a not un comfortable dwelling. Sane dwellers in tombs are not uncommon at the present day." There are many of these tombs in Palestine, and they may still be seen in the mountain back of Gersa. Here the demoniac had his home; for "all maniacs were outcasts as soon as they became violent, for that age had no provision for taking care of them. Institutions of pity for the un fortunate are among the gifts of Christ ; antiquity knew nothing of them, or of the spirit that would produce them." 3 Exceeding fierce, so that no man could bind them successfully ; for though fetters and chains had often been put on them, their preternatural strength had broken and rent them asunder (Mark). Luke says they had for a time worn no clothes ; and Mark that no man had strength to tame them. Thus it was not safe for any person to approach them, and therefore no man might pass by that way. Demoniac Possessions. " It is not easy to answer the question, What was this demoniacal possession ? But we may gather from the Gospel narrative some important ingredients for our description. The demoniac was one whose being was strangely interpenetrated by one or more of those fallen spirits who are constantly asserted in Scripture (under the name of demons, evil spirits, unclean spirits, their chief being the Devil or Satan) to be the enemies and tempters of the souls of men. There appears to have been in him a double will and double consciousness, — sometimes the cruel spirit thinking and speaking in him, sometimes his poor crushed self crying out to the Saviour of men for mercy." 3 De moniac possession is "the caricature of inspira tion." We know who inspires by the effects produced. The demoniac is a specimen, physi cally, of Satan's kingdom, as a healthy saint is of the kingdom of heaven. (1) This was a real possession, not a mere imagination or supersti tion. Recent psychical researches, especially in the line of hypnotism, " so far from conflicting with the possession theory, present mysterious facts which are readily explained only on that theory." (2) The possession is not by the devil, but by demons. Devil is always, in the original, used only as the proper name of the arch-fiend ; while in all cases those "possessed" are repre sented as possessed with demons, lesser evil spirits. (3) Demoniacal possession seems to have been always connected with a diseased state, there being certain moral and physical conditions in which demons obtained possession both of the body and of the mind, bringing disease upon the 1 Robinson's Harmony of the Gospels. 2 Int. Critical Com. > Prof. W. N. Clarke. 104 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8:29. 29 And' behold, they" cried out, saying, *" What have we to do with thee, Je'8U8" *thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us ''before the time? v Mark 1. 23, 24, 26. Luke 4. 34. Acts 8. 7. See ch. 14. 33. y Cp. Rev. 12. 12. w Cp. 2 Sam. 16. 10 & 19. 22 & John 2. 4, al. x Cp. ch. 4. 3, 6. former and insanity upon the latter, or intensify ing the disease and insanity the victim already had. (4) "Yet 'possession' is distinguished from disease, Mark 1 : 32, and other places ; and from lunacy (or epilepsy), Matt. 4: 24." So far as I am aware, physicians of the insane are in clined to see only disease in the modern cases which closely resemble the cases described in the New Testament. But there is an unexplain- able remainder in them, which they have been unable to account for. " To the frequent objec tion, How comes it that similar possessions do not occur at the present day ? it may be answered, How is it known that they do not occur even now? We cannot prove the negative."1 (5) " The demoniac stood in a totally different position from the abandoned wicked man, who morally is given over to the devil. This latter would be a subject for punishment, but the demoniac for deepest compassion." 2 While the possession does not imply that the victim was the worst of men, like Judas when "Satan entered into him," or Ananias when "Satan filled his heart," yet at some point the victim must have yielded to the tempter, as Faust to Mephisto- pheles ; for the soul is a castle which Satan can not enter without permission from within. (6) Yet "lavish sin, and especially indulgence in sensual lusts, superinducing, as it would often, a weakness in the nervous system, which is the especial bond between body and soul, may have laid open these unhappy ones to the fearful in cursions of the powers of darkness." 2 It is probable that this condition never occurs except in morally disordered persons. " The men of that time (St. Bernard's) say that the air swarmed with angels ; and if not with angels, then with devils ; that armies of evil spirits were ever on the wing, that they encamped in invisible companies to waylay and deceive, or counsel and succor the sons of men."8 Dr. Edersheim holds that the demoniac in fluence was not permanent, but rather in par oxysms, and " during the period of their tempo rary liberty, the demonized might have shaken themselves free from the overshadowing power, or sought release from it." Dean Trench quotes the following : " In accesses of delirium tremens, the penalty of lavish indulgence in intoxicating drinks, we find something analogous to this double consciousness. The victim of this ' in his most tranquil and collected moments is not to be trusted ; for the transition from that state to the greatest violence is instantaneous : he is often recalled by a word to an apparent state of reason, but as quickly his false impressions return ; there is sometimes evidence at the time of a state of double consciousness, a condition of mind which is some times remembered by the patient when the paroxysm is over.' " 4 Modern Examples. Dr. Nevius, for forty years a missionary in China, has given his obser vations in a book lately published. He sent a series of inquiries to Protestant missionaries and Chinese Christians, with the result that he found the almost exact counterpart of the Gospel ac counts, recorded by them, as well as observed by himself. (1) The victim " during the paroxysms sometimes falls to the ground senseless, or foams at the mouth, presenting symptoms similar to those of epilepsy or hysteria." (2) " The dura tion of the abnormal state varies from a few minutes to several days." (3) " When normal consciousness is restored after one of these attacks, the subject is entirely ignorant of everything which took place during that state." (4) "The most striking characteristic of these cases is that the subject evidences another personality, and the normal personality for the time being is partially or wholly dormant." (5) " The new personality presents traits of character utterly different from those which really belong to the subject in his normal state, and this change of character is with rare exceptions in the direction of moral obliquity and impurity." (6) "Many persons while demon-possessed give evidence of knowledge which cannot be accounted for in ordinary ways. They often appear to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a divine person, and show an aversion to and fear of him." (7) "Many cases have been cured by prayer to Christ or in his name." "So far as we have been able to dis cover, this method of cure has not failed in any case."5 29. And . . . they, running to him from afar, and prostrating themselves before him (Mark), i Prof. W. N. Clarke. - Dean Alford. 8 Morison. * Bright and Addison, on the Practice of Medicine, vol. i. p. 262. G Demon Possession and Allied Themes, by Dr. Nevius pp. 143-145. The scientific Society for Psychical Research is gradually gathering facts which will throw fresh light on this subject. R. F. Horton's Cartoons of St. Mark. Andrew White, ex-president of Cornell University, has a chapter on " Demoniacal Possessions," in New Chapters in the Conflict of Science and Religion. He denies the reality of demon possession. 8 : 30-32. MATTHEW. 105 30 £Sw there was agoa°mrway off from them *? herd of many swine feeding. 31 ASnd the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, mftSia g0 away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they out, tahna' went into the herdoJ swine: and- behold, the whole herd o£ swiner Sedolently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. cried out, with a loud voice (Luke), What have we (the unclean spirits representing the whole body of evil spirits) to do with thee ? Why do you interfere with us ? Jesus, thou son of God. They belonging to the invisible world recognized him, and his nature and power. As a part of the principality of evil warring against God and good, they were aware of the massing of the divine forces at this time in the world, and that Jesus was irrevocably opposed to them and their terrible work of ruin to man, body and soul. Art thou come hither to torment us ? for Jesus had tohithe unclean spirits to come out and leave them (Mark). " They seemed afraid lest they should be driven from their home in the man and sent homeless into the abyss, before the time, before the final victory of Christ over the world, when all which belong unto the kingdom of darkness shall be shut up in the abyss (Rev. 20 : 10), when all power of harming shall be taken away from them." "Herein the true devilish spirit speaks out, which counts it a torment not to be suffered to torment others, and an injury done to itself when it is no more permitted to be injurious to others." 1 In Mark we are told that Jesus asked the man his name, probably to help him to understand himself, and realize the distinction between him self and the power that was holding him in thrall, and thus help him to break away from the terrible alliance.2 The reply of the chief one was that his name was " Legion, for we are many." A Roman legion numbered 6000, but it came to mean, as with us, a large number, a host. " He had seen the thick and serried ranks of a Roman legion, that fearful instrument of oppres sion, that sign of terror and fear to the conquered nations. Even such, terrible in their strength, inexorable in their hostility, were the 'lords many,' which had dominion over him." Then the demons asked Jesus not to send them out of the country. Luke says, " Into the abyss," Gehenna, the place of evil spirits. The petition of the devils may be regarded as equivalent to " Send us anywhere ; anywhere but to perdition. Send us to the most shattered man ; send us to the lowest creature, into man or beast, bird or reptile ; anywhere but into hell ! " 30. There was a good way off, at the foot of the mountains (Mark), an herd of many swine feeding, about 2000 (Mark). " We are surprised at first to find swine kept in a country where their flesh could not be an article of food. But though the Jews did not eat pork, Roman soldiers did (it was, indeed, their staple article of food), and the swine may have been kept to supply the wants of the legion with which the man was familiar. The well-known pun of Augustus in reference to Herod's murder of his children, 1 that it was better to be Herod's sow (tv) than his son,' (vl6v) seems to imply that the king kept them on his estates for some such purpose." 3 Dr. Thomson says that to this day the region is the habitat of wild hogs. 31. Suffer us to go away into the herd tf swine. This they asked naturally enough, from their love of uncleanliness as well as to gratify their destructive passion.4 How demons could enter into swine we do not know, but it is no more of a mystery than the connection of mind with body in us. " There is no scientific objec tion to demoniacal possession of brutes." 6 32. He said unto them, Go, i. e., do as you wish ; I will not hinder you. The question is asked whether Jesus had a right to permit the destruction of so much property be longing to other people. (1) Jesus did not send them, he only did not prevent them. (2) " A visi ble effect of the departure of the demons was necessary to convince the demoniacs and their neighbors of the reality of the cure . " 6 When the men saw the effects that the demons had wrought on them, transferred to the swine, they could be sure that they themselves were delivered from their power. (3) It was probably a gain to the Gadarenes themselves. What was a farm worth that was exposed to the depredations of two such fierce and terrible persons ? It was a moral gain for them to learn the lesson that one soul saved was worth more than a herd of swine. It was an object lesson of the evil of sin, and the value of the soul. Any community which learns those lessons is on the highroad to prosper ity. Moreover the miracle published throughout the whole region that Jesns of Nazareth, the great Prophet and Redeemer, had come to them with 1 Trench. 1 So Prof. Gould in Int. Crit. Com. 3 Plumptre. * Jacobus. 6 Int. Crit. Com. on Luke. ' Int. Crit. Com. 106 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 8 : 33, 34. 33 And they that S them fled, and went tbZ^yya into the city, and told everythSl' and what was befallen to them that were z possessed %$? devils. 34 And' behold, an the whole city came out to meet Je'sus : and when they saw him, "they besought him that he would depart fSmUeuVoraers. z ver. 16. a Cp. 1 Kin. 17. 18 & Luke 5. 8 & Acts 16. 39. power to save from all sin. What were 2000 swine to 2000 souls who should hear the invita tion to come and be saved? (4.) If the owners were Jews, and no one knows that they were not, they were breaking their own divine law for the sake of making money, and they were thus un dermining their religion, and hastening the na tional destruction. Jesus had the same right, as a prophet, not to prevent this destruction, as he had to drive out the cattle from the temple, and interfere with the moneychangers there. It was a call to repentance. If the owners were heathen, who by their practices were undermining Judaism, it was right to permit evil to have its own reward. It was like permitting the natural results of oppression or intemperance or dishonesty to come upon a people. And really, as we have seen, it was a gain to them of that which was highest and best. The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea. Not over a cliff, but a steep beach. " It does not say that it was a high place, but steep, and that they ran (not fell) down this into the sea. There are several steeps near the sea here, but only one so close to the water as to make it sure that if a herl ran violently down, they would go into the sea. Here, for a full half mile, the beach is of a form different from any other round the lake, and from any that I have noticed in any lake or sea before. It is flat until close to the edge. There a hedge of oleanders fringes the end of the plain, and immediately be low these is a gravel beach inclined so steep that when my boat was at the shore I could not see over the top even by standing up ; while the water alongside is so deep that it covered my pad dle (seven feet long) when dipped vertically a few feet from the shore. Now if the swine rushed along this short plain toward this hedge of under wood (and their usual feeding-place would be often among thick brushwood of this kind), they would instantly pass through the shrubs and then down the steep gravel beyond into the deep water, where they would surely be drowned." a Perished in the waters. "Perhaps the act of the swine was the result of panic, and in spite of the evil spirits. It is the very nature of evil thus to outwit itself."2 "Stupid, blind, self- contradicting and suicidal, it can only destroy, and will rather involve itself in the common ruin than not destroy." 8 But the man was delivered from the power of the evil that had possessed him. He was clothed and in his right mind, sane and natural, and sitting quietly at rest. 33. And they that kept them fled. Their occupation was gone, they were thoroughly fright ened, and it was necessary that they should re port what had been done, or they would be pun ished for carelessness. 34. The whole city, the little city of Gersa. Came out to meet Jesus. These strange events would naturally create a great excitement. And when they saw him, they were afraid (Mark), and besought him that he would depart out of their coasts, borders. They felt they were in the presence of an awful power, the extent of which they knew not. They were afraid Jesus might exert his power in other ways to their injury, even if it were for their spiritual good. Their con sciences were awakened, and they feared that Jesus might send upon them the punishment they knew they deserved. Jesus was an agitator, a disturber of settled wrongs. It is one of two things when Christ comes into a place: it is deadly fear, or infinite rejoicing. Thus the peo ple rejected the salvation which Jesus brought to them. As Jesus and his disciples were leaving, the re deemed man wanted to leave the scene so filled with terrible memories, and go with Jesus. But Jesus would not permit it, and bade him go home and tell his friends what great things God had done for him. In the very places where his former state was best known, and the marvel lous change could be best appreciated, he was to proclaim the gospel of salvation. His greatest power for good was in testifying to the facts, in bearing witness to the love and power of Jesus, as he had felt them. We can do little effective work in preaching the gospel, except so far as we have experienced it. The greatest need was among these people who were so far away from the kingdom that they re jected Jesus, and were without his further pre sence. He himself needed just this work for his own salvation and growth in grace. It was better than even going around with Jesus himself. 1 Macgregor, Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 411. 2 Abbott. 8 Trench. 8. MATTHEW. 107 PBACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. A Picture of the Fruit of Sin is pre sented as an object lesson by this demoniac. He is a specimen of what Satan desires to do to those who yield to him.1 His name is Legion, — a host, organized so that each force of evil aids the dire influence of the others. 2. A Sign. In the cure we have an object les son of the transformation which Jesus works for men by transplanting them into his kingdom, as charcoal into diamond, or rags into paper whereon can be written the noblest truths and the richest virtues. " John Chrysostom ingeniously remarks that the animals which went out of Noah's ark went out the same as they came in. The crow went out a crow ; the wolf, a wolf ; the fox, a fox. ' But the church transforms the animals she receives into her bosom, not by any change in their substance, but by the extirpation of their sin.' The magic wand of a Circe formerly meta morphosed men into brutes ; but the Divine Word changes the brutes into true men. Yea, more than this ; it changes them into angels (Isai. 11 : 6-9; 1 Cor. 6: 9-11)." 2 3. The Redeemed Man. What He gave up. (1) He gave up the evil spirit which possessed him. (2) His unnatural and evil life. (3) His uncleanness. (4) His rags and poverty. (5) His homeless wanderings, his wretchedness, his rest lessness. (6) His deeds of violence and sin. What He received. (1) A right and reason able mind. (2) The comforts of clothing and a home. (3) Good friends, and especially the Lord Jesus himself. (4) Rest and peace. (5) An hon orable and useful career, in proclaiming to many the Saviour of men. 4. Some Illustrations of Praters an swered. The evil spirits were granted their request, but it resulted in their ruin, and not as they expected. " We, ignorant of ourselves, beg often our own harms." The Gadarenes had their desire granted. Jesus left them, and never returned, so far as we learn. Their decision was final. Jesus came to them in spite of sea and storm, and demons, and their own sins, but he would not stay where he was not wanted ; though he did the best possible for them, in his good deed to the demoniac, and in leaving him to declare his experience. This might open the door to the Gospel. Nothing but our own wills can hinder our salvation. Only our own hands can lock the doors of heaven against us. On the other hand, the request of the restored demoniac was denied because God had better things for him than he had asked. He was de nied copper, that he might receive gold ; denied charcoal, that he might possess diamonds. 5. Like many a man to-day, these Gadarenes rejected the Son of God, their Saviour, their Re deemer, because he interfered with their bad business. .They were unwilling to suffer some loss that they might win holiness, happiness, and heaven. " Carnal hearts prefer their swine be fore their Saviour, and had rather lose Christ's presence than their worldly profit." These men rejected Jesus while they knew but little about him. They did not wait for instruction, for larger knowledge of his works and words. Jesus left the cured man among them so that possibly a fuller knowledge and more thought might open their hearts to better things. " To me it is spe cially appalling that a man should perish through wilfully rejecting the divine salvation. A drown ing man throwing away the life-belt, a poisoned man pouring the antidote upon the floor, a wounded man tearing open his wounds, — any one of these is a sad sight ; but what shall we say of a soul putting from it the Redeemer and choosing its own destruction ? " 8 1 See for illustrations Plato's description of the ma rine Glaucus, Republic, X. 11. The Norse legend of the man pursued by a troll, in the preface to Hall Caine's The Bondman. 2 Choice Notes. 8 Spurgeon. 108 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 1, 2. CHAPTER 9. Five Miracles, and a Summary of Many Others. Section VIII.— A GROUP OF MIRACLES (continued). A Case op Paralysis; the Man borne op Four, vers. 1-8. The Call of Matthew, ver. 9. The Banquet and Reception at Mat thew's House, vers. 10-17. Restoration of the Dead ; Jairus' Daughter, vers. 18-26. The Issue of Blood, vers. 20-22. Blindness cured ; Two Blind Men, vers. 27-31. Demons cast out ; the Dumb possessed, vers. 32-34. Many Diseases cured, ver. 35. A Call for more Laborers, vers. 36-38. Time. Summer and Autumn, A. n. 28. Place. Galilee, chiefly in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. 1 And he entered into a boat', and crossed over, and came into his "own city. 2 c And' behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed : and Je'sus d seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, " be of good cheer ; ¦''thy sins are forgiven' 6 ch. 4. 13. Cp. Mark 2. 1. c For vers. 2-8, see Mark 2. 3-12 & Luke 5. 18-26. d ver. 22, 29. ch. 8. 10, 13 & 15. 28. Mark 10. 52. Luke 7. 9, 50 & 17. 19 & 18. 42. Acts 3. 16 & 14. 9. James 5. 15. , e ver. 22. /Luke 7. 48. Cp. John 5. 14. 1. THE PARALYTIC BOKNE OP FOTTO, vers. 1-8. Time. May or June, A. d. 28. Place. Capernaum, in a private house. Parallels. Mark 2 : 1-12 ; Luke 5 : 17-26. 1. And he entered into a ship, or boat. The one which had carried them over from Capernaum to the country of the Gadarenes. This verse really belongs to the last chapter, and is entirely separate from the account of the healing of the paralytic. And passed over the lake back to his own city, Capernaum, where he made his abode. 2. And, behold. We now begin a new inci dent, which took place several weeks before. They brought to him, to the house where he was preaching. The word used in Mark implies that he was at home. " Either the house which he occupied with his mother and his brethren (Matt. 4 : 13), or possibly that of St. Peter." 1 A man sick of the palsy. See on 8 : 5-13. Lying on a bed, a thin mattress. The Scene is pictured more fully by Mark and Luke. We see an Oriental house ; perhaps one of the poorer class, which is usually of one story, with a flat roof and outside stairs to the roof, for dur ing the heat of the summer the family always sleep there. It is generally surrounded by battle ments. " The roofs are made of branches of trees, canes, palm leaves, etc., covered with a thick stratum of earth."2 The better houses consist of an open courtyard, in which is fre quently a fountain or a well. This is surrounded on three sides by rooms with bare, almost win- dowless walls on the outside, " with a narrow doorway in the centre opening into the courtyard, to which there is no other access. Round three sides of this open square are attached chambers, sometimes wholly or partially enclosed, some times with only pillars supporting the roof, be tween which curtains may be hung. The prin cipal or reception room is on the side facing the entrance." We see here gathered a great number of peo ple thronging the house with Oriental freedom, crowding and pressing around the doors in their eagerness to hear the young teacher and miracle worker, who was creating no little excitement. Among them were leading Pharisees and learned 1 Cambridge Bible. ' Prof. J. D. Davis, Bib. Die. 9: 2. MATTHEW. 109 men from all parts of Galilee and as far away as Judea and Jerusalem. We see Jesus preaching to these crowds, either in the central room or under the covered veran da, and not only preaching, but heal ing (Luke). It was an informal meet ing. During the services four men came to the house carrying a para lytic man on his bed to be cured by Jesus. Some one has called them, The First Christian Endeavor Society. They were unable to enter the house on account of the crowds. But they were enterprising and ingenious, and undiscouraged they carried the sick man up the outside stairs upon the low roof of the house ; they had broken a hole through the roof of branches and earth, and taking the mattress by the four corners let the man down among the audience in front of Jesus. The roof was so low that those below could receive the man from the hands of the four on the roof. " The whole affair was the extemporaneous device of plain peas ants, accustomed to open their roofs, and let down grain, straw, and other articles, as they still do in this coun try. I have often seen it done, and done it myself to houses in Lebanon. I have the impression, however, that the covering, at least of the lewan (court), was not made of earth, but of coarse matting ... or boards . . . or stone slabs that could be quickly removed." ! And Jesus seeing their faith, shown by coming to him, and by their persistence in overcoming ob stacles. All five showed faith in this way. But Jesus looked down into the sick man's heart, and saw a true faith beyond all desire to be restored to health. R. Glover lays the most stress on the sick man's faith, as the source and bulwark of the faith of the four. treatment of the man shows that it was he who had the faith, and had imparted it to them. There are no sufferers whose affliction has been hallowed who are not centres of spiritual influ ence to some friends or neighbors round them." Son (a word of loving endearment), be of good cheer, take heart, thy sins be (are) forgiven thee. Jesus grants him the greater blessing first, not only for his own sake, because he desired it most, or at least was the blessing he most needed, but also as an impressive lesson to his hearers on the higher value of spiritual healing. " Nothing is said about the man's character, or about his previous life, or the cause of his illness. But there comes before my mind a fact of a young Eastern Houses, showing the flat roofs and outside stairs. Christ's man barely twenty-one, lying in precisely the con dition that is here described, unable to move a limb, the result simply of his youthful debauch eries. And one would gather from the unexpected course which Jesus pursues with this young man that he suspected a similar cause in this case of illness . . . and puts his finger upon the spring of the mischief. " 2 If such was the cause of the sick ness, Jesus well knew that there could be no per manent or valuable healing without repentance and forsaking of the sin. It is probable that he had been led to repentance before this, and to a 1 Thomson, Land and Book. 2 E. P. Horton, Cartoons of St. Mark. 110 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 3-5. 3 And' behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, « This S blas- phemeth. 4 And Je'sus * knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts ? 5 For whether is easier, to say, fhy sins abree forgiven; thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? g ch. 26. 65. John 10. 36. h ch. 12. 25. Luke 6. 8 & 9. 47 (for mg.). John 2. 24, 25. longing for redemption from his past sin and the foreboding of the future. The fruits of sin cause the essential evil of sin to be felt. " I sat alone with my conscience In a place where time had ceased, And we talked of my former living In the land where the years increased. The ghosts of forgotten actions Came floating before my sight, And things that I thought were dead things Were alive with a terrible might ; The vision of all my past life Was an awful thing to face, Alone with my conscience sitting In that silently solemn place." The Forgiveness of Sins. (1) The first great need of each human being is the forgiveness of sins. A religion that cannot assure us of God's forgiveness is a vain religion. (2) This is so be cause unf orgiven sin shuts us away from God and heaven. We could not look in God's face, or en dure his presence, or the presence of the holy, with our sins unf orgiven. (3) Forgiveness is not merely the taking away of the punishment of sin, but it is restoration to the family of God, to his favor, to the enjoyment of his love, as children and heirs of God. (4) Forgiveness includes the washing away of sin. It will be remembered no more. The past life will be seen in the radiance of God's love, which will make us forget the sin in admira tion of God's goodness, and mercy, and love, in the salvation of such as we are. (5) Sin is for given for Christ's sake, because he has by his atonement made it possible for God to be just, and yet justify (forgive) those who believe. The atonement removes the evil which would come upon the individual and upon the community if free pardon were offered to all, without this prepa ration and condition. 3. And, behold, certain of the scribes. " The scribes, or Rabbis, were the leaders of the nations, the theologians, the legislators, the politicians of Israel." x Pharisees joined with them, being strictly attached to the letter of the law. Said within themselves. Luke uses a word that means " they held a dialogue with themselves." This man blaspheme th, " for who can forgive sins but God alone ? " To blaspheme is to slander God, to speak evil, impiously, of God. In this case it was arrogating to himself what belonged only to God, thus making God like a mere man. Blasphemy is practically uttered treason against God and his kingdom. It was a capital crime, the one for which in his trial he was condemned to die. The blasphemy consisted in an ordinary man claiming to do what in the nature of things God only can do, thus practically claiming that he is God. For sins, as distinguished from crimes, are against God, and therefore only God can forgive them ; for in the nature of things only he against whom the offence has been committed can forgive. I can forgive the evil done to myself, but I cannot forgive the evil done to my neighbor. He only can forgive that. So that the reasoning of the scribes was right : " Only God can forgive sins." But they did not apply it aright. 4. Jesus knowing their thoughts, whether hy their actions, or by his insight into the human heart. Wherefore think ye evil. Why do you misjudge and put an evil construction on my words ? How do you know that I was not merely declaring what I knew to be true ? But that the other alternative is true I will prove to you. 5. for whether is easier, to say, etc. "In our Lord's argument it must be carefully noted that he does not ask which is easier, to forgive sins or to raise a sick man ; for it could not be affirmed that that of forgiving is easier than this of heal ing ; but which is easier to claim, this power or that ; to say. Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk ? ... It would be easier for a man equally ignorant of the French and Chinese languages to claim to know the last than the first. Not that the language itself is easier, but that in the one case multitudes could disprove his claim ; in the other, hardly a scholar or two in the land." Saying, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," could not be pnt to the proof. But the saying, ' Arise and walk," could be tested on the spot. Both were divine acts. He that could do one divine act proved that he had authority and power to do the other. 9 : 6-9. MATTHEW. Ill 6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins' (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take up thy bed, and go unto 'thy6 house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house. 8 But when the multitudes saw It; they ; £$£r31S&&, and i glorified God, which had-* given such power unto men. 9 1T * And as Je'sus passed fobyh from thence, he saw a man, "Sued 'M&t'thew, sitting at the recpSce01of toil™' and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. i See Luke 7. 16. j ch. 28. 18. Luke 6. 15. Acts 1. 13. ft For vers. 9-17, Bee Mark 2. 14-22 & Luke 5. 27-38. I ch. 10. 3. Mark 3. 18. 6. But that ye may know that the Son of man, a title accepted by the Jews as that of the Messiah, the ideal man, " the head and represen tative of the new humanity," the Son of God manifested in the flesh. Hath power on earth. Both right and might, authority and power. The proof lies in the indorsement of God to Jesus' claims to be the Messiah. The miracle was the signature of God to his nature and mission. Arise. Which would be impossible without a miracle. Take up thy bed. This would show the completeness of the cure on the spot, which would be impossible if the cure were a medical result. 7. And he arose, and took up his bed, and in the presence of the assembly (Mark), departed to his house, a living, unimpeachable witness to Jesus that he was the Messiah, doing precisely what the Messiah naturally would do. 8. "When the multitudes saw it, they mar velled. Luke adds, "They were filled with fear." The miracle awakened a religious awe in their minds, such as men ever feel in the presence of a great and mysterious power. Here was one who could read their hearts ; and who would not be afraid if every secret thought were about to be brought to light ? Here was one also who had unlimited power ; what might he not do to them ? But they also saw the goodness of God ; his for giving love ; his readiness to help ; and this, too, for the sinful and helpless. This was the most amazing thing of all. And glorified God. Luke adds, " saying, We have seen strange things to day." They ascribed the honor and glory to God, as the source of this beneficent power. The good deeds of God's children honor God, and lead the souls of men toward him (Matt. 5 : 16) . II. THE CALL OP MATTHEW; THE EVOLUTION OF A MAN, ver. 9. Time. Early Summer, A. D. 28, after healing the paralytic. Place. From Capernaum to the seaside. Parallels. Mark 2: 13, 14 ; Luke 5: 27, 28. 9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, from the house where he had been preaching and curing the paralytic, and from the city to the seashore (Mark). He probably went northeast toward the mouth of the Jordan. The crowds fol lowed him, and he taught them. The seashore was a favorite place with Jesus for his teaching, with more room and more favorable surround ings than could be found in the city. He was moving along the shore (Mark), when he saw (Luke says, " looked attentively at, contemplated as if reading his character " J) a man named Mat thew. Luke calls him Levi. His father's name was Alphseus, of whom nothing further is known. " Either he had originally two names, as was not uncommon among the Jews, or he received the name of Matthew when he became a Christian, as Simon did that of Peter." 2 Matthew was a Jew and a publican, with his home in Capernaum. Matthew in Hebrew has the same meaning as Theodore in Greek, — " the gift of God." The new name, as in the case of Peter, expressed his new life, as Jacob, "the supplanter," was changed with his changed character to Israel, "a prince of God." So one of the rewards of the conqueror is a new name, the name of God and of the holy city (Rev. 3 : 12). Sitting at the receipt of custom. Tollhouse ("tolbooth," in Edinburgh), or custom house, for the collection of the taxes on fish, or duties on the merchandise which passed along the great roads to Jerusalem, Tyre, and Damascus, and the East, which centred at Caper naum. The Romans taxed heavily almost every thing, every tree, every house, every door, every column, all property, real or personal. Cicero speaks of the toll houses erected by the publicans, " at the approaches to bridges, at the termination of roads, or in the harbors," for convenience of collection. The Publicans. Our word " publican " comes from the Latin publicani, those who gathered the publicum, or public state revenue. Roman knights ' Int. Crit. Com. ' Prof. J. D. Davis, Bib. Die. 112 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9. were usually at the head of this work, but farmed out the collection of the taxes to under officers, who, in the New Testament, are termed publi cans. These were usually " the lowest and worst class of the native population, since no others would assume a task so hateful. They were re quired to pay over to their superiors the exor bitant sum fixed by the law, and depended for their profit on what they could make by fraud and extortion. They often overcharged, brought false charges of smuggling to extort hush money, seized upon property in case of dispute and held it until their levy was paid, forbade the farmer to reap his standing crops until they had wrung from him all that his penury could produce. They were universally feared, hated, and de spised throughout the empire, but nowhere more than in Palestine. They were classed with sin ners, with harlots, with heathen, in public estima tion, and probably in their actual and customary companionships." 1 The Character of Matthew before his Call. Matthew was engaged, not in a wicked calling, but in a disreputable one ; one which in general was followed by bad men, in wicked ways, and which therefore threw a shadow of suspicion on every one engaged in it. But it is probable that Matthew was not corrupt, just as Zaccheus could not have been like most other publicans, or it would have been impossible for him to have restored fourfold. Mr. Ruskin, in describing a painting of Matthew by Carpaccio, says, " Do not think that Christ would have called a bad or cor rupt publican — much less that a bad or corrupt publican would have obeyed the call. . . . Car paccio knows well that there are no defalcations from Levi's chest, no oppressions in his tax- gathering, . . . but a true ' merchant of Venice uprightest and gentlest of the merchant race.' " '2 A hint as to the character of Matthew may be gained from the fact that Matthew alone of the gospel writers, in the lists of the apostles, applies to himself the odious title of publican, as if to re mind himself and others of the pit from which he was " digged ; " while the other evangelists omit this designation, as if they would forget the past in the new life, and would see him as he is, not as he was. The Call to a Higher Life. Saith unto him, Follow me, both in heart as his Saviour, Teacher, and Master, and literally by taking his place among our Lord's constant attendants. Without doubt Matthew knew about Jesus. He had heard his teachings, seen his works, recog nized his character and claims. The question as to whether he would become his disciple must have been thought over earnestly before this defi nite call came. It must have been because Jesus saw in Matthew great possibilities, as one sees the oak in the acorn, that Jesus called him to be a disciple, saying to him, as Ruskin states it: " Come up higher thou, for there are nobler trea sures than these to count, and a nobler King than this to render account to. Thou hast been faith ful over a few things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." " Christ had the double vision of the sculptor," who sees in the rough and shapeless mass of marble the vision of the perfect and noble form that is to be. " The choice of Matthew, as of most of the other apostles, illustrates the power of the gospel to elevate obscure and common place lives." The Cost of Following Jesus. And he arose, and followed him. It cost a good deal to accept the call. Luke says that he forsook all, — his business, his gains, his hopes of wealth, his companions, his luxuries. Compare "taking up the cross " (Matt. 10 : 38 ; 16: 24) and " counting the cost" (Luke 14: 27-33). It was the forsak ing of a bad business with the remorse of con science which grew out of it, a disreputable life of disloyalty to his country, great temptations to dishonesty, and bad companionship. The re pentant sinner always forsakes many things which it is blessed to leave behind, as the drunkard his cups and his rags, as Bunyan's Pilgrim left be hind him the City of Destruction, and the burden of sins on his back. What his Discipleship did for Him. He left worldly success to gain heavenly success, the real success. He became a better man, and a Christian, and apostle ; like the aromatic clay, which was but common clay till it dwelt among the roses. He had higher ideals, a fuller life, a glorious companionship, training in the school of Christ, a wider and better work. Little is known of his after life, but he wrote one of the Gospels, and that alone was blessedness, glory, and immor tality. " I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things." III. THE BANQUET AND EECEPTION AT MATTHEW'S HOUSE; A MEANS OF HEACHING THE PUBLICANS, vers. 10-17.Time. Autumn, A. D. 28. Place. Capernaum, at Matthew's house. Parallels. Mark 2 : 15-22 ; Luke 5 : 29-39. Andrews places this some weeks after Mat thew's call, on the return from Gergesa to Caper naum (ch. 8:28; 9: 1). Others place it imme diately after the call. Authorities are greatly divided. 1 Abbott. 2 Ruskin, St. Mark's Rest. 9 : 10-13. MATTHEW. 113 10 IT And it came to pass, as Jeheu8 sat at meat in the house, behold, many '" publicans and sinners came and sat down with jX and his disciples. 11 And when the Ph&r'i-sees. saw }{; they said unto his disciples, " Why eateth your Master with m the publicans and sinners ? 12 But when Jehr heard "%!' he said, «¦"» *"*»». They that & whole ^f^Aa a physician, but they that are sick. 13 But go ye and learn ° what '«/ meaneth, p I wdes^eTe mercy, and not sacrifice : for « I elSe not come to call the righteous,'' but sinners. to r«*entance- m ch. 11. 19. Mark 2. 15, 16, al. See ch. 5. 46. n Cp. Luke 15. 2. o ch. 12. 7. p Cited from Hos. 6. 6. Cp. ch. 23. 23 & Mark 12. 33. q Cp. Luke 15. 7 & John 9. 39. r 1 Tim. 1. 15. 10. As Jesus, better " he," Matthew, sat, was reclining, at meat, at a great feast which Mat thew made (Luke), in the house, Matthew's house, which must have been large to accommo date so many. Many publicans (see on ver. 9) who followed Jesus more or less (Mark), and sinners. Dis reputable sinners and outcasts, notorious offend ers. The Pharisees were quite as great sinners, but in another way. Sat down with him, Jesus. They were invited by Matthew to meet Jesus, probably that they might learn more of the truth from him. It seems to have been an ef fort of Matthew to bring his old acquaintances and friends into the kingdom of God, through more intimate acquaintance with him and his gospel. Matthew followed Jesus with his eyes open to see what he could do for the kingdom. As a business man he used wise business methods. It is probable that one reason why Jesus called him to become an apostle was that he might be a means of reaching this very class, showing how the Mes siah felt toward them, and putting before them an example of what the Gospel could do for them.1 Matthew does not disown or despise his old com panions, but makes his old acquaintanceship a means of saving them. He seems to have selected for this feast those who were nearest the king dom. These only would be likely to come. If they came they would get the most good. 11. And when the Pharisees. Who were also scribes (Mark), the authorized teachers of the law. They were a large and influential sect of Jews, who prided themselves on the strictness with which they kept the ceremonial law. They were like whited sepulchres and dishes washed on the outside, but full of all uncleanness within (see Matt. 23: 23-28; Luke 11: 39-42). Saw it. The Pharisees were not guests, but freely came into the house and looked on, according to the custom of the East. Said unto his disciples, who were probably nearer. And it was easier to criticise Jesus to his disciples than to the face of the Mas ter himself. Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners ? Eating and drinking was a cove nant of friendship. " The substance of their charge was not that he taught sinners, but that he ate with them, that is, mingled with them on terms of social equality."2 They thought that "like seeks like," and "a man is known by the company he keeps ; " that something must be wrong with a teacher who consorted with such people instead of with the cultured scribes and wealthy and honored Pharisees.3 12. When Jesus heard that. He either over heard their words, or the disciples reported them. He said unto them. He made three answers to their criticism, one from analogy (ver. 12), one from the Scriptures (ver. 13), and a third from a state ment of the object of his mission (ver. 13, last clause). They that be whole. Strong, healthy, hale, as the Pharisees imagined they were mor ally. It is only they that are sick who need a physician. So that the very things on account of which the Pharisees objected and found fault with Jesus were the reason why he should go among publicans and sinners. He was the phy sician of the soul, and went where the sin-sick were, and to those who felt the need of spiritual healing. 13. But go ye to the Scriptures, with which the scribes were familiar ; but they often know more about the husk than the corn, the shell of the nut than the meat. And learn. Get at the real meaning. What that meaneth. He quotes from Hosea 6 : 6. Compare its spirit in 1 Sam. 15: 22; Ps. 50: 8-15; Isai. 1: 11-17; Amos 5: 21-24. I will have, I wish in my people, mercy, deeds of kindness to those in need, pity and help for the sinful, and not sacrifice, the external forms of religion, without the heart and the deeds they signify. For I am not come to call the righteous, those who are already good, but sin ners, to repentance, for they need the call. The 1 Poem, " Beautiful Snow," in the Snow-flake Album. 2 Abbott. 3 See Mary E. Atkinson's poem, "My Neighbor," in her volume of poems, The Architect of Cologne. 114 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 14, 15. to him the • disciples of JShn, saying, ' Why do we and " the PhaYi-see§ fast oft, but thy disciples fast not V 15 And Je'sus said unto them, " Can the chsSn8en of the Scchhamherr mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them*, but "the days will come, when the bride groom shall be taken »way from them, and x then S they fast. s ch. 11. 2 & 14. 12. Luke 11. 1. John 1. 35 & 3. 25 & 4. 1. Cp. Acts 18. 25 & 19. 3. 18. 12. v John 3. 29. w See Luke 17. 22. x Cp. John 16. 20. t Cp. ch. 15. 2. u Luke contrast is not between Pharisees and publi cans, but between two kinds of character. By going among the publicans Jesus was accomplish ing his mission, the very thing the Pharisees themselves ought to have been doing. They were neglecting their business, and needed this sharp rebuke.1 PBACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. No one can do good work for men and not be criticised. We must not expect to fare better than our Master. But we must be careful to have good reasons for what we do. 2. It is an evil habit to be ever looking for faults in others, misreading and caricaturing their conduct. Habitual faultfinders are worse than those they find fault with. Hogarth, the great satirist, once said: "Take my advice, and never draw caricature. By the long practice of it I have lost the enjoyment of beauty ; I never see a face but distorted, and have never the satisfac tion to behold the human face divine." 3. Christ is our example in social life. We are to make friends even of outcasts, using our social power to lift them up, and never joining with them in their sins. We are to go as physicians, and not as accomplices or approvers. "Such are among the few who sailed down the sewers like swans, their snowy plumes unsoiled by all the defilement." A missionary at work among the heathen, or in the most degraded portions of our cities, is safe. Yea, he grows better all the time. Sunshine is not denied by shining upon filth, and taking the deadliness out of it. De graded sin repels. There is far more danger to most Christians from the worldliness of the Pharisees, from the reputable and fashionable evildoers, than from the degraded and the out casts. 4. This, too, should be the method of the church. It is to go where it is needed. It is to seek and to save the lost, or it will lose the spirit and power of its Master.2 " You cannot elevate, you cannot improve, any whom you utterly de spise. You cannot bring the best out of a man if you do not believe that the best is somewhere in him. ... If souls do not shine before you it is because you bring them no light to make them shine. Throw away your miserable, smouldering, fuming torch of conceit and hatred, lift up to them the light of love, and lo ! they will arise and shine ; yea, flame and burn with an undreamt-of glory."8 5. This was all the more important because of the many obstacles in the way of the publicans becoming Christians. (1) They were exposed to very great temptations to crimes for which there was no punishment. (2) Their past life lowered their standard of morality and debased their character. (3) Their past became a hindrance by taking away the hope of being and doing better. They were outcasts, and the better society did not welcome them, but repressed every desire to be better. The brand of their profession was on them. The Cain mark was plain upon their fore heads.4 Question of John's Disciples. 14. Then came to him, while the feast and the discourse were going on, the disciples of John the Bap tist. The feast was probably taking place on one of the traditional fast days, Mondays and Thurs days ; for according to Mark 2 : 18, R. V., these disciples of John were fasting at this time, and the contrast between the feasting of Jesus and his disciples and the fasting of the hungry onlookers naturally called out the question, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disci ples fast not ? Why are your disciples less reli gious ? Why do they not realize the evils of the time and the oppressions of the nation, and hum ble themselves before God ? For fasting see on 6 : 16-18. 15. And Jesus said. The reply was by a familiar illustration. Can the children of the bridechamber. The bridegroom's friends, who conducted the bride from her father's house to her future home, amid festivities and rejoicings, to the marriage feast. Mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them V It was wholly in congruous, and could be only a form. It was now 1 Bead Raskin's interpretation, in Sesame and Lilies, of " Blind Mouths," an expression found in Milton's Lycidas. 2 Longfellow's "Legend Beautiful," in Tales of a Wayside Inn. 8 Canon Farrar. 4 See Robertson's Sermons, vol. i., Sermon 5, on " Zac- cheus ; " Tennyson's Poems, " The Vision of Sin." 9:16, 17. MATTHEW. 115 16 AndV man putteth a piece of „„&d cloth uPon an old garment'; for that which "SSm10 fill it up taketh from the garment, and ^worL'StSI6' 17 Neither do !H put new wine into old" wKskSis: else the "Sbursf' and the wine "SspweT'' and the Sf perish : but they put new wine into f^inSfe,, and both are preserved. y Josh. 9. 4. Job 32. 19 (mg.). Ps. 119. 83 (mg.). a time of rejoicing, and their conduct and religious life should agree thereto. It would be » moral discord to fast at the wedding feast. But the days will come, etc. At Jesus' death they will feel like mourning, so sad and troubled that fasting will be the natural expression of their hearts. And there will come other times in their history when fasting will be fitting because the Bridegroom seems far away. New Methods for New Times. Jesus con tinues his reply by a general principle, of which his answer to their question about fasting was one application. But many more applications were to appear in the progress of the grafting of the new kingdom of God upon the old. This principle would help the disciples in many a dif ficult question in the future, and all down the 16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth, unfulled, unshrunk, rather than " undressed, " as in R. V., which is an unfamiliar, manufacturer's term. But the cloth, just as finished as it ever would be, would yet shrink in the wearing unless it were sponged and shrunk, — a familiar experi ence. Unto an old garment, as a patch. Tak eth from the garment, etc. The patch, exactly fitting the rent in the old garment, would shrink more and more, till the older and weaker cloth gave way under the intense strain, and the rent became much larger than before. 17. Neither do men. None are so foolish. Put new wine into old bottles, wine-skins, bot tles made of the skins of animals, from which the body is withdrawn, leaving the skin whole, except the neck, which becomes the mouth of the bottle, and the legs, which are tied up. " Our word ' bottle ' originally carried the true meaning, be ing a bottle of leather. In Spanish bota means a leather bottle, a boot, and a butt. In Spain wine is still brought to market in pig-skins. In the East, goat-skins are commonly used." 2 Else the bot tles break, by the pressure of the gases produced by the process of fermentation upon leather weak ened and cracked by age. A prominent brewer says that the pressure of champagne in glass bot tles after nine months is equal to sixty pounds to the square inch. Probably some of the gases evaporate through the wineskins, and make the pressure less. The life of a seed is good for a seed, but it can never become a tree till it breaks away from its old shell and form and lets its life take on new forms. The life in the egg must continue in the Skin Bottles. bird. The life of 'the caterpillar must take the form of the butterfly, — the same life in new forms. Compare, also, the changes in warfare, in lighting, in travel, in manufacturing. Arab Water-carrier. The life in all these cases is preserved by the change of form, as new wine in new bottles. The religious life is not destroyed by changing its form, but is preserved. A false conservatism means death, not conservation. It is simply suicide. But all changes are not good, only those which the new life requires. Applications to Early Times. The old garment and wine-skin represent the old Jewish dispensation, with its sacrifices and ceremonies, its national laws and regulations. The garment i Prof. M. It. Vincent. 116 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 18, 19. 18 IT * While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certam ruler, and " worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead : but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. 19 And Je'sus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. z For vers. 18-26, see Mark 5. 22-43 & Luke 8. 41-56. a See oh. 8. 2. represents outward forms ; the wine, that which is within, the inward spirit. Both were best for their purpose in their time. But the new life and spirit of the Gospel, with its freedom, its hope, its sacrifice on the cross, its new leader, and new light and love, must break away from the old forms, and do its work by new methods, new teachings, and in a new spirit. That which was the object of each form was preserved in the new. There was a spiritual transformation, as of the Sabbath when it became the Lord's Day. We see examples all through the Acts and Epistles. The controversy about the reception of the Gen tiles was one example. The new meeting places instead of the old synagogues ; the sacrifice of Christ instead of the sacrifices in the temple ; the new church officers ; the new forms of worship ; the new methods of spreading the kingdom ; the new conditions of entering it. Applications to Modern Times. The same principle still holds true. Every new influx of life and light needs new channels in which to flow, new forms in which to embody itself. It is the same spirit, the same great truths, the same old Gospel, in new forms and working in new methods. If we give our religious life freedom, it will take on the right forms. Unrest, change, criticism of the past, are often a sign of fuller life, of spring time, of growth. There is at present a spirit of unrest and change as to Bible study, as to Sunday schools, as well as in regard to educational methods in colleges and common schools. It is not confined to one thiug, but pervades all educational circles. Sometimes Sunday-school workers are troubled on account of the severe criticisms of Sunday-school work by educational experts, but they are still more severe on the work in our common schools. The com fort of it is that it means that we are alive, awake, striving after better things, seeing higher ideals, and on the way to attain them. Further examples are found in new methods of church work and of worship. The business of con servatives is to retain the everlasting truths, the essential Gospel, the real revelation from God, but there must ever be new forms, new wordings, new statements, with the utmost freedom. So our re ligious experiences are not patterned exactly after those of the notable saints. We are not to imitate their outward lives, but retain the inward spirit, IV. HESTOBATION PBOM THE DEAD; JAIBUS' DAUGHTEK, vers. 18-26. Time. Autumn, A. d. 28, in connection with Matthew's feast. Place. Capernaum, Matthew's house, and the house of Jairus. Parallels. Mark 5 : 22 - 43 ; Luke 8 : 41- 56. 18. While he spake, was speaking, these things, in Matthew's house, there came a cer tain ruler of the synagogue, Jairus by name (Luke). One of the elders, or presiding officers elected to have charge of all synagogue affairs. They formed the local Sanhedrim or tribunal, they convened the assembly, preserved order, in vited readers and speakers, managed the schools connected with the synagogue. Jairus must therefore have been one of the more prominent Jews of the city. It is possible that he was one of the delegation of Jews who went to Jesus in behalf of the centurion (Luke 7 : 3, 4). And worshipped him, an act of deep reverence and respect, shown by falling at Jesus' feet (Mark), dropping upon his knees, and bringing his forehead to the ground at the feet of Jesus. My daughter is even now dead. Mark says ' ' at the point of death. " " He left her at the last gasp ; he knew that she could scarcely be living now; and yet having no certain notices of her death, he at one moment expressed himself in one language, at the next in another." 1 But come. With the feeling so different from that of the Roman centurion (Luke 7: 7, 8), that Jesus must be present in order to heal. But it was comfort ing to have Jesus in the family and in the pre sence of the dying girl. Moreover, he knew that in most cases Jesus came into personal contact with those he healed. And lay thy hand upon her. To communicate his divine healing power. 19. Jesus arose and followed him. Jesua was, and is, always ready to answer every appeal. He is more willing to give us what we need than we are to ask him. His disciples went with him, accompanied by a great crowd (Mark), many of them doubtless the guests at Matthew's feast. Wayside Ministries. On the way occurred the following incident, which was not only blessed to the woman healed, but was an aid to Jairus' faith, and a test. 9 : 20-22. MATTHEW. 117 20 IT And- behold, a woman/ wMch ™h Jtf with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind &, and touched the c fi, of his garment : 21 S she said within herself, If I uaoy but touch his garment, I shall be made whole. J22But Je'sus tontiriSnlbout' and "^X*w her' he said, Daughter, - be of good "che'erP thy faith hath made thee whole. e And the woman was made whole from that hour. b Lev. 15. 25. c ch. 14. 28 & 17. 18. Cp. ch. 8. 13. i & 23. 5. Cp. Num. 15. 38, 39 & Deut. 22. 12. d ver. 2. See Luke 7. 50. e ch. 15. V. THE ISSUE OF BLOOD, vers. 20-22. 20. A woman which was diseased. Nothing is known of her. One tradition is that she was the "Veronica, who, in the presence of Pilate, proclaimed the innocence of Jesus, and on the way to Golgotha wiped his face with her hand kerchief." ! Twelve years. Mentioned to show the hopelessness of her case, which was en hanced by the fact that she had spent all her property in vain efforts to obtain a cure (Mark and Luke). Came behind him. Shrinking and retiring. Mark states that she came because " she had heard of the things concerning Jesus," his wonderful cures. And touched the hem of his garment. The border or fringe of the outer robe, or cloak, flowing loosely, after the manner of the East ; and this had its " border or fringe," probably of a bright blue mingled with white (Num. 15: 38). "The tassel" rather than "the fringe " or hem. The square over-garment, or Tallith, had tassels of three white threads, with one of hyacinth at each of the four corners ; of these, two hung in front and two behind. It was easy to touch the latter without the wearer feel ing the touch.2 21. For she said within herself. The imper fect tense of the original denotes intensity of feel ing, " she kept saying over and over to herself." 3 If I may but touch his garment. " Great was her faith, though perhaps it was intertwined with some imperfect notions." 4 It was real faith, even if imperfect and perhaps superstitious. But she may have known that healings by the touch of Jesus had taken place, and then there would be no superstition in her act. The woman was cured as soon as she touched Jesus. 22. But Jesus turned him about. Because he was .conscious within himself that healing power had gone forth from him (Mark 5 : 30). His healing was an overflow, not an effort, — a work so unconscious and so utterly passive that it seems like a miracle spilt over from the fulness of his divine life, rather than a miracle put forth. 6 Jesus first asked who had touched him, probably to draw the woman to a higher and spiritual healing. This only would give the highest value to what he had done. But his question astonished the disciples, who knew that people were touching him all the time. The crowd was so great that he was being crushed, like grapes in a winepress, as the original word in Luke means. But Jesus knew that there was another kind of touch than that of the crowd. Then he looked around till she came trembling, and falling on her knees in thankful reverence confessed her touch and acknowledged her cure. She feared lest her act had been one of presumption because her touch was regarded by the Pharisees as defiling. " To this day the Jewish Rabbis in the East are careful not even to be touched by a woman's dress." 6 This public confession was another step in her complete cure. It gave her conscious assurance of her cure, that it was perfect and enduring. It drew her soul into closer contact with Jesus himself. It developed and increased her faith, and led the way to a religious trust in him as her Saviour. This effect was completed by his fare well words. When he saw her, he said, Daughter, a gen tle, tender word, in itself an assurance of his good will. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Not superstition, not any pow;er residing in a garment, nor any power in a physical touch ; but faith, a spiritual act of the soul. Then he spoke his benediction (Mark), Go in peace. Literally, Go to or into peace. Go where peace is ever about you as an atmosphere. Lessons from a Capernaum Woman.7 1. Some writers have used the failure of the Oriental physicians as an illustration of the fact that many seek the wrong helpers to save them from sin. " Men are suffering many things of Drs. Morality, Good Works, Penance, Good Reso lution, and a host of others, as Dr. Ceremony, 1 Lange. 2 Int. Crit. Com. s Cambridge Bible. * Morison. 5 Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D., Ministry of Healing. c Cambridge Bible, from Frankl., Jews in the East, ii. 81. 7 See J. B. Miller's Week-Day Religion, " The Ministry of Sorrow " and " Wayside Ministries." His Making the Most of Life, " Getting Christ's Touch," has several good illustrations. 118 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9:23. 23 And when Je'sus came into the ruler's house, and saw the f nuTe"ptaye?s, and the grow1,? making a t=t, /Rev. 18. 22. Cp. 2 Chr. 35. 25 & Jer. 9. 17, al. Dr. Apathy, Dr. Merryman, and are all the time growing worse." 2. There is an overflowing fulness of healing and health in Jesus Christ. God has given the Holy Spirit to him without measure. He is like one, on some insulating substance, so charged with electricity that whosoever touches him even with a finger receives of the charge. Christ's spiritual abundance is exemplified by the over flowing fulness of creation. Everything is given in such overflowing abundance. The sun sends forth a million times more light and heat than is used by living beings. Thousands of times more seeds are produced than can possibly find room to grow. 3. As the opal, somewhat dull and lustreless, when held in the human hand gleams and flashes with all the glories of the rainbow, need ing the touch and warmth of a human hand to bring out its iridescence, so the touch of Jesus, and in a degree of those who are filled with the spirit of Jesus, imparts spiritual warmth and ra diance to human souls, and awakes the sleeping splendor that is in them, if they only are willing to receive.1 4. The Faith Touch and the World Touch. The crowd touched Jesus and received no healing influence. The woman touched him in faith, and was made whole. Christ has untold blessings for all ; but what men receive from him depends on the faith and love with which they come to him. It is the common experience. We receive from nature according to what we bring to na ture. Multitudes of men have seen apples fall, but only Newton received from the falling apple the law of gravitation. Men still go through the world with " eyes, and no eyes," and one writes a book, where another sees nothing. Arthur Helps compares some men to the birds on a telegraph wire, who are utterly unconscious of the messages of sorrow and joy, of business and friendship, — messages sometimes affecting whole nations, — which are passing right under their feet. It needs the battery and connecting instruments in order to read what passes on the wire. It needs hearts of love and faith, longings for holiness, and the spirit of prayer, if we would receive the blessings which Christ has for us all. " The healing of the seamless dress Is by our beds of pain ; We touch him in life's throng and press And we are whole again." 2 " Oh ! touch the hem of His garment, And thou, too, shall be free ; His saving power, this very hour, Shall give new life to thee." 3 5. The Cost of Helping. Real help always costs something. We can give money at small expense, but sympathy and heart help make us know that " power has gone forth from me." " Every sunbeam that paints a flower or cheers a sick-room costs a portion of the sun's substance. . . . Books which truly help us must have cost their authors a great deal more than the mere literary labor of their production. Every word that tells of Christian peace is the fruit of a vic tory over self, in times of sore struggle and trial." i " The so-called passive virtues either are not vir tues, or are not passive. Humility, patience, self- denial, and the forgiveness of injuries are battles and victories." 6 Jairus' Daughter dies and is restored to life. Jesus now proceeds on his way to the house of Jairus. The interruption must have been agonizing to the Jewish ruler, and his faith must have been tried by the seemingly un necessary delay to heal a woman who could as well as not have waited a little longer ; how could Jesus linger when Jairus' heart was hot with haste and a life hung in the balance ? and still more when at this point messengers came from his house saying that Jesus was too late, for his daughter was dead. But the cure of the wo man must have given a new impulse to faith and hope, as he heard Jesus say to the woman, " Thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peacei" And still more when Jesus said to him, in response to the message from home, " Beheve only, and she shall be made whole." There was no limit to Christ's power ; the only danger was that Jairus' faith should fail, and he not be worthy to receive the earthly blessing, because he had not accepted the spiritual blessing. In all this Jesus was in creasing and developing the ruler's faith. 23. Jesus came into the ruler's house, taking with him Peter, James, and John (Mark) as wit nesses of the miracle. All others, except the fa ther and mother, were left outside. These three were the most advanced, and conld make the best use of what they saw. Saw the minstrels. 1 See J. R. Miller's Week-Day Religion, " The Ministry of Sorrow " and " Wayside Ministries." His Making the Most of Life, " Getting Christ's Touch," has several good illustrations * Whittier. s Geo. F. Root. 4 H. C Trumbull. 0 R. D. Hitchcock. 9 : 24-26. MATTHEW. 119 24 g? said, unt0 th6m' Give place : for the « ££2* is not dead, but " sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 25 But* when the SI'S put forth, he eSta in, and' took her by the hand-. and the dTmsii arose. 26 And the fame hereof went t,rr0thd into all that land. g Cp. Acts 20. 10. A John 11. 4, 11. i Acts 9. 40. ^'Mark 9. 27. Acts 3. 7 & 9. 41. These were .flute-players, who employed mourn ful instrumental music on occasion of deaths, in order to assist the "mourning women" with their dirges. Sometimes they were hired, sometimes neighbors volunteered, as is common still in the East.1 And the people, a crowd, making a noise. They were the professional mourners and neighbors weeping and wailing (Mark). "The weeping was a dolorous rather than tearful series of ejaculations, and the wail ing was beating of the breast, rending the outer garment, tearing out the hair, with outcries, in which neighbors joined." 2 This horrible clamor indicated that preparations for the funeral had already begun. 24. He said unto them. Give place. Make room, and he put them all out of the house. For the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. " That he meant this figuratively (comp. John 11 : 11-14 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 6, 51 ; 1 Thess. 4 : 13) is scarcely to be doubted from Luke 8 : 49, 52, esp. 55, and from the whole spirit of the narrative. It was natural that he should so speak here, both because he purposed to restore her immediately to life, and to signify the impropriety of the din and uproar they were making."2 "To speak of death as a sleep is an image common, I suppose, to all lan guages and nations. Thereby the reality of the death is not denied, but only the fact implicitly assumed that death will be followed by a resur rection, as sleep is by an awakening." 3 Our word CEMETERY means "sleeping place." And they laughed him to scorn. KareyeKtav, from Kara, downfrom, as from a height, and ye\dat, to laugh, — to laugh down upon one as basely in ferior ; or Kara, against, — to laugh against one, expressing hostility. They were so sure that the girl was really dead ; and they did not perceive that Jesus was speaking figuratively from the knowledge of what he intended to do. This is given as an unquestionable proof of the reality of the miracle. 25. The people were put forth, because they would be a hindrance. They were present from curiosity or business, and would interfere with the solemnity and the spiritual blessing upon the family. Besides, their services were no longer 1 Morison. 2 Professor Bliss. ^ Dean Trench. 4 Longfellow's Poems, " Resignation." Susan Coolidge's Poems, " Talitha-Cumi." needed. He went in, and took her by the hand, and said in their common speech, Talilha, Cumi, " Young maiden, arise." And the maid arose, and walked and ate (Mark), as evidence of her complete restoration. 26. And although Jesus charged them not to speak of it, yet the fame, or report, hereof went abroad into all that land, that part of the coun try. Possibly too great notoriety might have interfered with the spiritual work of Jesus, by calling him away from his teaching, and by draw ing their attention too much to healing of the body, and away from the spiritual truths he would impress. Possibly the notoriety might have injured the young girl, and dulled the spir itual impression upon the family. The good seed would grow best in quiet retirement.4 LESSONS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM JAIRUS' EXPERIENCE. 1. It is right and good to pray for temporal blessings, for anything we need. For God loves to give us every good gift. And by the faith gained from these we obtain faith for higher and better things. The stairway to heaven begins on earth. 2. God's power and love are so great that the largest demands on them are met as easily as the smallest. The ocean bears up the Great Eastern as easily as a leaf. The sunshine warms a world as easily as a clod. 3. The strange delays of Jesus by the way, here and in the case of Lazarus (John 11), were to strengthen faith by its trial, as the storm blast upon the oak makes it strike its roots deeper in the soil. The faith increased by the trial of delay enabled the ruler still to believe, even when he heard his child was dead. This enabled Jesus to give larger blessings, to work a miracle with deeper meaning, to increase love and gratitude, to bring the eternal world closer to the daily life of that home. It made that home and that family a continual testimony to the power and love of Jesus, a. perpetual witness that the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, had come. " God's delays are not denials." 5 4. The reason why faith is the condition of r' See Expectation Corner, Office." " The Delayed Blessings 120 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 27-29. 27 f * And "Sf" Je'sus passerby from thence, two blind men followed him, crying' .. nnrl emrino- „ Thm ^ 'son nf Flo'viH' tovemercyonns. out, dllU bciymg, Have mercy on us, thou SOU Ol i/d Vlll. 28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him : and Je'sus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They sty unto him, Yea, Lord. 29 m Then touched he their eyes, saying, " According to your faith be it done unto you. k Cp. ch. 20. 30-34. n See ver 2. I ch. 12. 23 & 15. 22 & 20. 30, 31 & 22. 42. See ch. 1. 1. m Mark 8. 25. John 9. 6. receiving God's best blessings lies in the nature of faith itself, which not only expects to receive some gift, but trusts, and loves, and obeys. It sees spiritual things. Spiritual blessings thus flow from the temporal, so that temporal bless ings are doubly blessed.1 Joash's three arrows, 2 Kings 13 : 14-19 ; and the widow's vessels of oil, 2 Kings 4 : 1-7, are illus trations of how it shall be done according to our faith. . 5. The Resurrection and the Life. (1) Jesus here, and in the other restorations of the dead to life, gives us examples of the soul's exist ence after the death of the body, and apart from the body. He proves by facts, not merely by as sertions, that the soul does not die with the body. (2) These miracles prepare us to accept the fact of his resurrection, on which depend the truth of the Gospel and the proof of his Messiahship. If Jesus can raise others from the dead, there is nothing incredible in his own resurrection and the immortal life it proves. (3) Jesus is still the resurrection and the life. Our dear ones are raised again by him to a life as much more glori ous than the life here as a plant in full bloom is more glorious than the seed from which it sprung. (4) The resurrection from the dead is an object lesson and acted parable of the spiritual resurrec tion from the death of sin to newness of life. A change not of place, but of life and heart, is the one essential condition of the new world we long for. 6. Was it an advantage to Jairus' daughter to come back into life ? Would she be better, if not happier, for a longer earthly experience ? Could she do more good by being a perpetual sermon, discoursing on the love and power of Jesus, on the fact of life apart from the body, on the blessings of faith in Jesus ? 2 VI. BLINDNESS CUBED ; TWO BLIND MEN, vers. 27-31. Time. Autumn, A. D. 28, immediately follow ing the last two miracles. Place. Capernaum or vicinity. 27. And when Jesus departed thence. From the house of Jairus, or possibly from the city. Two blind men. "Blindness was, and i:s, one of the commonest afflictions of the natives of Palestine ; the blear eyes, often crusted round with dried secretion, and fly-infested, make some of the most sickening sights in a Syrian village crowd." 3 The dust, sand, sleeping in the open air, insects, the hot sun, are among the causes. " More than half of all the people we met in that land of darkness (Egypt) were blind, or sore-eyed, or in some way obviously diseased." 4 Two went together for company and mutual help. Followed him. The noise and conversa tion of the crowd would point out to them where Jesus was. Crying. " Blind men naturally use their voices a great deal." 6 Thou son of David. The well-known popular title of the Messiah, im plying that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah, one of whose glorious works was to be the opening of the eyes of the blind (Isai. 35 : 5 ; 42 : 7) . Their cry was, therefore, a double confession of their faith, (1) in his power to help, (2) in his Messiah- ship. Have mercy on us. The Messiah would be full of lovingkindness and tender mercies. 28. And when he was come into the house. His home at Capernaum, or if he was elsewhere, the house where he was staying. Believe ye that I am able to do this? Equivalent to saying, Do yon believe that I am the Messiah ? This ques tion pointed to a spiritual faith beyond the mere healing, which opened the way to the better blessings. 29. According to your faith be it unto you. Faith is the hand which takes what God offers, the spiritual organ of appropriation, the conduct ing link between man's emptiness and God's ful ness. " It is the bucket let down into the fountain of God's grace, without which the man could never draw water of life from the wells of sal vation." 6 See on Practical Lesson 4, nnder Jai- 1 See Ruskin's Modern Painters, vol. v. pp. 3G2-3G5. Sheldon's Robert Hardy's Seven Days. Browning's Poems, " An Epistle," showing how things looked through the raised Lazarus' eyes. 2 See Expectation Corner, " The Delayed BlessingB Office." ^ Hastings' Bible Dictionary. * Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life. = Schaff. » Trench. 9 : 30-34. MATTHEW. 121 30 And their eyes were opened.1 And Je'sus Stly charged them, saying, ° See that no man know It: 31 ' But they ^w2u7ffiSSrted' spread abroad his fame in all that "SSS?- 32 If And8as they went fSSfn, behold, " thirewas brought to him a dumb man r pos sessed with a devil. 33 And when the devil was cast out, the dumb man spake : and the multitudes 8 marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Is/ra-el. 34 But the Phar'i-see§ said, By the pr.neeeof the devils casteth he out devils. tbrough the prlnce of the devils. o See ch. 8. 4. p Mark 1. 45 & 7. 3G. o Cp. ch. 12. 22-24 & Luke 11. 14, 15. r See ch. 4. 24. s Cp. Mark 1. 27. 30. And their eyes were opened. "It is worthy of note that the cure was instantaneous and complete, so that the blind men apparently straightway went out from his presence to pro claim their cure ; whereas in all cases of natural cure, the eyes must go through a long process of protection from extreme light which, in then- weakened state, they cannot bear."1 And they have to learn how to see, and understand aright the pictures on the retina of their eyes. And Jesus straitly (strictly) charged them, saying, See that no man know it. The reasons are given above, under ch. 8 : 4. 31. But they . . . spread abroad his fame. They disobeyed Jesus in this. " They probably beguiled themselves with guesses as to the motives of his injunction. Not unlikely they fancied that it was the mere expression of a beautifully un ostentatious spirit. It is his modesty, they would say to themselves. But his modesty is wronging him- We must not yield to it. We must speak out. It was really an unkind return, though not meant as such, for all his kindness." 2 LESSONS FROM THE BLIND MEN. 1. Mr. Ruskin says that " the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see some thing, and to tell what it sees in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think ; but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and re ligion all in one." Lf one can see, — " The common sun, the air, the skies, To him are opening paradise." Spiritual sight, the vision of God and truth and the beauty of holiness, is equally blessed. 2. There are in the world three kinds of blind- "" "~~A~. For all these Jesus is the light of the world. "And the life is the light of men." Under his influence blind asylums have been founded, and the prevention and cure of blindness are infinitely increased. Sight is prolonged for years in the aged. It is wonderful how great things are done for the blind under the influence of the Gos pel. The American Cyclopedia gives a long list, not only of the institutions for the blind, where they are taught to read and to work and earn their living, but of blind men who have be come celebrated for philosophy, poetry, military exploits, music, botany, sculpture, law, divinity, as professors of mathematics, travellers, pianists, painters, road surveyors. Note especially the case of Helen Keller. 4. In many cases the gospel does, in all cases it might, give new spiritual visions. " And when a damp Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew Soul-animating strains — alas, too few." 3 " My vision thou hast dimmed, that I may see Thyself, thyself alone. Visions come and go, Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng ; From angel lips I seem to hear the flow Of soft and holy song." * VII. DEMONS CAST OUT; TBE DUMB DEMONIAC, vers. 32-34. Time. Autumn, A. D. 28. Immediately after the last miracle. Place. Galilee, in the vicinity of Capernaum. 32. As they, the two blind men, went out, were going out, they, indefinite, some persons. A dumb man possessed with a devil, demon. For discussion on demoniacs, see on ch. 8 : 28-34. 33. The dumb spake, a new and marked fea ture. The multitudes marvelled. This awak ened interest, although of no value in itself, called attention to the mission of Jesus, and awakened interest in it. We are not to think too lightly of those who come from curiosity to hear the gospel. 34. But the Pharisees, always looking for something to quiet their consciences in rejecting Jesus, said, He casteth out devils, demons, » Abbott. 2 Morison. 3 Wordsworth. 4 Miss E. Lloyd, on Milton's blindness. 122 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 9 : 35-38. 35 • And Je'sus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their syn agogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing aii manner' oVdlsease q n r\ every disease among the people. ctliu. an manner of sickness. 36 But * when he saw the multitudes, " he was moved with compassion °or them, because they weredistressed and were scattered, abroad' w as sheep not having na° shepherd. 37 * Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly Is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he wlU z send forth labour ers into his harvest. t See ch. 4. 23, 24. 10. 2. John 4. 35. u Cp. ch. 14. 14. yCp.2Thess. 3. 1. v Mark 6. 34. w Num. 27. 17. 1 Ban. 22. 17. Ezek. 34. 5. s ch. 20. 2. Cp. Mark 1. 12. j- Luke through the prince of the devils, demons. Jesus, they hinted, was playing a part under Satan in pre tending to drive out devils from the sick, that he might win the people to listen to his pestiferous teaching, and thus aid the kingdom of evil. The answer to this charge is reported in chapter 12 : 22-30, in connection with a similar cure. VIII. MANV MIBACLES OP HEALING, ver. 35. See on 4 : 23-25 ; and 8 : 16, 17.1 IX. THE CALL FOB MOBE LABOBEBS, vers. 36-38. Chapter 10 should begin with these verses. Time. Autumn of A. d. 28. Place. Throughout the cities and villages of Galilee. 36. When he saw the multitudes, as he was touring through the populous region of Galilee. There were many more waiting for his healing power and his teaching than any one person could reach. He was moved with compassion. Thus the Father "so loved the world." Infinite love and compassion is the keynote of the gospel, the motive for missionary work and all deeds of help fulness. Because they fainted. R. V., " were distressed." The word originally meant flayed, rent, mangled, applied to sheep fleeced and torn by wild beasts. So these people were mangled by disease and by sin, as by wild beasts. Were scat tered abroad. Not dispersed, but thrown down, prostrated by disease, by weariness, by sin, by hunger of soul, as soldiers are prostrated on the ground by their enemies. As sheep having no shepherd. Those who should have been their shepherds, who professed to be such, were no true shepherds, but hirelings, who ate the sheep they should feed.2 (See John 10 : 1-18.) 37. Then saith he unto his disciples. To all who accepted him as well as to the twelve. The harvest truly is plenteous. Not merely "those who will actually be saved, but men in general, who, unless gathered and saved, will perish like wheat that is not reaped." s The seed had been sown during the past ages. It had been sown by the word of God, and now especially by Jesus himself. The people were prepared, so that it was possible for them to be gathered into the king dom. The fields were "white already to har vest" (John 4 : 35). Never was this so true as it is of the world to-day. But the labourers. Those who were willing and were qualified to gather in this harvest. Are few, compared with the great ness of the work. There were not enough to do the work. 38. Pray ye therefore. You who are in train ing for the work, you who are to be laborers in the harvest, and realize the greatness of the need and the difficulty of the work. It is instructive to note that the laborers themselves, and those who ought to be laborers, were the ones instructed to pray for more laborers. (1) They felt the need and would, therefore, pray with heart and soul. (2) The prayer was an inspiration to enter more heartily into the work themselves. " The in junction is inpart equivalent to this: Beseechye the Lord of the harvest that he may accept you, and thrust you forth into the harvest .field."* (3) No one has greater need of praying, of constant communion with God, than those who would gather in his harvest. All who are interested in missions of any kind should take heed to this precept of Jesus. That he will send forth. "The word is stronger: thrust out, force them out, as from urgent neces sity." 5 Labourers into his harvest. Note. (1) God gathers his harvest by human 1 See Hood's Poems, u The Lady's Dream ; " and Fos ter's Cyclopedia of Poetry, " Doing Good." 2 See the capital interpretation of Ruskin in his Sesame and Lilies, of a passage in Milton's Lycidas. 3 Broadus. 4 Morison. c Prof. M. R. Vincent. 10:1. MATTHEW. 123 instrumentality. (2) An increase of laborers can come both from an increase of numbers and from an increase of power in those already working. "A man that in ordinary circumstances weighs a hundred pounds, when filled with the Holy Spirit and with power, may weigh a ton." (3) The same is true of those who are specially qualified by com munion with God, the study of the Word, a higher character, prayer, practice, experience, and study of the principles and methods of Christian work. (4) "Man-made ministers are useless."1 But such laborers as the Lord of the harvest does put forth, we may endeavor, with his blessing, to train for the better performance of their work. (5) God's laborers are impelled, often against their own natural choice, by the love of God, by a sense of duty, by the needs of men, by opportunities offered, by fitness for the work. So Paul felt, " Woe is me if I preach not the gos pel." So many a worker has felt. Thus Ma homet, in the beginning of his career, said to his uncle, who tried to make him keep silence, that if the sun stood on his right hand and the moon on his left ordering him to hold his peace, he could not obey. CHAPTER 10. The Twelve Apostles, and Instetjctions foe Theie Guidance. Section IX. -A NEW STAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM ; A HIGHER COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. 1. The Twelve Apostles, vers. 1-4. 2. Their Field of Work, vers. 5, 6. 3. Their Work in this Field, vers. 7-13. 4. How to deal with Opposers, vers. 14-23. 5. Encouragements with Instruction from Seven Points of View, vers. 24-42. Time. Winter of A. D. 29. Place. Galilee. 1 "And when he had called unto S his twelve disciples, and gave them luK^er unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of dnSS? and all man ner Ot sickness. a Mark 3. 13-15 & 6. 7-13. Luke 6. 13 & 9. 1, 2. The disciples had now been, some of them, almost two years in the school of Christ, the best school in the world. They were being trained to continue the founding of the kingdom after his death, which was less than a year and a half in the future. The work of Jesus had grown to re quire more laborers, and the disciples were now advanced enough to take a higher grade of train ing, by working themselves under his supervision, and thus to become able to carry on the work after Jesus had gone. Jesus knew that these common men must be trained if they were to do good work. There is no use in trying to bombard Gibraltar with un loaded guns. And there is no training so good as actual practice in the lessons they had learned. No one knows perfectly the theory till he has worked it out in daily life. Practising precepts also impresses them on the memory. We learn by doing. Practising our instructions guards us against false interpretations and misunderstand ings. It is uncertain whether these instructions were given all at one time, and many of them repeated at other times ; or whether this is a summary of instructions given at various times and places, and brought together here by Matthew. I. THE TWELVE APOSTLES, vers. 1-4. Parallels, Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1. 1. Called unto him his twelve disciples.'2 Whom he had chosen some time before, just pre vious to the Sermon on the Mount. The number was according to the twelve tribes of Israel. In ver. 2 they are called the twelve apostles. Apos tle means " one sent forth " on a mission, " a mes senger." Our word missionary, derived from the Latin, likewise signifies "one sent." Disciples 1 Spurgeon. 2 Compare, in Scott's Poems, the assembling of the clans by the fiery cross : — 1 When flits this cross from man to man, "Vich Alpine's summons to his clan, Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! Palsied the foot that shuns to speed 1 " 124 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 2-4. 2 "Now the names of the twelve apostles are these! The first, Si'mon, cwho is called Pe'ter, and d An'drew his brother ; " James, thl son of Zgb'g-dee, and John .his brother ; 3 Phil'ip, and Bar-thol'o-mew ; Th6m'as, and e M&t'thew the pubhcan; James. gS son of Al-phje'us, and Leb"ba;'us' whose surnaine was TMd-dse'us ; 4 Si'mon the ca'n^an, and Ju'das Is-car'I-ot, who also betrayed him. 6 For ver. 2-4, see Mark 3. 16-19. Luke 6. 14-16. Acts 1. 13. e Matt. 9. 9. c Matt. 16. 18. John 1. 42. d Matt. 4. 18, 21. are learners, scholars, those who go to school, as here to Christ, the great Teacher. It was need ful that these twelve should be both apostles and disciples. They could not be fitting messengers (apostles) unless they had been learners, and their work as messengers of the gospel was ameans of their learning more. There is not space to give the history of each of the twelve, but only some general observations which will prove instructive, in addition to the accompanying chart.1 2. Simon . . . called Peter (the rock), and Andrew, were brothers, and among the first five disciples of Jesus (John 1 : 35-45). James . . . and John, were also brothers, and named by Jesus, Boanerges, Sons of thunder, probably de scribing "their fiery, vehement temperament."2 Yet John so controlled this temperament that he was " the disciple whom Jesus loved," and had the deepest insight into Jesus' heart. These first four called were fishermen. 3. Bartholomew is undoubtedly the Nathanael of John 1 : 45. James is the modernized form of Jacob. Lebbeeus is the same as Thaddseus and as Judas (Jude), the son of James (R. V.), in Luke 6 : 16. 4. Simon the Canaanite means not " of Ca naan" nor "of Cana," but "the Zealot," " a party of fanatic nationalists among the Jews, leaders of the national revolt against the foreign yoke." 2 Judas Iscariot, i. e., man of Kerioth, a town of Judah. He was the only one of the disciples who was not a Galilean, Who also betrayed him, is the Cain-mark on Judas which nothing can blot out or wash away.8 Judas grew worse and worse under the best influences, as weeds grow in the richest soil and in the bright est sunshine. Their Personality and Possibilities. These twelve apostles were plain men who had not been perverted by the false philosophies, tra ditions, and morals of the day. They were mostly working-men, business men, practical men, bnt of great variety of early training and of business life. Some were poor; some were comparatively well off ; some belonged to coun try villages, some to the city ; several were fish ermen. " There were two, at least," says Dr. Gibson, " the choice of whom seemed to violate all dictates of wisdom and prudence, — Matthew the publican, of a hated class, inviting hostility ; and Simon the Zealot, a radical revolutionist in politics." Yet the choice of these showed the broadness of the gospel and its power. They were men of ability ; there were great possibili ties in them. Christ transformed common men into apostles, the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the leaders of the kingdom that was to transform the world. The charcoal was changed into diamonds. They were far from faultless, but the -faults were flaws in a jewel, not the crudeness of the charcoal. It is very noticeable in all history that the larger part of the great men in every depart ment have sprung from the common people, so far as the absence of wealth, or rank, or great ancestry can make them common. Their Enduement with Power. 1. He gave them power. The word signifies both " power " and " authority " or " right." " Even if it were not evident that here both ideas are included, we find both words expressly used in the parallel passage of Luke 9:1. In other words, he both qualified and authorized them."4 This enduement was vastly increased on the day of Pentecost. (1) This was a direct enduement from the spirit of Jesus, just as he can now endue us through his Holy Spirit. (2) He had been in structing them for a large part of two years, by direct teaching, by intimate companionship, and by personal power. (3) It was the same kind of power that Jesus was using in his own work. Their Great Variety of Character. " Jesus chose twelve disciples, that every man, in all time, might find himself represented among the apostles. The doubter finds himself in Thomas ; the fierce, hot-headed, quick-tempered man finds himself in John, the son of thunder ; the opinionated, impulsive man in Peter ; the hard-headed, practical man, desiring the first place in the kingdom, in James, etc. We are 1 See Bib. Die. and Vance's College of the Apostles. 2 Gould, in Int. Crit. Com. s Compare Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth after her crime. 4 Ellicott. 10. MATTHEW. 125 No. Name. Surname. Parents. Home. Business. Writings. Work. Death. 1 Simon. £&.}=»«*• Jonah. Early life in Bethsaida, afterwards at Caper naum. Fisherman. 1 Peter, 2 Peter, (Mark ?) A missionary among the Jews as far as Babylon and Rome. Crucified head down ward, at Rome. Tradition. 2 Andrew. Jonah. Fisherman. Preached in Scythia, Greece and Asia Minor. Tradition. Crucifiedon St. An dre w ' s cross (X). Tradition. 3 James, the elder. f Boanerges, J or j So?is of [ Thunder. j Zebedee < and [ Salome. Bethsaida and after wards in Jerusalem. Fisherman. Preached in Jerusalemand Judea. Behead e d byHerod, A. D. 44, at Jeru salem. 4 John, the be loved dis- ( ciple. Fisherman. Gospel. 3 Epistles. Revela tion. Labored among the churches of Asia Minor, especiallyEphesus. Banished to Pat- mos,A.D.95. Re- calle d. Died a natural death. Tradition. 5 James, the less or younger. Alphgeus or ¦ Cleophas and Mary, Galilee. (Epistle of James ?) Preached in Palestineand Egypt. (Bishop of Jerusalem?) Crucified in Egypt, or by another traditionthrownf r om a pinnacle. Tradition. 6 Jude. Same as Thad- dseus and Leo- bseus. Galilee. Epistle of Jude. Preached in Assyria and Persia. Tradition. Martyred in Persia. Tradition. 7 Philip. Bethsaida. Preached in Phrygia. Died mar tyr at Hi- erapolisin Phry gia. Trad. 8 Bartholomew. Nathanael. Cana of Gal ilee. Flayed to death. Tradition. 9 Matthew. Levi. Alphaeus. Capernaum. Tax-col lector. Publican. Gospel. Died a martyrin Ethi opia. Tradition. 10 Thomas. Didymus. Galilee. Claimed by the Syrian Christians as founder of their c hur c h ; perhapsalso in Per sia and In dia. Martyred.Shot by a shower of arrows while at prayer. Tradition. 11 Simon. The Canansean, or Zelotes. Galilee. Crucified. Tradition. 12 Judas. Iscariot. Kerioth of Judea. Suicide. 126 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 5-8. 5 These twelve Je'sus sent forth, and c0Xgeded them, saying, Go not into „l% way of the Gen'tileg, and enter not into £„y city of 'the Sa-mar'1-tans. : enteryenot: 6 ° but' go rather to * the lost sheep of ' the house of Is/ra-el. 7 And as ye go, preach, saying, ¦> The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8 k Heal the sick, cleanse the leperSl raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils : 1 freely ye have received, freely give. / 2 Kings 17.24. Ezra 4. 10. Luke 9. 52 & 10. 33 & 17. 16. John 4. 9, 39, 40 & 8. 4S. Acts 8. 25. Cp. Acts 1. 8. ffMatt. 15. 24. Cp. Acts 3. 25, 26 & 13. 46. h Ps. 119. 176. Isai. 53. 6. Jer. 50. 6. Cp. Matt. 9. 36 & 18. 12. i Acts 2. 36 & 7.42. Heb. 8. 8, 10. j Matt. 3. 2 & 14. 17. Luke 10. 9. A Cp. Matt. 11. 5. I Cp. Isai. 55. 1. Acts 3. 6 & 20. 33, 35. all there. And to all of us can come like fit ness, worthy of apostleship." 1 All kinds of men can become Christians ; all kinds can serve the Lord in some good way. This great variety in Christians enables Christianity to meet the vast variety of men in the world. But all were one in heart, in the love of Jesus, in seeking the higher life, in building up the kingdom of heaven. This variety gave them power. It takes many colors to make up the white light of the sun. It takes many kinds of food to build up the healthi est and strongest bodies. It takes many tones of harmonies to make an anthem. It takes a great variety of instruments to form an orchestra. Their Grouping. "One of the ways Jesus takes to overcome their imperfection in doing a work which called for perfection in the workers was in his grouping of the apostles. Our imper fection very commonly is of the nature of half- ness. We see one side of a truth and not the other. We feel the greatness of some quality so strongly that we depreciate some other quality which seems opposed to it, but is really comple mentary. Our Lord seems to have acted with careful reference to this in sending out his apos tles two by two in the order indicated in Mat thew. " Peter, the bold, impetuous man, acting on the spur of the moment, is joined with Andrew, the apostle instinctively chosen by the Scotch as their national patron, as far-seeing, cautious, careful, full of the sense of difficulty. " James and John differed greatly in age. John must have been very young, for he outlived Jesus nearly seventy years. So the Master paired them off, old and young together. " Philip, the slow-witted, was paired with Na thanael Bartholomew, the quick-witted. " Thomas, the doubting, skeptical intellect, was joined with Matthew, one of the heroes of faith. "James, the author of the Epistle, the most practical of men, was united with Jude, the man of doctrine. " Simon, the Zealot, a man of zeal, enthusiasm, independence, and patriotism, was with Judas Iscariot, the business economist. ' So the Master made one whole man out of two half men. And so his church should go forth, two by two, each with the one most unlike himself, and therefore best able to help him.' " 2 II. THEIB FIELD OF WORK, vers. 5, 0. 5. Go not into the way of the Gentiles. Do not take any road that leads to the surrounding na tions, as, for instance, the cities of Tyre and Sidon. City of the Samaritans. Though nearer than the Gentiles. The time had not come for this more distant work, but it would come later. 6. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. These belonged to the flock of God, but had wandered far away and were lost. This Limitation (1) was only temporary. (2) The soil of the Jewish nation had been prepared for the good seed for generations, and here it would be easiest to put the good seed into the soil and get it rooted and growing. (3) They were not yet prepared to understand the universality of the gospel, and how the kingdom of God could best be extended to the Gentiles. The story of their development, in the Acts, shows clearly this condition. (4) They were best acquainted with these people. Our own town or city is the best base of operations. Begin at home, and then reach out into " the wide, wide world." III. THEIR WORK IN THIS FIELD, vers. 7-13. First. Preaching the Gospel. 7. They were to preach, saying, The king dom of heaven is at hand. The gospel Jesus himself preached in the beginning. The King had come. He brought pardon and peace and salvation from sin, and all that characterized the kingdom. Everything good was waiting for them at their very doors. Therefore repent and believe, as the only possible way of entering it. Second. Ministering to Bodily Needs. 8. Heal the sick, etc. Just what Jesus was doing all the time, for the same reasons. They were to help the people in their bodily needs, as a 1 Bp. H. W. Warren. 2 Pres. R. E. Thompson, in the Sunday-School Times for Oct. 27, 1891 10 : 9, 10. MATTHEW. 127 9 - ^S^offJfS" gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses -, neither nor shoes, nor Te,8&78: for" the Get you no 10 nowaffet for your journey, neither two coats, TaUuer' is worthy of his 'S: m For vers. 9-15, see Mark 6. 8-11 & Luke 9. 3-5. Cp. Luke 10. 4-12 & 22. 35. n 1 Tim. 5. 18. Cp. 1 Cor. 9. 4, 7-14. proof and illustration of the spiritual blessings they proclaimed. They practically said, Here are some of the fruits of the gospel ; taste and see. Only by visible help for the body that costs us something is it possible to prove that our efforts for men's souls are sincere. Sickness and demon possession were fruits of sin, object lessons of sin. Jesus came to undo the works of the devil. By healing sick bodies through his disciples he proved his power and willingness to heal sick souls, cleanse leprous hearts, raise the dead in sin, cast out all the devils of iniquity. Freely ye have received. Jesus had charged nothing for what he had done. He came from heaven freely, he gave his life freely, he brought salvation to the disciples freely. Freely give, of that which has cost you nothing. Be like your Master, filled with his spirit of love. The very power of doing these, kind deeds was a free gift ; therefore they were to give freely, to take nothing for their work. To take money for their miracles would ruin their work among the people, would teach selfish ness instead of love, and cause them to be re garded as mere exorcists, instead of preachers of free salvation, with divine credentials. More over, only as we have received God's salvation freely, as a free gift, shall we be able to give freely, and preach a large, free, unearned pardon and new life.1 A flowing brook gives as freely as it receives, and it is a joy, a refreshment. It turns the desert into a garden. It is life-giving. A bog or marsh does not give as freely as it re ceives, and it is an eye-sore, a blot on the land scape, breeding reptiles, and exhaling disease. It is the Dead Sea that receives but does not give. Third. They were to go Two by Two (Mark 6: 7). (1) Because thus they were com plete and well balanced. Each would supple ment the work of the other. They would reach different classes of minds, and where one failed the other would be ready with the right word. (2) They would aid and encourage one another, keep up each other's courage in time of difficulty, be suggestive of plans, and aid one another's warmth and glow of spiritual life. "With two there is warmth." (3) Two is the best num ber. More would be a hindrance, and would be divisive, while two would accomplish nearly all that more could do. (4) This is still one true and effective method of Christian work. Two are more than twice one. " So when two work together, each for each Is quick to plan, and can the other teach ; But when alone one seeks the best to know, His skill is weaker and his thoughts are slow." Fourth. They were to go in Their Ordinary Way. In their ordinary dress, as common travellers, and not in peculiar prophet garb, or with any kind of ostentation, but trust ing God for necessary support. 9. Provide neither gold, nor even brass, or rather copper, of which their smallest coins were made. In your purses. Literally "girdles," in the folds of which money was usually car ried. 10. Scrip. A wallet or small bag, " generally made of leather, and slung, like a satchel, over the shoulder, to hold the flat barley cakes, the olives, and figs, which form the simple com missariat of an Eastern pedestrian."2 " It was called a scrip, perhaps, because it was designed to hold scraps, trifling articles, scraped off, as it were, from something larger. It was part of the pilgrim's or traveller's equipage. Shakespeare uses it in As You Like It, Act III., Scene 2. 'Though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage.' "3 Neither two coats. Without change of garments, such as would be necessary on a long journey or in strange coun tries. Neither shoes. "It does not say 'san dals,' which were absolutely necessary for the protection of the feet in rocky or stony paths, and therefore the parallel passage in Mark reads, ' Be shod with sandals.' Shoes, or rather, as we should call them, slippers, had upper leathers and heels, and were made of softer material, and, at the present day, are always of brilliant colors. Probably, therefore, the prohibition is directed against show or luxury. " 2 Nor yet staves, or a staff. They were to get nothing for their journey but what they had. But if they were used to a staff they could take it (Mark). For the workman is worthy of his meat, i. e., food, enough to eat. They were to go forth and let the people for whom they labored support them. They did not receive this support as beggars, because they really earned it, and it trained the people in giving as freely as they received. 1 See a beautiful illustration and example in The Signet Ring. 2 Tristram. 8 Cambridge Bible. 128 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 11-15. 11 And into whatsoever city or vmlge ye shall enter, seTrchout who in it is worthy ; and there abide till ye go 'forth!' 12 And waT ye ££? into file house, ° salute it. 13 And if the house be * worthy, let "your peace come upon it : but if it be not worthy, let ° your peace " return to you. 14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, wasu ye goTrth out of that house or that city, r shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, sIt shall be more tolerable for 'the land of S6d'om and gSSSSS hi the day of jfiggSEj. than for that city. o Cp. 1 Sam. 25. 6 & 1 Chr. 12. 18.' p Cp. ch. 8. 8 & Acts 16. 15. 13 & Acts 18. 6. sch. 11. 24. t Gen. 18. 20 & 19. 28. 2 Pet. 2. 6. q Cp. Ps. 35. 13. r Acts 13. 51. Cp. Neh. 5. Note 1. For them this was the best way to go on their mission. It was easy to do so among their countrymen, and perfectly simple and natural. It left them free from all worldly anxiety, so that they could give themselves wholly to their mission without fear or favor. It was the best way to reach the people. The religion of Jesus was for daily life. There was no show, no self- seeking, no expense. Note 2. It is plain that this was no inflexible, unchangeable rule, hke the laws of the Medes and Persians, for under other circumstances Jesus gave very different instructions (Luke 22 : 35, 36) . His disciples carried some money with them (John 12: 6; 13: 29). The disciples of Jesus must adapt themselves to circumstances, still adhering to the same great principles of simplicity, of trust, of absence of all self-seeking and pride, of complete devotion to Jesus and the Fifth. They were to be Wise as Ser pents and Harmless as Doves. 11. Into whatsoever city . . . enquire. R. V., Search out. Do not go in a haphazard way which may lead you into trouble. Who in it is wor thy. " Worthy of your intimacy, worthy of being associated with you in your evangelistic work, worthy of being Messianically honored ; " 1 a. man of piety and patriotism, who is willing to work in an unpopular cause for the sake of the people, and whose reputation will make the work attractive. " They must not lodge with those whose character would bring scandal on their profession."2 And this represents the nature of the gospel, though he might be a Roman hke Cornelius, or a publican like Matthew and Zaccheus. There abide. Luke adds, "go not from house to house." (1) Do not change your quarters for convenience or comfort. Do not waste your time thus, nor in an ostentatious round of visiting. Moreover, on their part, they were to make no trouble by interfering with family arrangements (Mark). 12. Salute it. Saying, "Peace be unto you,'' the usual salutation at this day. 13. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. Their very presence would be a benediction and blessing to all who were of open heart. To be with some persons " is a liberal education." Their presence in the home is hke the ark of the Lord in the house of Obed-edom. But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. That is, it will be as if the words had not been spoken. No such peace can come to such a home. You cannot reward the unworthy with the blessings of the worthy. The apostles not dwelling in the family, the blessing of their presence could not be received by them. "The reflex influence of Christian effort is precious, whatever its direct results are." IV. HOW TO DEAL "WITH OPPOSERS, vers. 14-23. These warnings were given so that (1) they would not be discouraged ; (2) that wrong and selfish motives might be sifted out ; (3) that they might know how to act in such circumstances. 14. And whosoever shall not receive you. This open denunciation was for towns where both message and messengers should be rejected. (See Luke 9 : 52-56 for a case in point.) Shake off the dust of your feet. A symbolic act, in dicating that they renounced all responsibility for them, and would not keep a particle of the ruin which must come upon such ungodly people, nor of their sin. Such a city must be treated as one of the heathen to whom, on this tour, they must not go. (See Matt. 18 : 17.) In the eyes of the Jews, " the very dust of a heathen country was unclean, and it denied by contact. It was re garded like a grave, or like the putrescence of death. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering, it must at once be burnt." 3 15. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, etc. Because those wicked cities 2 Sadler. 8 Edersheim. 10 : 16-19. MATTHEW. 129 16 11 "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye there fore "wise as serpents, and '"harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men: for rthey will deliver you up to the "councils, and *in their synagogues they Will SCOUrge yOU , tatMr,we»i 18 xAnd ye shau ^brought before governors and kings 8haii ye be brought for my sake, " for a testimony ag?0"8t them and t0 the Gen'tfle§. 19 b But x when they deliver you up, ° SS" how or what ye shall speak: for a it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. m Luke 10. 3. Cp. John 17. 18. v Gen. 3. 1. w Rom. 16. 19 (Gk.). Phil. 2. 15. Cp. 1 Cor. 14. 20. x See Mark 13. 9, 11 & Luke 12. 11, 12. y ch. 5. 22 & 26. 59, al. z See ch. 23. 34. a See ch. 8. 4. 6 For ver. 19-22, cp. Mark 13. 11-13 & Luke 21. 12-19 & 2 Tim. 4. 16, 17. c See ch. 6. 25. d Deut. 18. 18. Cp. Num. 23. 5. See Ex. 4. 12. sinned against much less light, and rejected smaller and more dimly seen opportunities. (For Sodom, see Gen. 13 : 13 ; 18 : 20-32.) When we read of the destruction of Jerusalem forty years later, with its unutterable horrors and "great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be," we understand the meaning of this warning to the Jewish towns. And it is but a visible type of what will befall individuals ; and yet over all Jesus weeps as he did over Jerusalem, and desires earnestly that they should repent and escape. In the day of judgment, whenever that judg ment should come. That day came to Jerusalem about forty years after this warning. To all sinners it will come on that last great day ; and in many cases it comes before as well as then. 16. Behold, I send you ... as sheep, harm less and defenceless, in the midst of wolves, who well illustrate the feelings and the power of the leaders, both Jewish and Roman. Be ye there fore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. The qualities required for the safety of the un armed traveller. Prudence and harmlessness are the defence of the weak. Wise = "prudent," full of precaution, possessing such " practical wis dom " as Paul had when he claimed the rights of Roman citizenship at Philippi.1 " Serpents show great caution and skill in avoid ing danger. The Egyptian hieroglyphics use the serpent as the symbol of wisdom. We may un derstand that they were to be prudent in the re cognition of danger, and in the choice of means for opposing or escaping it — in general as to their behavior when in danger. But such prudent re gard for self-preservation is very apt to be accom panied, in men as in serpents, with the tricks of low cunning. This is forbidden by the other in junction. The word rendered 'harmless,' better ' simple ' (margin R. V.), signifies literally un mixed, and hence pure (as pure gold), uncor- rupted, and so guileless, sincere. They were not to deserve injury, or afford any pretext for it ; and were to employ no trickery or other improper means of escaping from danger. They must com bine prudence and simplicity. If the dove alone were taken as model, they might become silly (Hos. 7 : 11) ; if the serpent alone, they would be come tricky." 2 17. Beware of men. The men, the wolves who would devour the sheep. Not as a means of escaping persecution, but in order to prepare for it. Deliver you up to the councils . . . synar- gogues. Referring to persecutions by the Jews, who would be intensely opposed to them, and would persecute them bitterly. 18. Before governors and kings. Civil tri bunals. The history of the early Church as re corded in the Acts, and in secular history, shows how this prophecy was fulfilled. For my sake. Persecutions on account of crime had no blessing, and no reward. But persecution for the sake of Jesus and his cause, and through them for the good of man, — these are a source of enthusiastic joy. For a testimony against, rather unto," them ; not to condemn them, but to make known to them the Son of God and his gospel of grace. The history in the Acts shows how again and again this was true. The trials before the courts, civil and ecclesiastical, gave the apostles an op portunity to preach the gospel to the chief priests, scribes, governors, kings, people of highest rank, who in no other way could have been gath ered together to hear the gospel. The persecu tion of Christians is like ringing a bell to call all men to see what Christianity does. It is setting a light upon a hill that it may shine far and wide. So Bishop Latimer, bound to the stake, said to Bishop Ridley, " We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out again." 19. When they deliver you up, take no thought. (See on 6 : 25.) Be not anxious. Jesus 1 Cambridge Bible. 2 Dr. Broadus. 130 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 20-23. 20 "For it is not ye that speak, but /the Spirit of your Father wtuath speaketh in you. 21 g And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father "SI child : and the children shall rise up against ",e'r parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And * ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake : ' but he that endur- eth to the end, the same shall be saved. 23 But when they •' persecute you in this city, * flee ye into the mxV: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Is'ra-el, ' till the Son of man be come. e Luke 12. 12. Acts 4. 8 & 6. 10 & 13. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 13. 3. Cp. ver. 40 & 1 Thess. 2. 13 & Heb. 1. 1. /Cp. John 15. 26. ffver. 35, 36. Ach.24.9. John 15. 18-21. Cp. Luke 6. 22 & Acts 5. 41, al. i ch. 24. 13. Mark 13. 13. Cp. Dan. 12. 12, 13 & James 5. 11 & Rev. 2. 10. See Heb. 3. 6. j ch. 23. 34. * Cp. ch. 12. 15 & Acts 8. 1 & 9. 25, 30 & 14. 6 & 17. 10, 14. * ch. 16. 28. does not forbid them to think, but to be anxious. They must think, in order to be wise as serpents, and through meditation will usually come the light and guidance of Heaven. But there was no occasion for anxiety. Give your thoughts to your work ; anxiety will hinder you, and make you timid. For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. " This verse is best interpreted by such practical illustrations as are afforded by Acts 4 : 19, 20 ; 5 : 20-32 ; and espe cially Dan. 3: 16-18." This command gives no countenance whatever to preaching the gospel without preparation. 20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. You are but the instruments, the channels, of the Holy Spirit. He will inspire you, suggest to you what you ought to say. " Observe," says Meyer, " the difference between what you ought to speak, and what you will speak. For only as one's charac ter and motives are perfect, can he give perfect expression to the suggestions and inspiration of the Spirit." 21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother. So intense will be the feeling against the Gospel and its effects upon existing institutions that it will overpower even brotherly, paternal, and filial affection. The most intense feelings are those of religion united with conscience. " The history of persecutions for religion affords many instances of this. It is true even of civil disputes. Thucydides, describing the horrors of the Corcy- rean sedition, says (iii. 82), ' The ties of relation ship became weaker than those of party.' " l 22. And ye shaU be hated of all men. "The Roman historian Tacitus speaks of 'the early Christians as a hated race. It is difficult for us in these days to understand how literally this was fulfilled. The most shameful practices were at tributed to Christians ; and partly in consequence of these falsehoods, partly from hatred of good, they were treated as the offscouring of the earth." 2 It is still true that those who are living wicked lives, and engaged in a bad business, hate those who preach and live a purer morality. For my name's sake. Because of your love to me. Because you are teaching my truth, and working for my kingdom. There is no virtue in being hated ; but only in being hated for being good and doing good. He that endureth to the end. Whose faith and love are so real and so strong that nothing can conquer them. Shall be saved. Saved from falling, saved from the calamities which befall the wicked. All that is best worth keeping shall be his forever ; his soul shall be purified, not ' destroyed ; his piety, love, faith, virtues, all that makes the kingdom of heaven, shall become brighter ; his soul shall shine " like the stars for ever and ever." 23. 'When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. Not from cowardice, or fear of martyrdom if that should be necessary, but because it was the best and most effective way of doing their work. For (1) they had not time to contend for their opportunity with magis trates or mobs, while there were so many places ready to receive them. They would far better plant the seed in the good soil ready to receive it, than to sow amid thorns and brushwood. (2) In almost every place there were some whose hearts were prepared, who were looking and longing for better things. Giving the Gospel to these in as many places as possible would be the best way to reach the others. (3) Where there is sharp opposition, contention often tends to confirm the wrong. But if the truth is presented, and then left to work its way in silence, it will often pro duce changes of which the opponent is almost un conscious, as a ship may turn around in so large ' Cambridge Bible. 2 Prof. M. B. Riddle. 10 : 24-27. MATTHEW. 131 24 "' TAe disciple is not above i„s master, nor lae servant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If "they have called the master of the house ° Bg-61'zg-bu.b, how much more shall they call them of his household ? 26 Fear them not therefore : " for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in the darkness, """ speak ye in the light : and what ye hear in the ear, "^SSSgi" upon the '"SSSSSS m Luke 6. 40. John 13. 16 & 15. 20. Cp. Heb. 12. 3. n ch. 9. 34 & 12. 24. Mark 3. 22. Luke 11. 15. See John 7. 20. o Cp. 2 Kin. 1. 2. p Mark 4. 22. Luke 8. 17. Cp. 1 Tim. 5. 25. For ver. 26-33, see Luke 12. 2-9. q See Luke 5. 19. a circle, that its crew are not conscious of any change of direction. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel. Completed your presentation of the gospel to the Jewish nation. Tin the Son of man be come. Till Jesus had been revealed as the Son of man, the Messiah, and his Messianic work had been finished, and the Messianic kingdom es tablished. The Son of man had not fully come, his coming was not complete, till he had finished his teaching and his miracles, instituted his sup per, died on the cross, was dead and buried, rose again, and ascended to his Father. Then, and then only, had he fully come. His first coming was completed as a whole. As a matter of fact it was not till after this that the gospel had been preached to all the Jews, and preaching to the Gentiles was begun. V. EK'COU'RAGEMEM'TS, vers. 24-42. First. You will thus be like your Mas ter. 24. The disciple is not above his master. The scholar is not above his teacher, that the scholar should expect to be exempt from the treatment accorded to his teacher. 25. It is enough. It is all one ought to expect, to be as his master. Therefore (1) you should not be disappointed if you are persecuted. It only puts you into close connection with your Master's experience. You will know him better. (2) You may rejoice because you can be like him. (3) You need not let your conscience trouble you, as if you had committed some error. Persecution does not prove that you are wrong. Do not be dis couraged. Your perfect master suffered the same. Beelzebub. Probably Beelzebul, "the Lord of the Mansion " (of the nether world) in the re cesses of the pit. Though the demons might be allowed to pervade the upper world, the place from which they proceeded, their home, was the abyss (the Abaddon of Rev. 9 : 11). 1 If they have called Jesus, the master of the house, the household of faith, Beelzebub, the master of hell, the prince of demons, how much more shall they call them of his household de mons and devils, and try to expel them as such ? Second : The Truth will be made Man ifest. 26. Fear them not therefore. Do not be troubled about this entire misrepresentation of your character and work. The truth is sure to be made known about your Master, the Son of God ; and so for you there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed.2 "You and your traducers will alike be shown up in the colors of truth. Though you should be covered with oblo quy, your integrity shall be revealed ; though your true value is hid, it shall yet be known. Secret villainy and secret virtue will alike be set in the full blaze of day. Anticipate the future, and be not overwhelmed by the present." 8 You will be recognized at last as the great benefactors of the world. Almost every one who seeks to reform the world and destroy its evils has had this experience. The whole history of reform is an illustration of this verse. 27. The principle stated has a wider applica tion. Not only will God make the truth known concerning you, but you also are to be revealers. What I teU you in darkness, in private, in parables which are yet dark sayings to the world, speak ye in light. You are to proclaim every where the great truths of the gospel. What Jesus taught them privately was for the very purpose of making it known. (See the parable of the sower and Jesus' remarks on why he spoke in parables, it : 1-23.) Preach ye, proclaim as herald, upon the house tops. " The simile here may refer to a custom in the synagogue schools, where the master whis pered in the ear of an interpreter, who repeated what he heard in a loud voice. So Lightfoot suggests in Horce Hebraicce. The housetops are 1 See Prof. Cheyne's new Encyclopedia Biblica. 2 " I knew a man who did his drinking secretly and his reeling in public, and thought he was fooling everybody." — Eben Holden. 3 Spurgeon. 132 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 28-30. 28 And r benofafraidof them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather fear him s which is able to destroy both soul and body in 'hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father; 30 but' " the very hairs of your head are all numbered. r Isai. 8. 12, 13 & 51. 12, 13. Jer. 1. 8. 1 Pet. 3. 14. Cp. 2 Mace. 6. 26 & 7. 29. (& mg. for mg.). u See 1 Sam. 14. 45. 5 James 4. 12. t See ch. 5. 29 often used in the East from which to proclaim im portant official edicts and to announce the hour of prayer."1 Syrian Sparrow. Third Encouragement : The Impotence of their Enemies. 28. And fear not. Do not be afraid of them which kul the body, as they will try to do, and may accomplish ; as they will succeed in doing to your Master. But are not able to kUl the soul. They cannot make you sin, or deny your Master, or give up your faith and love and religious life ; they cannot destroy your character, all that makes life worth living, and makes you heirs of eternal life. They can send you to heaven and glory ; but they have no power to bring you to eternal destruction. But . . . fear, reverence, stand in awe of, so as to trust and obey him, to realize that he is all-power ful. Him, not Satan, who can do no more, or dif ferent, evil than his human servants ; but God, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna, see on 5 : 22). If you fail in your duty, if you yield to temptation, and to escape persecution deny your Saviour, or pervert the truth. The fear of God conquers the fear of man. Every one fears something, and his character, and therefore his eternal destiny, is shown by what he fears.2 John Wesley declared that if he could find one hundred men who feared nothing but sin, he would move the world. He found them, and moved the world. Fourth Encouragement : God's Loving Care over them. 29. Are not two sparrows (arpovOla). The word is a diminutive, little sparrows, and carries with it a touch of tenderness. At the present day, in the markets of Jerusalem and Jaffa, long strings of little birds, sparrows and larks, are offered for sale, trussed on long wooden skewers.8 Sold for a farthing, aaaapiov, an as, one six teenth of a denarius (translated " penny " in the New Test., and worth 16 or 17 cents), so that an as, translated farthing here, was about one Sparrows in Market. cent.4 And one of them . . . without your Father. The same Father in heaven cares for you, as for the birds. (See on 6 : 26-30.) 30. The very hairs of your head are all 1 Revision Com. 2 See A Study of Fears, by Pres. G. Stanley Hall. s Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 4 Hastings, Bib. Die. 10 : 31-34. MATTHEW. 133 31 Fear ye not therefore'; "ye are of more value than many sparrows. 32 '" Everyone1 therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I ai80 confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But x whosoever shall deny me before men, " him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 34 " Think not that I ancal?™e to send peace on the earth : ° I came not to send peace, but a sword. v ch. 6. 26 & 12. 12. w Cp. Rom. 10. 9, 10 & Heb. 10. 35 & Rev. 3. 5. x2 Tim. 2. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 1. 1 John 2. 23. Cp. Mark 8. 38. y ch. 7. 23 & 25. 12. Luke 13. 25. z See Luke 12. 51-53. a Cp. Rev. 6. 4. numbered, "counted and catalogued." It is said that there are 100,000 million million atoms in a cubic inch of gas, and each one made as per fect as a world. God is so infinite that all these least things are included in his knowledge and care and love. 31. Fear ye not therefore. God cannot care for these things, and neglect greater things, and ye are of more value than many sparrows. Even in the persecutions and sickness and sufferings which will come to you, you are still enfolded in the love of God, and he will make all things work together for your good.1 Fifth Encouragement : Christ will ac knowledge his Faithful Disciples as his own. 32. "Whosoever therefore, in view of the truths just stated. Shall confess me, opxtKctyqaei. iv kp.a\, "a peculiar but very significant ex pression. Lit., ' Confess in me.' The idea is that of confessing Christ out of a state of oneness with him. ' Abide in me, and being in me, confess me.' It implies identification of the confessor with the confessed, and thus takes confession out of the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment." 2 Thayer in his Greek Lex icon renders, " Confess in my case, or when my cause is at stake." Christ is confessed, (1) By informal and private acknowledgment. (2) By public profession in church. (3) By a Christlike life, a life so different in spirit and in act that men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. (4) Publicly in various ways before men ; standing up for Jesus in all circum stances. Before men. Before friends and en emies, kings, judges, mobs, in danger and in peace, publicly and privately. Him will I con fess also before my Father. I will acknow ledge him as my sincere disciple, for that is true. He has borne the test, he has proved his disciple- ship, and he shall be acknowledged as a disci ple, tried and true, and receive the welcome " Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." 33. But whosoever shall deny me. (1) Christ is denied by words. (2) By rejecting him as our Lord and Saviour. (3) By taking sides with the world against him in amusements, busi ness principles, social customs. (4) By conduct unworthy of Christ and contrary to his teachings. (5) By silence when we ought to speak. (6) By neglecting or refusing publicly to confess him. Denying Christ usually grows out of unbelief, or selfishness, or fear of man. Him will I also deny before my Father. He will state the fact that such persons are not his disciples. He does not " deny " them because he is revengeful, but be cause he is truthful and cannot say that persons are his disciples who are not. Sixth Encouragement : Conflict is In evitable, but it is the Way to Victory. 34. Think not that I am come to send, /SoAeix, to cast, to fling, as if peace could be flung upon the earth from heaven ; as if it were an angel, or a new world, or anything that could be given at once. Peace cannot come to the soul or the world in that way. " A picture seems to have been present to our Saviour's thoughts. An indefinite multitude of people were grouped together ; and all were on the tiptoe of expectation. What is it that is about to happen ? Is it the reign of peace that is just about to be inaugurated and consum mated ? Is there to be henceforth only unity and amity ? As they muse in their hearts, and de bate with their lips, lo, a sword is flung into the midst of them ! " a I came not to send, to fling, peace, but a sword. That must inevitably be the first result of his coming. He brings peace. He is the Prince of peace ; the final result of his coming will be peace. But the world will not receive it. Evil is so intrenched in the customs, the fashions, the institutions, the methods, the prejudices, the government, the business of the world, that whatever or whoever comes to right the wrongs, and change all these things so that they shall become like those of the kingdom of heaven, and thus bring peace, will be opposed to the ut most. This is a universal principle. First, dis turbance, overturning, discussing, criticising, un settling, as the way to better things. This used 1 Susan Coolidge's Poems, "A Wonderful Thought." The anonymous poem, He Carethfor Me. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent. 3 Morison. 134 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 10 : 35-39; 35 2 For I a'"a'nTe to '' set a man at variance against his father, and the daugh ter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law: 36 c and1 a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 rfHe that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not e worthy of me. 38 And 'he that 'doth1 not take his cross' and » f ""Sow h after me, is not worthy of me. 39 ''He that findeth his life shaU lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. z See on ver. 34. 6 ver. 21. Cp.Mic. 7. 6. c Cited from Mic. 7. 6. Cp. Ps. 41. 9 & 55. 12, 13. John 13. 18. d Luke 14. 26. e Cp. Wisd. 3. 5. / ch. 16. 24. Mark 8. 34. Luke 9. 23 & 14. 27. g ch. 9. 9. John 8. 12 & 12. 26 & 21. 19. Ach. 16. 25. Mark 8. 35. Luke 9. 24 & 17. 33. John 12. 25. to discourage me, but now I see that it means better things, it means steps toward perfection, it means peace at last.1 35- For I am come to set a man at variance, etc. See on ver. 21. Daughter in law, vvp4>-nv, bride, the son's bride. 36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Because there the conflicting opinions come into closest collision. This has been, and often still is, one of the greatest obstacles in the way of becoming Christians. Household, in the application of this truth, includes not only the family, but also the circle of intimate friends, schoolmates, shopmates, those in business relations. 37. He that loveth father . . . more than me. The meaning of this is clear. Christ must be loved supremely, or he is not loved at all as a dis ciple. But the more one loves Christ the more he will love father and mother, son or daughter. That love invariably uplifts, purifies, transfigures all human love ; for we are to love one another even as Christ loves us, and by loving him we learn most of his infinite love. We cannot love friends too much if only Jesus and the Father are loved more.2 Is not worthy of me. To be my disciple, to be associated with me in my work, to receive my reward ; for he has not of my spirit, my character, my aims. 38. He that taketh not his cross. "The Roman custom obliged the crucified to carry their own cross to the place of punishment. To this custom reference is here made. The meaning of the symbol is, whoever is not willing freely to deny himself, even unto death, and that the most painful and shameful, is not worthy of him,"3 for they have not his spirit, his principles which led him to the cross for love of men, and duty toward God. (1) All self-denials for Jesus' sake are a taking up of the cross. The cross is the symbol of death, and the spirit of taking up the cross implies the willingness to suffer for Jesus even unto death. But often many small self- denials, a continual enduring of little crosses, are more difficult to bear than martyrdom, and are as real a sacrifice of the life to Jesus. (2) Each one must take up his own cross ; the one the good Father lays upon him. Each cross bore its own inscription and the reason why it was borne. (3) He must take it up voluntarily, (i) He must bear it after Christ, in Christ's spirit, in his way, in doing his work. (5) Every person needs a cross to make him better in this world and fit him for heaven. No true life is lived without some cross. (6) There is always a crown sur mounting the cross.4 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it. Repeated in Matt. 16 : 25 ; Luke 17 : 33 ; John 12 : 25. Life here is, in the original, the same word as soul in ver. 28. It means not mere ex istence, but the joy, happiness, objects of desire, blessedness, which make life worth living. To make this life the chief aim is to lose the very thing sought. The best things of life cannot be obtained in this way. " All self-seekingHs self- losing. Even in spiritual things, he who is per petually studying how to secure joy and peace for himself loses it." Out of this general principle grow the statements, " he that finds, or seeks as a chief end, the life of this world shall lose eternal life in the world to comet " and he that finds, seeks as first and highest, makes it his aim 1 See Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 121. " When Hercules turned the purifying river into King Augea's stables, I have no doubt that the confusion that resulted was considerable all around," etc. 2 See a most beautiful illustration of this in Miss Haver- gal's Kept for the Master's Use, pp. 142-145. s Abbott. 4 See Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, " The Celestial Railroad," for those who would reach the city without hearing the cross. The Cross Bearer, an effective series of illustrations on different ways of bearing the cross. The volume The Changed Cross. The legend of Christoforus, in Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. Peter Bayne's Christian Life, chap. i. 10 : 40-42. MATTHEW. 135 40 1T '" He that receiveth you receiveth me, and J he that receiveth me receiv- eth him that sent me. 41 * He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a pro phet's reward ; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a right eous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And 'whosoever shall give to drink unto one of m these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. i Luke 10. 16. John 13. 20. Gal. 4. 14. Cp. ver. 20 & ch. 18. 5 & 25. 40. 44, 45. k 1 Kin. 17. 10-15 & 18. 4. 2 Kin. 4. 8. Cp. 3 John 5-8. m ch. 18. 10. j Mark 9. 37. Luke 9. 48. Cp. John 12. I ch. 25. 35, 40. Mark 9. 41. Heb. 6. 10. to find, the lower earthly life, shall lose the higher and spiritual lif e. The life, the soul, is lost when all is lost that gives it value.1 Seventh Encouragement : They thus be came the Representatives op Christ. 40. He that receiveth you receiveth me. Because you are my representatives. Whoso ever, therefore, gives you entertainment and hospitality really entertains me, in whose name and on whose errand you come. And in what ever way they treat you, they are treating me. And he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. You are therefore embassadors and representatives of the Father in heaven. This gave dignity and authority to their work. It comforted them in all their trials. 41. To make this more clear, and perhaps to encourage the people to treat the apostles as his representatives, he employs a familiar example. He that receiveth a prophet. One commis sioned of God to make known his will to men. In the name of a prophet. Because he is a prophet, because he is the messenger of God. Shall receive a prophet's reward. The re ward a prophet receives (not the one he gives) ; see illustration in 2 Kings, 4 : 1-7. A righteous man's reward. That reward is a perfect char acter (Col. 1 : 22) ; an entrance into the king dom, the favor of God, larger usefulness, fuller joys, deeper peace, a home with God forever. He shall receive this reward because it proves that he has the same character, however obscure or unknown he may be. 42. Shall give . . . unto one of these little ones, the youngest, the most insignificant, and poor; those who cannot be prophets, but can only minister unto them ; who cannot do great deeds of righteousness, but can only show their heart and desires by receiving the righteous, wel coming, supporting, and encouraging them. A cup of cold water only. The smallest and most inexpensive gift, but the one needed, and helpful. In the name of a disciple. Because he is a disciple of Jesus, because he would serve the Master in the person of the disciple. The act would thus express honor and love to Jesus and his cause. He shall in no wise lose his reward. The reward shall be the same that would be given for the same service to the Master himself, — his loving approval, the privilege of aiding his cause, a larger heart.2 J Compare Plato's Gorgias, 512. 2 Lowell's Poems, " Vision of Sir Launfal ; " Long fellow's Poems, " The Legend Beautiful." The poem " Wrought into Gold," in Peloubet's Suggestive Illustra tions on Matthew, p. 211. 136 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 11 : 1, 2. CHAPTER 11. Section X. — JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1. The Two Scenes: Jesus in Galilee, John in Macherus, vers. 1, 2. 2. The Discouraged Prophet, An Eclipse of Faith, vers. 2, 3s 3. How Jesus cured Discouragement and Doubt, vers. 4-6. 4. Discourse op Jesus concerning John, vers. 7-19. Time. Vers. 2-19 belong to the summer of A. D. 28, about the middle of the ministry of Jesus. Place. Somewhere in Galilee, during one of Jesus' missionary tours. John in prison since March, A. d. 28. Vers. 20-30 belong to Perea, more than a year later. Section XL — WARNINGS AND INVITATIONS, vers. 20-30. 1 And it came to pass, when Je'sus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and t0 preach in their cities. 2 "Now when J5hn had heard "in the prison the works of •" the Christ, he sent twbVof ' his disciples, n For vers. 2-19, see Luke 7. 18-35. o ch. 14. 3. Cp. ch. 4. 12. p See ch. 1. 17. g See ch. 9. 14. I. TWO SCENES. —A CONTRAST. First Scene : Jesus Teaching and Work ing successfully in Galilee, ver. 1. 1. And it came to pass, etc. This verse is really the conclusion of chapter 10, according to the harmonists, and belongs to the winter of A. D. 29, several months after the delegation from John to Jesus (vers. 2-19). The disciples went forth to preach and work miracles throughout Galilee, preparing the way for Jesus by awakening an in terest in the new prophet. But it equally well describes the work of Jesus in the Galilean tour during which Jesus received the message from John. It was summer in the most beautiful and fertile part of Palestine. Peace and plenty were everywhere. Jesus was moving about the coun try, healing the sick, teaching the people, accom panied by the twelve apostles, attracting crowds, making many disciples. Luke 7: 21, 22 gives a sketch of this attractive picture. The career of Jesus at this time, with little apparent opposition, was that of a popular and successful prophet. Second Scene: John the Baptist in a Dungeon at Macherus. About one hundred miles to the southeast of Galilee, in the strong fortress and castle of Mache'rSs, on the borders of Arabia, eight or nine miles east of the northern end of the Dead Sea, John the Baptist had been lying in a dungeon for several months like a, caged eagle. Among mountains higher than those around Jerusalem rises from a valley " a long, flat ridge, more than a mile long and quite difficult of access, all of which was made a strong fortress. From this ridge rises a high, conical hill, the top of which is one hundred yards in diameter, and which was fortified as an impregnable citadel. In this citadel, besides a very deep well, and a very large and deep cemented cistern, are now found ' two dungeons, one of them deep and its sides scarcely broken in,' which have ' small holes still visible in the masonry, where staples of wood and iron had once been fixed. One of these must surely have been the prison house of John the Baptist.' "i John, on accountof his faithfulness, had been cast into the dungeon, and was thus compelled to cease from his work and languish for long days in forced inactivity. For as Elijah had reproved Ahab, so John had reproved Herod for his unnatural crimes, not for the sake of reprov ing, but because Herod's crimes, like Ahab's, were bringing ruin upon the nation. Ar'etas, king of Arabia, indignant at the affront Herod had put upon him in divorcing his wife, the daughter of Aretas, and sending her home, had declared war, and at the very time of John's reproof, pre parations for war were actively going on. John sought to stop the flood of horrors the war would roll ulpon the people.2 II. THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET ; AM ECLIPSE OF FAITH, vers. 2, 3. 2. 'When John had heard in the prison, from some of his disciples who had seen what Jesus did, and showed him (Luke) the works of 1 Canon Tristram. 2 See Stalker's very suggestive The Two St. Johns. 11:3. MATTHEW. 137 3 a\!d said unto him, Art thou 'he that sh0^e°tTe' or dowe 3 look We for another ? r John 4. 25 &6. 14 & 11. 27. Cp. ch. 3. 11 & Gen. 49. 10 ? & Deut. 18. 15, 18 & Ps. 118. 26 & Dan. 7. 13 & Rom. 5. 14, al. s Cp. Luke 3. 15. Christ, his miracles, his teachings, his feasting with publicans and sinners, his manner of life among the people, his growing popularity, he sent two of his disciples as a delegation with this message : — 3. Art thou he that should come P Are you really the expected Messiah, the one -whose way I have been preparing, or do we look for an other (eTtpov) of a different kind ? The sending of the delegation with this message shows that the brave and true prophet and martyr was in the shadow of a great doubt. Almost all active, earnest, enthusiastic reformers, men of great and stirring deeds, have had their seasons of discouragement and depression. Moses, when the people complained in the desert, himself com plained to God, " I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me" (Num. 11 : 10-15). So David said, " 0 Lord, why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? " (Ps. 10: 1.) Elijah, after his mighty deed on Carmel, lay down under the "juniper" tree, and wished to die. Almost every worker for God has at some time been with Bunyan's Christian in Doubting Castle of Giant Despair. No wonder, then, that the young prophet, John the Baptist, had for a brief time this bitter experience, and, like Hopeful, forgot that he had the key of de liverance in his bosom. The Causes of his Discouragement. When we consider John's circumstances in the light of what we have experienced and observed of human nature, we cannot be far wrong in our judgment of the causes of his despondency. Stalker, in The Two St. Johns, well says, " Those who are taught by experience are well aware that the soul has its fainting fits, and that one whose faith at one time is so great as to remove mountains may at another time be weak and unbelieving." (1) Physical weakness and ill health, caused by the reaction from his intense labors and from con finement in a damp, unhealthy dungeon. ' ' He was a Bedouin of the desert taken from the open air and put in prison. He lost the rush of the water over the fords of the Jordan, the song of birds, the rising and setting sun. His muscles relaxed and his lungs lost their power, and the trouble of the body reaches the soul." It takes more re ligion to make a dyspeptic smile than a perfectly healthy person to rejoice in Pisgah glories. " An drew Fuller, Thomas Scott, William Cowper, Thomas Boston, David Brainerd, Philip Melanch- thon, were mighty men for God, but all of them illustrations of the fact that a man's soul is not independent of his physical health. An eminent physician gave as his opinion that no man ever died a greatly triumphant death whose disease was below the diaphragm." 1 (2) The apparent failure of his life, of his plans and hopes, no doubt greatly increased his depres sion. His life was ending in his very prime, after only two years of labor for his Lord. " No other figure in the New Testament is so dramatic or picturesque as that of John the Baptist . . . standing in the dawn of the new morning, and looking eastward out of the darkness toward the place where the sun will rise, and then falling back into the shadow while the sun illuminates the world. That is the nobility of the Baptist, — to efface himself and find significance in that which is to come after him. . . . He and his work are to pass away and to be forgotten ; after him are to come those that are preferred before him ; but the better that is to come is to come only be cause he has done his best. . . . That is what tempts many persons to despair and scorn about the movement of the world." 2 (3) Jesus in Galilee, with his twelve working- men, presented so different a picture from John's ideal of the Messiah. Where was the great con queror, breaking the chains of a nation, hurling monarchs from their thrones, shattering his enemies like a potter's vessel with a rod of iron, overturning the evils of the day, revolutionizing the world, bringing in the promised glories, crying to Israel, " Arise, shine ; for thy Light is come " ? John was in prison for his faithful reproof. Can it be that Jesus under the same Herod was un faithful, and therefore living in peace ? Why did not Jesus' lightning strike the wicked king ? (4) His strange and unaccountable neglect by Jesus. Only one hundred miles away from his dreary castle, among the lovely hills of Galilee, Jesus, the Messiah, the Redeemer from God, the glorious King, is preaching the gospel for the poor, deliverance to the captive. Why does he not de liver the captive, his friend and helper? (5) Another cause was the depression produced by reaction after a long-continued nervous strain in his exalted labors. The Valley of Humiliation and of the Shadow of Death is often but a brief journey from the Land of Beulah and the Delect able Mountains, as almost every preacher has found. (6) The narrow outlook. It was dark for John. His dungeon walls were close by, however bright 1 John Watson (Ian Maclaren) in address to the Yale students. 2 From Afternoons in the College Chapel, by Prof. Francis G. Peabody, of Harvard. 138 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 11 : 4-6. 4 And Je'sus answered and said unto them, Go your way and ^ST J5hn aw"^11080 things which ye do hear and see : 5 ' '{he blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, ana the dead are raised up, and "the poor have goodtunngs preached to them. 6 And blessed is he', whosoever shall » nnd non?otcS8ionJof stumbling in me. ( See Luke 7. 22. ulsai. 61. 1 (mg.). Luke 4. 18. Cp. ch. 5. 3 & James 2. 5. (mg.). Isai. 8. 14, 15. Mark 6. 3 (mg.). John 6. 61 & 16. 1. v ch. 13. 57 (mg.) & 24. 10 & 26. 31 the sun might shine beyond his ken. In his own seeming failure, he might not see signs of success elsewhere. In the smoke of the battle, the peace after victory seems afar off. Narrow outlooks often dishearten us, when broader views would give us courage and hope.1 HI. HOW JESUS CURED DISCOURAGE MENT AHD DOUBT, vers. 4-6. " He who, though perplexed in faith, remains pure in deeds, will ultimately fight his way through doubt and come safely out on the other side." 2 4. Jesus answered, . . . Go and shew John again those things which ye do bear, his teach ings, and the story of what Jesus had done, told by many witnesses, and see, for in that same hour he cured many (Luke). He kept on doing his work. 5. The blind receive their sight, etc., a great variety of cures, of many forms of disease, as we have seen recorded in the previous chapters. There was nothing too hard for his power. Each disease was typical of some corresponding moral healing from the diseases of sin. All of them were expressions of his goodness and love. Moreover, these are the very things that Isaiah foretold of the Messianic times (Isai. 35 : 4-6 ; 29 : 18, 19). The poor, the poor in spirit, poor in this world's goods, the broken-hearted, the captives, those bound in the chains of sin, have the gospel, glad tidings, preached to them. The good news was "without money and without price," and none were so poor that they could not receive its blessings and be children and heirs of God. This is one of the strongest proofs of the truth of the Gospel, one of the surest marks of the true Mes siah and the true church.3 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Shall find no occasion of stumbling in me, shall see how my work and method of founding the kingdom, however differ ing from preconceived opinions, is the true way for the Messiah, the only one in which his mission could be fulfilled, and the only one foretold by the prophets. Many, indeed, did stumble at the way Jesus represented the Messiahship.4 Note how Jesus relieved his despondency, and will re lieve ours. " Who comes to God an inch, through doubtings dim, In blazing light God will advance a mile to him." ° (1) He did not condemn him for having these surface questionings and doubts. (2) The very realization of his donbt, and the pain it caused, was a hopeful sign. " Thou hast made us for thyself, and unquiet is our heart till it rests in thee." (3) Jesus did not work any new miracle or utter new truths, but set out the same old truths in a new light, with new clearness. So we are to ex pect no voice from heaven assuring us that we are God's children ; no angel to show us the Book of Life with our name in it ; no messenger to bring new proofs of the Bible ; no burning bush to assure us of the presence of our Heavenly Father ; but the same old truths with new treasures, the old promises with new depths of meaning, the old Bible in new light. (4) The good deeds which Jesus did were the proofs of his Messiahship. And what the gospel has done during the past ages, and is doing now, is the invincible proof that it is the true religion from a 1 See Arthur Helps' Friends in Council, on the three kinds of prophets. 2 Stalker. 3 In Quo Vadis, especially, and in Farrar's Dark ness to Dawn, we see the change the Gospel has wrought for the poor. 4 The MonBRN Age op Doubt. " Stepping into the broad field of general reading we see that we are living in an age of doubt. . . . Its coat of arms is an interrogation point rampant, above three bishops dormant, and its motto is Query f" " In the lay sermons and essays of Huxley, Tyudall, and Frederick Harrison," " these knights-errant of Doubting Castle," " skepticism appears militant and trenchant." "Over the fragmentary but majestic life philosophies of Carlyle and Emerson lying in the disarray of stones hewn for a temple yet unbuilt, imaginative skepticism hangs like a cloud. Over Carlyle it is the shadow of a noonday tempest full of darkness and tumult and muttering thunder. Over Emerson it floats like a cumulus of evening vapors, luminous and beautiful." Compare Tennyson's Despair and Sea Dreams. " Douht, as we are thinking of it, is not a crime, but a malady." — Henry Van Dyke, in Gospel for an Age of Doubt. c Sayings of Rabia, in Trench's Poems. 11:7. MATTHEW. 139 7 II And as tuesewenf thSr «ay, Je'sus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out '"into the wilderness to behowv xa reed shaken with the wind ? ui ch. 3. 1. Luke 1. 80. a Cp. Eph. 4. 14 & James 1. 6. good God, our Father in heaven. Its transform ing power, its miracles of grace, the blessings it confers upon every nation which receives it, and in proportion to the perfectness of its acceptance, the fact that it is doing to-day greater things than were done in Jesus' time, as he himself promised, — these things remove doubt. "The church," says Stalker, "which saves most souls, and does most to sweeten and purify domestic and political life, is the church which is doing most to counter work skepticism." (5) What a religion does for the poor is one of the surest tests of its origin. Compare the ad vantages of the poor in Christian lands with their condition in all others. In no other lands are the poor so near the rich in advantages. The Gospel is for the poor ; they can worship in the most expensive buildings. Printing has made Bibles so cheap that the poorest can read them, and learn to read them in free schools which are better than the private schools of the rich. Colleges are en dowed so that the poor can have the highest edu cation. Public libraries and galleries of art are open to all. The poor can ride as fast in railroad cars as the rich, can have their daily papers, can enjoy music and home comforts such as only kings and princes enjoyed a few hundred years ago. Much is yet to be done in carrying out the spirit of the Gospel ; but it is well to see what wonders have already been accomplished. (6) Jesus has proved himself able and willing to help, by having already bestowed upon others the very blessings we need. He is a tried and proved Saviour. (7) The proofs that Jesus was the Messiah showed John that his life was not a failure. He had accomplished the great object of his life. So we may be sure that, whatever our seeming fail ures in life, every sincere worker for Jesus shall win the crown of success. Here or hereafter, it is sure to come. No life lived for Jesus is a tragedy or a failure. (8) John gained his wider outlook, and it shone with hope. We, too, in Jesus see the wider vision, immortal life and service beyond the grave ; and through the windows opened by Isaiah and by John in Revelation we see the new earth, and know that our life and work shall end in success. A wider outlook upon what God is doing else where, upon the progress of his kingdom in other places and by other means, will often remove the doubts from those whose outlook is narrowed by immediate surroundings of sorrow and sin.1 IV. DISCOURSE OF JESUS CONCERHTBTG JOHN, vers. 7-19. 7. Began to say unto the multitudes con cerning John. In answer to their thoughts and Papyrus Reed. secret questionings. They might imagine from John's message that the Baptist wavered in his faith, and that his imprisonment had shaken his constancy, and therefore that he was not so great a prophet after all. Our Lord reminds them of what John was. "What went ye out into the wilderness, where John had preached, to see ? i In Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia, the king in his vision sees seven great fears, importing ruin to him and hia kingdom. But his wise men show him that each sev eral fear waB in reality preted the vision. a great joy. He had misinter- 140 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 11 : 8-12. 8 But what went ye out for to see ? £ man clothed in soft fS ? Kid', they that wear soft raiment are in kings' houses. 9 But wherefore went ye out ? for to see? v aA prophet ? %, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. 10 * This'8 is he', of whom it is written, 2 Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, "who11 shall prepare thy way before thee. 11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not S a greater than John the Bap'tist: """withstanding he that ig ^lea*^ in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 " And from the days of John the Bap'tist until now the kingdom of hea ven suffereth violence, and metnofvvio?e1nce take it by force. y ch. 14. 5 & 21. 26. Luke 1.76. z Mark 1.2. Cited from Mai. 3. 1. a Luke 1C. 16. A reed shaken with the wind ? The reed of Egypt and Palestine is a very tall cane, growing twelve feet high, with a magnificent panicle of blossom at the top, and so slender and yielding that it will lie perfectly flat under a gust of wind, and immediately resume its upright position.1 " So far from being a reed, shaken by the wind of popular opinion, John was a rock, which stood unmoved though beaten by storms of suffering." 2 This is one of the common aspersions which men are apt to cast on those who become popular, that they bend to the popular breeze ; and it is one of their dangers. " An Arab told a friend of mine that ' the reed shaken with the wind ' was the musical reed pipe made to vibrate with the wind blown into it. ' Did you go out to hear a musician dis course sweet sounds ? ' " 8. A man clothed in soft raiment. Luxu rious or gorgeous clothing — a sign of an effemi nate and voluptuous nature, or a sycophant, who would flatter for the hope of gain. Contrast this with the rigorous fare and simple garb of John as described in Matt. 3 : 4. So the next accusation of the reformer, and his next danger, is that "he is making friends of the rich, and feathering his own nest." Behold, etc. No such man as this was the wilderness prophet. If you wished to find such men, you would go to the palace of Herod, where they are gorgeously apparelled. 9. A prophet? yea, . . . and more than a prophet. (1) Because himself the object of prophecy ; (2) because he pointed out the Mes siah, whom others only foretold, and saw him whom kings and prophets desired to see ; and (3) chiefest of all, because his position was nearest the threshold of the kingdom, and he, more than they all, helped to usher it in. 10. This is he, of whom it is written. In Mai. 3: 1. Behold, I send my messenger be fore thy face, etc. An allusion to one who went before an Eastern monarch to remove all obstacles out of his way. See on 3 : 3. He was the fore runner of Jesus, and therefore one more proof that Jesus was the Messiah. 11. There hath not risen a greater (prophet) than John the Baptist, in character, in work, in nearness to God, in position, in privilege, in success. Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, the New Kingdom, the New Dispensation, is greater than he. Not greater in character, but in privilege, in experi ence, in the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. He belongs to a higher dispensation, with larger influences of the Spirit, blessings beyond the comprehension of any in the previous dispen sation. The least seed grown above ground is greater than the greatest still beneath the soil. The child on a hilltop can see a wider vision of the earth than the tallest man in the valley. So we may say that the child to-day has more know ledge, and stands farther in advance, in chem istry, geography, history, in the blessings and comforts of civilization, than the greatest sages of the past, who had far more genius and intellect. " What sages would have died to learn Is taught by cottage dames." 12. And from the days of John the Baptist. Less than two years before, when he began the preparatory work for the new kingdom. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, etc. The metaphor is that of a city to which long siege has been laid, but which at last by one great, enthusiastic, impetuous assault, had been entered by the victorious troops. John and Christ are the beginning of a new and intensely earnest effort to take possession of the kingdom of heaven, so poorly represented by the Jews, and make it into the real, glorious kingdom of heaven. It was like the kernel of the seed in the spring time, with one supreme effort bursting through the hard shell where for long years it had been 1 Tristram. 2 Bp. Wordsworth. 11 : 13-19. MATTHEW. 141 13 "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until JShn. 14 And if ye arewuiiWto receive it, this is " EE-ir>n, which waf8£or to come. 15 °He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 16 H But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the nraSKtptacS! wwcrfcki unto their fellows, 17 Aan\fsay?' We haTe piped unto you, and ye bdaide not & it was right, and also the way of receiving the other mysteries of divine providence. 144 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 11 : 26-28. 26 ETyee,af0' Father; for so "it w^&ffiing in thy sight. 27 " All things havener, delivered unto me of my Father : and no "n? knoweth the Son,- £& the Father ; neither tad°othth any S the Father, save the Son, and n| Ho whomsoever the Son wiiTethto reveal him. 28 z Come unto " me, all \% that labour and are h heavy laden, and I will give you rest. v Luke 12. 32. Gal. 1. 15. w See ch. 28. 18. x Cp. John 1. 18 & 6. 46 & 7. 29 & 8. 19 & 10. 15 & 17. 2. y Cp. John 17. 26. z John 7. 37. Cp. John 6. 37. a Cp. ver. 3. b Cp. ch. 23. 4. Luke 11.46. 27. (2) The second answer was, AU things are deUvered unto me of (or by) my Father. Christ had control of all things, and could and would do what was best. It was not for want of goodness or power that things were not done dif ferently. There is some wise reason for all these mysteries. You need not fear that God is dead,1 or has lost control of the world. For even tome, whose love you can see, God has deliveredallt hings. And no man. Rather, no one, neither man nor angel. Knoweth the Son. Comprehends fully his na ture and his work. But the Father. There fore Jesus must be divine. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son. He only understands fully the infinite love, the far-reach ing plans, the holy nature of the Father. And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. By his character, his teachings, and his wonderful works. Every one of these proved the wisdom and goodness of the Father who sent Jesus. If God is good and wise in all we can see, he must be good and wise in his other acts of which the reasons are unknown. It was thus that God gave faith to Job in the mystery of affliction sent to the good. He showed him that everywhere in his visible works he was wise and good. There fore he must have the same qualities in his mys terious actions. Fear as a Motive. Fear — not terror, not fright, but a clear apprehension of consequences — is a proper, a useful, and a powerful motive for doing right. The first need of a sinful soul, the first need of a nation, is a deep sense of sin and guilt, and of danger flowing from them, with also a way and a hope of a better life. "Aristotle's conception of education, as learning to fear in due proportion those things worthy of being feared, would not serve badly as a definition also of courage." Fear is the rudimentary organ, on the full development and subsequent reduction of which many of the best things in the soul are de pendent. " A childhood too happy and careless and fearless is a calamity so great that prayer against it might stand in the old English service book beside the petition that our children he not poltroons."2 "If the reply comes that there is no use in trying to frighten men into doing right, all I can say is that we are not trying to frighten men into doing right. I think we should all agree that there is very little virtue, and certainly no beauty, in rectitude that is compulsory. But if I were sick and you were to come to me and tell me that I was in a bad way, and try to alarm me into consulting a physician, you would think it a very inapposite reply for me to make to say that for you to alarm me about my health showed in you an exceedingly narrow and inconsiderate and antiquated temper, and that no man ever yet se cured his health by attempts made to frighten him into recovery. You would answer, and very rea sonably, that you had no expectation that fright ening me would make me well, but' that you thought that by appealing to the spot where I kept my anxieties I might be induced to put myself under the care of a physician, who would make me well."3 Distinguish carefully a motive that may lead a person to become a. Christian from the motives which are the mainsprings of his Christian living after he has become one. As a Christian, higher motives of love, duty, honor, gratitude, move him more and more, and the consequences of sin less and less ; as a steamship is started from the docks by tugs, which are left behind when her own ma chinery is fully at work ; or, as a steamship with sails set is moved at first by wind and by steam, but, when under full headway, the wind may not he felt, as the machines do the whole work. II. INVITATIONS, vers. 28-30. In the previous verses Jesus urged men to leave the wrong way because of the consequences which were certain to follow sin. Now he attracts them by the blessings which follow right doing. 28. Come unto me. To where he was, to his person, to his heart, to his character, to his teach ing and training, to his care, to his method of living, to his kingdom. It is only there that the blessing can he found. It is a personal invitation. AU ye that labour. Those under the yoke, strug- 1 See the figure which closes Zola's story La BUe Hu- maine, and the story of Luther's discouragement when his wife put on mourning, as if God were dead. 2 Pres. G. Stanley Hall, A Study of Fears. * C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. 11 : 29. MATTHEW. 145 29 Take my c yoke upon you, and d learn of me ; for I am ' meek and lowly in heart: and •'ye shall find rest unto your souls. c Ecclus. 51. 20. d John 13. 15. Eph. 4. 20. Phil. 2. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 21. 1 John 2. 6. e Zech. 9. 9. 2 Cnr. 10. 1. Phil. 2. 7, 8. Cp. ch. 5. 5. / Jer. 6. 16. gling under heavy burdens, moving with diffi culty and pain, as a ship is said to labor, when badly ballasted, in a stormy sea. This labor re fers to the service of sin and Satan ; under the yoke of a hard master, whose yoke they bear, as oxen bear the yoke in order to serve their master. And are heavy laden. Heavy laden here means overstrained with too much load to be carried. " No one can mistake the almost violent force of such a figure who has ever noticed how the cru elty of people in Eastern countries leads them to pile on burdens to such an extent that their ill- favored animals can often be seen pitiably stag gering under a weight quite unendurable." l The burdens are our sins, our bad habits, cares, sor rows, remorse for the past, fears for the future, anxieties, losses, sickness, disappointments, ina bility to find work, debts, business cares, and all the other things that make life a burden.2 And I. The emphasis is on the I. No other can give the needed rest. Will give you rest. Not by taking away all burdens, but giving the right burden. There is no real rest without some burden. 30. For . . . my burden is light. Christ's burden is one of duty, of self-denial, of labor for him, of the cares that are needful for our best character and development. It is a burden of faith when we cannot see. It is the burden of love and gratitude ; and it is infinitely light com pared with the other burden. Compare the bur den of intemperance, of selfishness, of crime, of fashion, their burden on the conscience, their bur den of cost, with all the burdens that Jesus lays upon his disciples. The burden of Christ is like the tail of a kite, which keeps it steady, or like the string by which it rises ; like the weight of an engine, without which it could not pull the train ; like the burden of wings to a bird, which enable it to fly.3 The Rest that is oiven. There are two kinds of rest promised in this invitation : one is the rest that is given, the other the rest that is found. Here Christ promises to give rest. This rest is (1) that which has its source from without, from trust in the love of God. (2) It is rest from the burden of sin. Forgiveness brings peace. (3) It is the rest of protection. God keeping us under the shadow of his wing. (4) It is rest in the promise that all things should work together for good. (5) It is the rest of new and refreshing strength. The burden is light, is even an exhilaration and joy when strength is given to bear it. (6) It is the rest of love, of the sympathy and friendship of Christ. 29. Take my yoke upon you. Emphasis on my. A yoke means three things : (1) It is a mark of obedience and submission. (2) It is the means of service. It enables one to do work. (3) It is service with another. Usually two are yoked together. And learn of me. Both from my precepts and my example. Become my disciple, go to school to me as your teacher, not for a single lesson, hut for all time. Do as I do, learn to be what I am. For I am meek and lowly in heart. (1) Hum ble, compassionate, long-suffering, even toward poor scholars, and hence a blessed teacher of whom to learn. And (2) showing in his heart and life the principles he would teach, and which make his yoke easy. He is meek, mild, patient, not easily irritated, of sweet temper. He is lowly, has the true humility that exalts not self, but the truth. The Rest that is found. And ye shall find rest unto your souls. The first rest was given ; this rest is wrought into the soul. (1) It is the rest which we .find, through battle to vic tory, through labor to success, through prayer to peaceful communion with God, through cares and burdens and sorrows to the perfect peace of perfect trust. (2) It is the rest of free activity, unfettered and unrestrained by an unwilling mind. It is the rest of the activity of a perfectly healthy being who delights to do God's will as freely and gladly as a child plays, or a bird sings, or an artist paints.* (3) It is the rest of harmony with Christ and with our destiny and environ ment. There are no discords to make it hard, no fretting against Providence. Rest is in using the laws amid which we live, and not in resisting them. The ship rests when it moves swiftly according to the laws of the sea and the wind. " Rest is not quitting the busy career ; Rest is the fitting of self to one's sphere." i C. S. Robinson, D. D. 2 Compare the burden on Christian's back in Pilgrim's Progress. 3 See Schiller's poem setting forth this thought. Illus trations of this are found in the story of St. Christopher, who bore the Christ Child across the river, and the burden made him cross more eaBily than when alone ; found in The Schonberg-Cotta Family and Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art. A similar story from classic my thology is beautifully told by Hawthorne in his Wonder- Book. » Mrs. Osgood's Poems, " Labor is Rest." 146 THE TEACHERS' COMME 30 For " my yoke li easy, and my burden is light, 12. g 1 John 5. 3. (4) It is the rest of love, of delight to follow our leader, of joy to please him and do his will. 30. For my yoke is easy. "The word for ' easy ' means wholesome or advantageous ; not that the yoke is certainly easy to wear always, but that it is the best sort of thing for us ; natu ral and happy, on the whole." 1 Satan's yoke is always galling. The yoke of pride, ambition, selfishness, of fashion, of worldliness, of sin and remorse, of self-indulgence, of sensuality, of covetousness, is always a heavy, bitter, galling yoke, an Egyptian bondage. It is a yoke with Satan, going in his company, doing his will, and receiving his rewards. So the yoke the Pharisees laid on the people by their formalism, traditions and innumerable rules, was a hard yoke to bear. But Christ's yoke is easy. His service is a de light. It is a joy to work with him and for him. All the virtues are joyous and delightful, just in proportion to the degree in which we have them. CHAPTER 12. On the Growing Opposition to Christ and his Mission. Section XII. •FIVE SEPARATE ATTACKS; MARKING A DISTINCT EPOCH IN THE WORK OF CHRIST. First Attack : Through Christ's Method of keeping the Sabbath, vers. 1-13. Second Attack : A Council of the Rulers to destroy Jesus, vers. 14-21. Third Attack: False Accusations, on Ac count of the Healing of a Demoniac, vers. 22-37. Fourth Attack: The Demand for a Sign, vers. 38-45. Fifth Attack : Interference from his own Family, vers. 46-50. Time. At intervals during a year, from the Autumn of A. d. 28 to December, a. d. 29. Place. Galilee and Perea. Note. We have here another example of the way Matthew masses the teachings and events in Christ's life, which took place at different times and in different places, because they belong to one subject or phase of his life. So Matthew gathers together in this chapter matters scattered through nearly a year and a half of the ministry of Jesus, for the purpose of showing the growth of the opposition to him, its occasions and re sults. Note. The opposition was one of "the natural results of the condition of affairs, the good inter fering with the evil. (1 ) They resented his reform in cleansing the temple courts from money-changers and dealers in sacrifices, and the dishonest practices which made the temple a den of thieves. This touched their pockets, and reduced their income (John 2 : 13-25). (2) He taught contrary to their ideas of the Sabbath ; exposed and denied their false tradi tions. (3) His treatment of publicans and sinners scandalized their make-believe purity (Luke 7 : 36-50). (4) His popularity drew away the people from their influence. (5) His miracles gave him superiority over them. (6) He was a Galilean, and especially he was from the despised city of Nazareth. (7) He claimed to be the Messiah, and yet he was not doing what they expected the Messiah would do, and was leaving them out not only from official position, but even from the kingdom itself. Note three things in each case reported in this chapter : — (1) The occasions through which the opposition was developed. (2) Christ's method of dealing with it. (3) The truths brought into clearer light by the conflict. 1 C. S. Robinson. D. D. 12 : 1, 2. MATTHEW. 147 1 At that 8ea?on * Je'sus went on the sabbath day through the coSiks; and his disciples were an hungred, and *' began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2 But when the Phar'i-sees, when they saw "'i?,167 said unto him, > Behold, thy dis ciples do * that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath. day' h For vers. 1-8, see Mark 2. 23-28 & Luke 6. 1-5. 10 & 7. 23 & 9. 16. k Cp. Ex. 20. 9-11. i Deut. 23. 25. j Cp. ver. 10 & Luke 13. 14 & 14. 3 & John 5. I. FIRST ATTACK: THROUGH CHRIST'S METHOD OF KEEPING THE SAB BATH, vers. 1-13. Time. Early Summer of A. D. 28. Place. In the vicinity of Capernaum. Parallels. Mark 2 : 23-28; 3:1-5; Luke 6 : 1-11. Similars. Luke 13: 10-17; John 5 : 8-11. 1. At that time, or period, during some tour or season in Galilee, Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn, or grain. Better, fields of grain, i.e., wheat or barley. The English call all grain, corn. They were doubtless on their way to or from the morning service in the syn agogue, for his disciples were an hungred. " The rabbinical law allowed no eating on the Sabbath, except in case of sickness, prior to the morning prayers of the synagogue. A similar canon in the ritualistic churches of to-day for bids breaking the fast before partaking of the communion." x And began to pluck the ears of corn. Luke adds, " rubbing them in their hands," in order to separate the kernel from the chaff. There was no road with fences, bnt a mere path through the fields of standing grain, so that they did not have to go out of their way. 2. But when the Pharisees saw it. These Pharisees were accompanying Jesus, not to learn the truth, but for the one purpose of finding some fault with him. They hated him because they were wrong, and his teaching reproved them ; he swept away many of their false rules and cus toms, and they must either change their lives, or prove the teacher to be in some wrong. There fore they found every fault possible ; they per verted his acts and his words ; they measured them by a false standard ; they were pitilessly un fair. Behold, thy disciples. The narrative care fully avoids saying that Jesus plucked the grain and ate. He simply defended the right of his disciples to do so. Jesus had a perfect right not to pluck the grain, if thereby he could remove any obstacles in the way of the success of his work. He gave the Pharisees no ground for a personal accusation against himself. That which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. The act was lawful on any other day, being sanc tioned both by custom and the Mosaic law (Deut. 23 : 25). But the Fourth Commandment forbade any work on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees had interpreted this law in a most mechanical way, making a great many special prohibitions, the "violation of which they insisted was the breaking of the law. They said that reaping and threshing were work, and therefore forbidden, and " it was asserted that plucking corn ears was a kind of reaping, and rubbing them a kind of threshing." " If a woman were to roll wheat to take away the husks she would be guilty of sifting with a sieve." It is almost impossible for us to conceive what terribly exaggerated views concerning the Sab bath were held by the Jews of that day. In not less than twenty-four chapters of the Mishnah, a collection of binding precepts and legal decisions, matters concerning the Sabbath are discussed as if of vital religious importance, which one could scarcely imagine a sane intellect would seri ously entertain ; as, for instance, it was argued that to walk upon the grass with nailed shoes was a violation of the Sabbath, because it was a kind of threshing, and to catch a flea upon one's person was a violation, because it was a kind of hunting.2 "It was the boast that Jews were known over the world by their readiness to die rather than break the holy day. Every one had stories of grand fidelity to it. The Jewish sailor had re fused, even when threatened with death, to touch the helm a moment after the sun had set on Fri day, though a storm was raging; and had not thousands let themselves be butchered rather than touch a weapon in self-defence on the Sab bath ? The ' new doctrine ' of Jesus would turn the world upside 'down if not stopped." 3 "A tragic illustration of Jewish superstition came under my notice, a few years ago, in Jeru salem. A fire broke out, on the Sabbath, in a house in the Jewish quarter. No one would make the slightest effort to extinguish it. It being un lawful among them to kindle a fire on that day, they interpret this prohibition to imply that fire may not he touched ; and thus to save themselves from ceremonial pollution, as they supposed, there was not one who would make the slightest effort to rescue the inmates. Three beautiful young ' Abbott. 2 See The Jerusalem Talmud; and Edersheim's Life of Christ, vol. ii. pp. 783-787, Appendix xvii., where are given an immense number of these ridiculous ways of breaking the Sabbath. » Geikie. 148 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 12:3-7. 3 But he said unto them, ' Have ye not read what Da'vid did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him ; 4 how he entered into the house of God, and did eat "the shewbread, which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them ^iSf were with him, but only for the priests ? 5 Or have ye not read "in the law, how that on the sabbath day8 the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are ^uSSV 6 But I say unto you, °Thatinttnl1tSneceis<,M greater than the temple' i8here. 7 But if ye had known p what this meaneth, s I ^des'ST mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. USam. 21. 1-6. Seech. 21. 16. m. Ex. 25. 30. Lev. 24. 5-9. n Num. 28. 9, 10. Cp. 1 Chr. 9. 32 & John 7. 22, 23. o ver. 41, 42. Cp. ver. 8 & Hag. 2. 9 & Mai. 3. 1. p ch. 9. 13. q Cited from Hos. 6. 6. Cp. Mic. 6. 6-8. girls were burned to death, when a very little ex ertion might have saved them all. One of the women, on being afterwards reproached for this hideous tragedy, replied that it was a sacrifice acceptable to God, who would reward them for having allowed their dear ones to perish, rather than break his commandment." 1 It is necessary to have these traditions in mind in order to under stand Christ's position on the Sabbath question. Christ defends Himself by Two Scrip tural Examples. Christ replies to them calmly, without any rough condemnation or sarcasm, by two examples from the Scriptures which they believed to the letter, and whose Sabbath law they thought they were fulfilling ; and the exam ples were of persons whom they revered as pecu liarly holy. From these he would deduce the true principles of keeping the law. Their devotion to the Sabbath was right, but their method of apply ing its law was false in the extreme. A set of hard, definite rules binding the conduct, instead of great principles planted in the heart, always leads to evil, to inconsistency and hypocrisy, and smothers the true life under a load of mere out ward forms. 3. Have ye not read, so as to remember and apply. The scribes were familiar with the story, but had not seen its meaning. What David did, when he was an hungred. He and his men were suffering from want of food. The story is told in 1 Sam. 21 : 1-6. 4. How he entered into the house of God. The Tabernacle then at Nob, a hill near Jeru salem. And did eat the shewbread. The shew bread was the bread that was kept on the golden table in the Holy Place. It consisted of twelve loaves, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel (Ex. 25 : 23-30 ; 3!) : 36), . . . denoting that Jehovah was the Provider of his people's food. From 1 Sam. 21 : 6, it appears that the shewbread was given to David on the day on which it was changed, namely, on the Sabbath (see Lev. 24: 8). The example is thus appro priate as regards the day as well as the act.2 ¦Which was not lawful for him to eat . . . but only for the priests. Lev. 24 : 5-9. The Argument was that if David, to keep himself and his followers from suffering hunger, and to enable them to preserve their lives by es' caping from Saul, could, without blame, break a ceremonial law in its form, while keeping it in spirit, it must be right so to interpret the Sabbath law as to allow his disciples to do so much work on the Sabbath as was necessary to satisfy their hunger. There is a law that is higher than any outward form. " The Sabbath was made for man," for his good ; and if that good required the breaking of the form, it still kept the spirit. 5. Or have ye not read in the law, which makes the Sabbath the priests' busiest day of labor, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath. By performing the whole temple service. "Not merely does the sacred history relate exceptional instances of necessity, but the law itself ordains labor on the Sabbath day as a duty." s And are blameless, because the law of the best good of man, his spiritual life and moral character, re quired that the priests should not keep the form of the commandments. This labor on the part of a few was essential to the true Sabbath-keeping by the many ; and, moreover, such labor really fulfilled the spirit of the Sabbath, even to the workers. The True Principles of Sabbath-Keeping. 6. In this place is one greater than the temple. Jesus Christ himself. He was greater than the temple, (1) because he was the Lord for whom the temple was reared ; (2) all its sacrifices pointed to him, and had their fulfilment in him ; (3) he was the Spiritual Temple, the highest temple in which God dwelt. 1 Canon Tristram in Sunday-School Times. 2 Canon Cook. 1 Stier. 12 : 8, 9. MATTHEW. 8 For 'the Son of man is ,j0dvc" of the sabbath. (lay' 9 And when he was departed thence, ana "went into their synagogue: r Cp. ch. 9. G. s For ver. 9-14, see Mark 3. 1-6 & Luke 6. 6-11. 149 7. If ye had known what this meaneth. If you had understood the principle whieh underlies my defence of my disciples' conduct on the Sab bath. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. What helps and blesses men, rather than any forms of worship. All forms of worship are to help men, and any use of them to prevent good coming to man is contrary to their spirit and pur pose. 8. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath. Therefore he knew its full meaning, and could give the right interpretation of its law. " He was Lord of the Sabbath ; not, certainly, to abolish it, — that, surely, were a strange Lord ship, especially just after saying that it was made or instituted for man, — but to own it, to interpret it, to preside over it, and to ennoble it by merg ing it in the 'Lord's day' (Rev. 1: 10), breath ing into it an air of liberty and love necessarily unknown before."1 This principle is given in Mark 2 : 27, " The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." (1) The Sabbath is not abolished. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, did not abolish the Sabbath. He made it for man, and therefore it must endure as long as man lives on earth. The Fourth Commandment is written in the law of God, and in the nature of man. It is not a mere Jewish law, hut was made for man. It is the very height of absurdity to suppose that he would abolish a law absolutely necessary to the best welfare of man, and put nothing better in its place ; that he would take it from the stat ute book, while keeping it in the nature of man. " One of the surest marks and measures of the decay of religion in a people is their non- observance of the Lord's day."2 "Of all di vine institutions, the most divine is that which secures a day of rest for man. I hold it to be the most valuable blessing ever conceded to man."3 (2) Jesus rescued the Sabbath. What Jesus did was to rescue it from the false interpre tations put upon it ; from being a mere form to being a spirit and a life. Jesus swept away the cobwebs, he did not tear down the house. He only removed the rubbish with which the Phari sees had encumbered it ; and he left it a day of freedom, of joy, of peace. He tore down the scaffolding, that the house itself might he more convenient and beautiful to live in. Jesus would keep the jewel, but wash away the dirt which had accumulated upon it, and dimmed or destroyed its radiance. The Pharisees' interpretations made the law like a palimpsest where the classics and even the Bible were partly erased, and the com monest things written over them ; or, like the pictures by great masters in some of the Italian churches; which have been covered with white wash or stucco. It was such things that Jesus swept away, but left the original, and made it visible to all in its glory and beauty. (3) The Sunday Sabbath. Sunday is just as really the seventh day and the Sabbath day as is the Saturday Sabbath of the Jews. All the difference lies in beginning the count from a dif ferent point. Bush well says, " All that the commandment expressly requires is to observe a day of sacred rest after every six days of la bor. The seventh day, indeed, is to be kept holy, but not a word is here said as to the point from which the reckoning is to begin." It is every seventh day in rotation after six days of labor. (4) The only way to increase true Sabbath- keeping is by increasing the spirit of devotion and worship which requires such a day. It is needful to lift up the spirit of man to higher and nobler realms, and to prepare for immortal life. Man needs it as a day for moral training and in struction ; a day for teaching men about their duties, for looking at fife from a moral stand point. The Sabbath law of rest is a wall of pro tection against the inroads of those things which would make these impossible. (5) The Sabbath rightly used is the greatest institution for learning and culture and soul growth the world has ever known. Hence the neglect of the Sabbath is the surest road to ruin. It is especially important as protecting the inter ests of those who work for others. It is their jubilee of freedom, the magna charta of liberty. (6) Jesus gives us the true principle of Sab bath-keeping. It must be for the whole of man, body and soul. It must be helpful to man. Whatever uplifts, comforts, enlarges man, is adapted to the Sabbath. There are times when this law of help is larger than the law of rest, as in the eases Jesus referred to. With such excep tions the rule is that since the Sabbath was made for man, i. e., for all men, we must so keep the Sabbath as not to take away its blessing from others. How Jesus kept the Sabbath. (1) He went to a religious service. 9. He went into their synagogue. Luke says it was on another Sab- 1 David Brown. 2 Pastoral Letter of Third Plenary Council at Baltimore. 8 Lord Beaconsfield. 150 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 12 : 10-17. 10 T ana' behold, therewas a man h^V^ka hand. witheied' And they asked him, saying, ' Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath dayV " that they might accuse him. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be an0°nB you, that shall have one sheep, and " if this fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift H out? 12 w How much then is a man 0f ino'lvaiue than a sheep! Wherefore x it is law ful to do Son on the sabbath ddaayy8.' 13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth *tSye hand. And he •> stretched \[ forth ; and it was restored whole, llke as the other. 14 IT TBhutn the Phar'i-sees. went out, and z ^ccSSSe? against him, how they might destroy him. 15 Buinvdhen Je'sus pereetvTng if ahe withdrew himself from thence: and " Breat JSSVtadeB followed him'; and he healed them all; 16 and4 c charged them that they should not make him known : 17 d that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by t'SfS^ the prophet, saying, t Cp. Luke 14. 3. See ver. 2. u Cp. Luke 11. 54 & 20. 20 & John 8. 6. v Cp. Ex. 23. 4, 5 & Deut. 22. 4. . w ch. 6. 26 & 10. 31. a; Cp. John 5. 16, 17. y Cp. 1 Kin. 13. 4. z ch. 22. 15 & 27. 1 & 28. 12, al. a Mark 3. 7. John 10. 39. See ch. 10. 23. b ch. 19. 2. c Mark 1. 25 (Gk.) & 3. 12 & 8. 30. Luke 4. 41 (Gk.) & 9. 21. See ch. 8. 4. d See ch. 1. 22. bath. This shows one way in which Jesus was accustomed to keep the Sabbath. (2) He helped those in need. 10. A man which had his hand withered, {. e., dried up from a deficient absorption of nutriment. Luke says it was his right hand. This would hinder him in earning a living. They asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath ? The question was still being discussed. Here was another op portunity for Jesus to explain his views about Sabbath-keeping. But the object of the Jews was that they might accuse him, and thus bring him to trial for Sabbath-breaking, and both discredit his teaching and prevent him from con tinuing to teach. 11, 12. One sheep, and if it fall into a pit, etc. Jesus appealed to their own interpretation of the Sabbath law ; and then turned it against themselves by asking, How much then is a man better (of more value) than a sheep ? "Where fore, according to their own rules, it is lawful to do well, to do good deeds, on the sabbath. 13. Then saith he to the man. He did one of the good deeds it was lawful to do. " As the cure is wrought only by a word, the Pharisees have no ground of accusation ; there has been no infraction of the letter of even their own regula tions."1 Their whole plan was thus frustrated, while Jesus gave fresh emphasis and new light to his teachings ; and he set a good example of wisdom in not unnecessarily awakening prejudice against him. SECOND ATTACK : BY A COLTITCIL OF THE RULERS, vers. 14-21. Time. Directly following the previous attack. Early Summer of A. D. 28, near Capernaum. Parallels. Mark 3 : 6-12; Luke 6: 11. 14. The Pharisees, " filled with madness " (Luke), went out from the synagogue where Jesus had healed the withered hand, and discomfited the Pharisees in the Sabbath argument. And held a council with the Herodians (Mark), the court party, their natural opponents. They agreed only in their antagonism to Jesus. The Herodians might help them with the government. How they might destroy him. They could not argue him down, for they were in the wrong. The only way, it seemed to them, to save their in fluence with the people, and what they thought was religion, was to put the reformer out of the way. 15. Jesus . . . withdrew himself, acting on the counsel he had given to his apostles (10 : 23). He went to a level place (Luke), by the seashore (Mark). And great multitudes followed him. It was the rulers who opposed. The people needed the words and the deeds of Jesus, for he healed them all. This is another of those sum maries of miracles which Matthew has given sev eral times before. 16. Should not make him known, on account of the plot of the Pharisees, who would interfere with his work. 17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias, the Greek form of Isaiah. 1 Abbott. 12 : 18-21. MATTHEW. 151 18 ' Behold, my 'servant whom I have chosen; "Sy beloved' in whom my soul is weU pleased: *I will put my SgSfe upon him, An„dd he shall dSS&SSSSSS* to the Gen'tiles. 19 He shall not strive, nor cry1 aiouafseW shall any ",'£? hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed shall he not break, Anndd smoking flax shall he not quench, tui he send forth ^leSt unto victory. 21 *And in his name shall the Gen'tiles. i^l: e Cited from Isai. 42. 1-3. / Acts 4. 27, 30. g ch. 3. 17 (mg.). A Cp. Isai. 61. 1 & Luke 4. 18 & John 3. 34 & Acts 10. 38. i Isai. 42. 4 (Gk.). Cp. Isai. 11. 10 & Rom. 15. 12. Saying (Isaiah 42 : 1^). The prophet's words were spoken first of the return of the Jews from exile, and the restoration of the kingdom and the Temple. But the larger fulfilment, of which the Return was a type and example, was the re turn from spiritual exile, and the restoration of the true kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. 18. Behold my servant (my son, of Ps. 2 : 7), "the personal instrument of Israel's redemp tion." 1 'Whom I have chosen. The elect people of Israel, who led the Return, a type of Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one, the beloved. " The conception of the Servant of Jehovah is, as it were, a pyramid, of which the base is the peo ple of Israel as a whole, the second part, Israel ' according to the Spirit,' and the summit the person of the Mediator of Salvation who arises out of Israel." 2 I will put my spirit upon him, so that he is the representative of God, and expresses his character and desires for men. He shall shew judgment. Justice, righteousness, "the true religion regarded from its practical side."2 To the Gentiles. The nations, who were idolaters. 19. He shall not strive, nor cry. He shall not conquer the nations by armies, and battles, and shouts of the warrior, but "his methods shall be purely inward and spiritual ; " 1 by the "still small voice " of the Spirit ; by the power of reason, and conscience, and persuasion, and truth. Neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. This cannot mean that he will not preach the Gospel, for the prophet's " constant keynotes are 'speak,' 'lift up the voice with strength,' 'sing,' 'publish,' 'declare.' In fact there is no use to which the human voice has ever been put in the service of man, for comfort's sake, or for justice, or for liberty for the diffusion of knowledge, or for the scattering of music, which our prophet does not enlist and urge upon his people." 3 The word for " cry " is not the call of a herald, but "to scream." The Servant of Jehovah will not brawl in the streets, or scream, or gain his ends by noisy violence or contention ; just as Jesus and his apostles went elsewhere when mobbed or persecuted. All this was in vivid contrast with the turbulent violence of those who were trying to overthrow the Roman government and he the false messiahs of force and revolution. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break.* He shall respect the feeblest desires for better things. And smoking flax, Heb., "a dimly burning wick," shall he not quench, extinguish. " The virtues expiring among the nations, but not dead ; " 3 the poorest, the weakest, the sorely crushed he cares for with his gentle hand. " To the poor the Gospel is preached." He encour ages " the slightest spark of repentant feeling," the weakest longing to return to God. Compare the father in the Prodigal Son ; and the case of Zaccheus ; and Jesus' treatment of the publicans and sinners. The name of God as our Father, revealed clearly by Jesus, expresses the same lov ing care. Till he send forth judgment. The principles of truth and righteousness, the principles of the kingdom of heaven. Unto victory. Till they shall succeed in redeeming the individual, mak ing the feeble spark to become a flame of divine love that cannot be extinguished ; and bringing the whole world under their sway. Christ's plan and method were the only ones that could pos sibly make righteousness to triumph, and cause God's kingdom to come, and his will to he done " on earth as it is in heaven." 21. And in his name shall the Gentiles 1 Prof. Cheyne on Isaiah. 2 Prof. Delitzsch on Isaiah. 3 Prof. George Adam Smith on Isaiah. * " Compare the beautiful passage in Dante, where Cato directs Virgil to wash away the stains of the nether world from Dante's face, and to prepare him for the ascent of the Purgatorial mount by girding him with a rush, the emblem of humility " (Purgatorio, i. 94-105, 133-137). — Prof. M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 152 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 12 : 22-26. 22 If j Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind' and dumb : and he healed him, insomuch that the Wind and dumb „££ spake and saw. 23 * And all the muSSles were amazed, and said, *Is not this the son of Da'vid? 24 But when the Ph&r'i-sees. heard !|; they said, This /man° doth not cast out devils, ' but by Be-eTze-bub the prince of the devils. 25 And Je'sus m knowing their thoughts' nfe said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand : 26 £$& if Sa'tan A out Sa'tan, he is divided against himself ; how then shall then j^g kingdoni stand ? j For vers. 22-24, see Luke 11. 14, 15. Cp. ch. 9. 32-34. k John 4. 29 & 7. 26, 31. See ch. 9. 27. I Mark 3. 22. See ch. 10. 25. m See ch. 9.4. n For vers. 25-29, see Mark 3. 23-27 & Luke 11 . 17-22. trust. The Messiah's work would extend to all nations. His gentle, patient, hopeful, spiritual methods were the only ones which could reach them. He cherished whatever was good in them, however feeble and dim might be the spark of divine life within them. THIBD ATTACK : FALSE ACCUSATIONS ON ACCOUNT OF THE HEALING OF A DEMONIAC, vers. 22-37. Time. Autumn, A. d. 28 or 29. Place. Capernaum. Parallels. Mark 3 : 22-30 ; Luke 11 : 14-23. 22. Then. Not referring to time, but to sequence of attacks. After he had defended himself from one attack, then came another from a different point. One possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb. An unusually diffi cult case. Concerning demoniacs see on 8 : 28-34. And he healed him. There were practically three miracles in one. " When Satan is de throned, the spiritual faculties begin to work at once."1 23. And all the people were amazed (e|«r- ravro), " removed out of their senses," astonished beyond measure ; so that the word " amazed " sig nifies astonished with perplexity. They were in a maze, they could not understand it. They ques tioned, Is not this the son of David (omit " not"), is not this the promised Messiah ? 24. But when the Pharisees heard it. They had come down from Jerusalem (Mark) to see what they could do to stop this Galilean reformer. They said. In contrast with what the people had said, this fellow is possessed by Beelzebub (Mark) and doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. See on 9 : 34. They could not deny the fact, and therefore sought to explain it away. The prince of demons could cast out his demon subjects in order to deceive men, so that people might be lieve his pestiferous teaching as if it were from God. The Pharisees endeavored to put Satan's labels on God's good works. Sometimes new and progressive truths have been labelled " error," and sometimes saints have been labelled " here tics," and "back numbers." Evil has been labelled "good," and deadly heresies have been labelled "progressive thought." The use of false catch phrases has been a favorite device for lead ing astray the unsuspecting. 25. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and called them unto him (Mark) and said unto them, by comparisons, illustrations, analogies (Mark). Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. The kingdom of heaven, with all its virtues and blessings for man, with Christ at its head, was arrayed against the king dom of evil, with Satan at its head. Everything Christ did was destructive of what Beelzebub did. The prince of demons might order some demon out of a man for the sake of deceiving some one. but he could not systematically oppose his own princi ples, and try to make men healthy, and holy, and happy. "A nation or kingdom may embrace within itself infinite parties, divisions, discords, jealousies, and heart-burnings ; yet, if it is to sub sist as a nation at all, it must not, as regards other nations, have lost its sense of unity. When it does so, of necessity it falls to pieces and per ishes." 2 Every city or house divided against itself. That is, the household of some large landholder or prince, or a business house. If some individual in the castle betrays their plans to an enemy, or if some are seeking to destroy the work which others are trying to do, there can be no prosperity. 26. If Satan cast out Satan, etc. Therefore, it is absurd to suppose that I, who am in every way seeking to destroy his kingdom, can be in league with him. Moreover, if Jesus were in league with Satan and yet working against him, ! Spurgeon, '¦ Arbp. Trench. 12 : 27-32. MATTHEW. 153 27 And if I by Bg-61'zg-bub cast out devils, ° by whom do your » cb8odnsen cast them out? therefore 8haii they 8haU be your judges. 28 But if I by the spirit of cod cast out devils, *by the Spirit of God' then iB -the kingdom of God ls come lf0l you. 29 Or el8e "how can one enter into thehous™ogfThenstrhonugmM, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong S? and then he will 'spoil his house. 30 " He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. abroad' 31 " If ?rS» I say unto you, Ml3%™TOt sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the » blasphemy S&t the /fo'^£tost shall not be forgiven. untomen- 32 And whosoever sSi?skPeeak a word x against the Son of man, " it shall be for given him; but ""whosoever shiTfsfe'ak against the Holy sfwt,' it shall not be for given him, neither in z this world, nenohrer hi tiS'wMch is to come. o Cp. Acts 19. 13. p Cp. 2 Kin. 2. 7. q Cp. ver. 18. r ch. 19. 24 & 21. 31, 43. Luke 17. 21. Cp. ch. 3. 2 & Mark 1. 15, al. s Isai. 49. 24. t Cp. Isai. 53. 12. « Luke 11. 23. Cp. Mark 9. 40 & Luke 9. 50. v For ver. 31, 32, see Mark 3. 28-30. Cp. Luke 12. 10 & Heb. 6. 4-6 & 10. 2G & 1 John 5. 16. w Cp. Acts 7. 51 & Heb. 10. 29. xah. 11. 19. John 7. 12 & 9. 24. y 1 Tim. 1. 12, 13. z Cp. Eph. 1. 21. it would be wise for the Pharisees to let him alone, for he would soon destroy himself. 27. If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, demons. If what you charge against me is true, it must hold against your own disciples. Sons, refers to their disciples, trained up by them ; like the phrase " sons of the prophets." They were the Jewish exorcists (Mark 9 : 38 ; Acts 19 : 13), who professed to cast out evil spirits. Whether they really did do it, or only seemed to, the argu ment is the same. They had some kind of results of their incantations. They shaU be your judges. They convict you of slander and in justice since you charge me with collusion with Satan, but do not charge them, though they pre tend to do the same thing. 29. How can one enter a strong man's house. A general truth, but here applied to Satan's stronghold, wherever he has possession, as the soul of a man held in possession by Satan or his demons. And spoil his goods. Jesus was defeating Satan by casting out the demons Satan had sent, by cleansing the soul from the sins, the evil passions, which Satan plants and fosters there. Except he first bind the strong man. By every' act which shows that he is stronger. Christ's teachings and his works showed that he had gained a victory over Satan and was stronger than he. 30. He that is not with me is against me. This is a general principle, applied to the rulers and the people. I stand for the kingdom of God. If you oppose me and my teachings you show that you do not belong to that kingdom, but the king dom of evil. You must be in one or the other. He that gathereth not the people into the fold of God, with me, scattereth abroad, the sheep into the deserts and wilds. 31 . "Wherefore I say unto you. Because by your opposition to me, and your unjust charges, you are perilously near to blasphemy, and the un pardonable sin. Ah manner cf sin and blas phemy, slanderous, injurious, insulting speaking against others, shall be forgiven, are forgiv able, can be forgiven to those who repent. But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, shall not be forgiven. Blasphemy against God was equivalent to treason in our times, treason against the kingdom of heaven and its king. It was punishable by death according to Jewish law ; and was the crime of which Jesus was accused by the Sanhedrim, and condemned to death. 32. A word against the Son of man was for givable, for men might not recognize him as the representative of God, and thus might speak evil of him, and yet not intend to blaspheme God, or set themselves against God. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him. Because it is a deliberate and conscious rejection of good, and choice of evil. This sin cannot be forgiven, not because God is unwilling to forgive, or has no feelings of mercy toward such a sinner, but be cause one who thus sins against the Holy Spirit has put himself where no power can soften his heart or change his nature. A man may misuse his eyes and yet see ; but whosoever puts them out can never see again. One may misdirect his mariner's compass, and turn it aside from the north pole by a magnet or piece of iron, and it may recover and point right again ; but whosoever destroys the compass itself has lost his guide at sea. So it is possible for us to sin and be for given : recovery through God's Spirit is not im- But if we so harden our hearts that 154 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 12 : 33-37. 33 " Either make the tree good, and !£? fruit good ; or eIse make the tree cor rupt, and Its fruit corrupt : b for the tree is known by Its fruit. 34 ° ye^ofs'prtag1 of vipers, how can ye, d being evil, speak good things ? c for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 ' The good man out of SI good treasure ' bringeth forth good things : and ahne evil man out of fig evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 2nd I say unto you, that f every idle word that men shall speak, ffthey shall give account thereof *in the day of jSdfeSnt. 37 For *' by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. a ch. 7. 16-20. b Luke 6. 43, 44. c ch. 3. 7 & 23. 33. d ch. 7. 11. e ch. 15. 18, 19. Luke 6. 45. Cp. ch. 13. 52 & Eph. 4. 29. / Cp. Eph. 5. 4, 11 & 2 Pet. 1. 8. g Eccles. 12. 14. Rom. 14. 12. 1 Pet. 4. 5. A See Acts 17. 31. i Cp. ch. 5. 22 & James 3. 2-12. they cannot feel the power of the Spirit, if we are past feeling, then there is no hope. Neither in this world, not xocrpm, the physical world, but tcu alSivi, this age, period. Neither in this world-period. Neither in the world to come, the coming world-period, or age. The truth is the same whether this refers to the Jewish and the Christian dispensations, or to the first and the second coming of Christ ; or to the present and the future life. The Unpardonable Sin. In former times, more than in our day, many with tender con sciences were greatly troubled lest they had com mitted the unpardonable sin. But (1) whoever feels sorry for his sin cannot have committed the unpardonable sin, because God has repeatedly promised forgiveness to all such. (2) Jesus, in this very passage, says that every kind of sin can receive forgiveness except this one, which is a hardening of the heart against every possible in fluence that can change it. He does not say that sin against the Holy Spirit, but only blasphemy, is unpardonable. (3) God's invitations show that all who desire forgiveness, all who have any feeling of tenderness, all who are weary of sin, can have abundant forgiveness. 33. But why should mere words, however bit ter, be subject to such severe punishment ? Be cause the tree is known by his fruit. The words reveal character, and the character produces fruit after its kind. (See on 7 : 16-18.) You should be honest in your judgment. Here are my good works ; they must proceed from good principles. They could not come from one in league with Satan. 34. O generation of vipers. (See on 3: 7.) Offspring of vipers, having the deadly nature of vipers. How can ye, being evil, speak good things. Your slanders against me, your plots, your angry words and false charges, show your real nature. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The mouth is the easiest outlet of the feelings and character within. " It does not mean that the definite subjects which most engage a man's interest will be neces sarily most talked about by him." Nor does it mean that a bad man may not sometimes speak most excellent words, for a time and for a pur pose. But to those that will observe carefully, and note all his speech under differing circum stances, the words will infallibly indicate in some way what is in the heart. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart. Only that which is in the heart can come forth from it. You can dig out of the mine only what is in the mine, — from the gold mine, gold; from the coal mine, coal. From a poisoned fountain only deadly waters can flow. In the Parliament of Religions the theories of religion were presented, but the real test of their value would .have been in bringing together the people made by the religion, the practical results. When some one said to Wendell Phillips that Hinduism was as good as Christianity, he replied, " India is the answer." 36. That every idle word that men shall speak. Idle, ipybv, from &, not, and epyov, work. That which does not work, is useless, accom plishes no purpose. Careless words, thoughtless words, innuendoes, slurs, sneers, spoken idly, often do an immense amount of mischief. " Evil is wrought by want of thought As well as want of heart." The expression does not refer to pleasantries, and clean, harmless joking, free from irreverence, malice, or possible injury to others ; for these are not idle, hut answer a good purpose. The state ment is that everything that proceeds out of the heart, even the smallest word, expresses the character within, and therefore we shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37. For by thy words, as the fruits of the heart, as flowing from the character,1 thou shalt 1 Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes gives a great many instances. 12 : 38-40. Matthew. 155 mm, saymg, 38 If Then certain of the scribes and °rthe PhaYi-seesj answered' Master, J we would see a sign from thee. 39 But he answered and said unto them, * An evil and l adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and -there shall no sign be given to it' but the sign of the prophet Jo'nas : Jo'nah the prophet : 40 Fo? mas jo'nah, was three days and three nights in the hei7yof1hebwiiaie; "so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. jch. 16. 1. Mark 8. 11, 12. Luke 11. 16 & 23. 8. John 2. 18 & 4. 48 & 6. 30. 1 Cor. 1. 22. k ch. 16. 4. For vers. 39-42, see Luke 11. 29-32. Cp. Mark 8. 11, 12. I Isai. 57. 3. Mark 8. 38. James 4. 4. m Jonah 1. 17. n Cp. ch. 17. 22, 23. be justified, shown to be just, righteous ; or con demned, because shown to be bad at heart. POUETH ATTACK: THE DEMAND FOB A SIGN, vers. 38-45. Immediately following the last attack. 38. Certain of the scribes and . . . Phari sees answered. Answered the necessary infer ence from what he had said, that he was from heaven, and represented God and the good, and that they were opposed to these. Master, teacher, we would, we wish to, see a sign from thee, a sign from heaven (Luke 11 : 16). "Sign " was one of the terms used for miracle, a divine act which signified that the worker was from God ; a testi mony from heaven that Jesus was really what he claimed to be. Jesus had given abundant signs. There was not a lack of signs, but of eyes to see them. Still they wanted one of their own choos ing, like the manna by Moses, the sun and moon standing still by Joshua, or fire from heaven by Elijah. "Their language was respectful, but their design bad (Luke 11 : 161." 39. An evil and adulterous generation. Frequently God's people are represented as a bride, a wife, wedded to him in the most intimate and beautiful relations. "Forsaking God, — seek ing after idols, turning from the true religious and righteous life, — for worldly advantages and pleasures, is like unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. That generation had forsaken God, their hearts were made dull and hard by sin. When such a generation seeketh after a sign . . . there shall no sign be given to it ; for it would do no good. They would not see it as a sign ; they would misinterpret it, and misuse it. For such a sign would not be in accordance with the_ prin ciples of the true Messiah, would not be his sign, but only that of a worldly Messiah, an outward King and Conqueror such as they expected. There is no use in singing angels' songs to the deaf, or painting pictures for the blind, or for those who are looking through distorting glasses. But the sign of the prophet Jonas, Jonah. In two ways Jonah was to be a sign to them. The First Sign. 40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, in the heart of the sea. The Greek here trans lated "whale," rod kt/tovs, is a general term for sea monster, as is the Hebrew in the story of Jonah. So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, in the grave. According to the common view that Christ was crucified on Friday, he was in the grave only from Friday night till Sunday morn ing, parts of three days and three nights. But with the Orientals these counted as three days and three nights. " When the Oriental speaks of a day he says ' a day and a night ; ' that is his phrase for ' a day.' A part of a day counts for ' a day ' or for ' a day and a night,' whether it includes any of the night or not. Thus, an hour before a. new day and an hour after a new day, together with the interven ing day, counts as three days and three nights, because it includes parts of three days or of three of those days which are called 'a day and a night.' " i " This ancient usage as to time-reckoning still prevails in Palestine. Dr. Robinson, the distin guished author of Biblical Researches, on going to the Holy Land found that ' five days ' of quar antine really meant ' only three whole days and a small portion of two others.' " The same method of counting is used as to years in reckoning the length of the reigns of kings. If any one hesi tates about accepting this undoubted fact in its application to the three days that Jesus was in the grave, he can agree with those who believe that Jesus was crucified on Thursday instead of Friday. Another view of "the heart of the earth" is presented in the Expositor for July, 1897. It means "in the depths of distress," of misery, gloom, depression, as in Ps. 71 : 20, and 88 : 6 ; and hence includes the time, three full days and nights, from Thursday evening, through Gethsemane and the Crucifixion, till Sunday morn ing. How was this a sign ? Jonah's experience of three days in the depths and his deliverance iH.C. Trumbull. 156 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 12 : 41-45. 41 ° The men of Nm'e-veh shall Bta£dnP in the"udgiment with this generation, and p shall condemn it : ^r??86 «they repented at the preaching of j^ntn:; and' behold, ra greater than jS'Sahll here. 42 s The queen of the south shall rise up in the judfe™nt with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the utte™°|ii>art6 0f the earth to hear the wisdom of Sol'o-mon ; and' behold, '' a greater than SoTo-mon IS here. 43 ^ut" 'the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, hePIsaekthh through " wa&ss places, seeking rest, and findeth i°°nnoet. 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth It empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wevued than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and " the last State of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this w wevifd genera tion. o Jonah 1. 2. p Heb. 11. 7. Cp. Jer. 3. 11 & Ezek. 16. 51, 52 & Wisd. 4. 16 & Rom. 2. 27. o Jonah 3. 5. r ver. 6. jl Kin. 10. 1. 2 Chr. 9. 1. ( For vers. 43-45 see Luke 11. 24-26. u Cp. Ps. 63. 1 & Jer. 2. 6. v 2 Pet. 2. 20-22. Cp. Ecclus. 34. 26 & John 5. 14. w ver. 39. was a type of Christ's experience of three days in the grave, and his deliverance by his resurrection. And as Jonah's experience proved to those whom he urged to repentance that God had sent him, so Christ's experience would in the future prove that he was the Messiah sent from God, to urge all men to repentance. The sign was not given them, but it would be in due time. The Second Sign was that as Jonah preached to the Ninevites, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, unless they repented being always implied ; so Jesus proclaimed, Repent, or Jerusalem shall be overthrown ; repent each one of you, or you must perish. Their repentance was a sign to this generation. 41. The men of Nineveh shall rise, stand up or come forward as witnesses in the judgment. Both when the judgment of God came on Jerusa lem, and in the final judgment day. And shall condemn it, by their example of repentance. And, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Therefore your crime is greater in your refusing to repent since you have greater reasons and motives for repentance. They might have been saved as Nineveh was, but they refused. 42. The queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, supposed to be Sabsea in the south of Arabia. ShaU condemn it, by her noble con- duet, proving what was possible to this genera tion, who in spite of her example refused to learn wisdom of a wiser than Solomon, and to seek for wonderful spiritual riches, "of which the half cannot be told," beyond all that attracted the queen to Solomon's court. 43. Jesns again warns the Pharisees, by an illustration, of the great and insidious danger that threatens them on account of their sins. ¦When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, any supposed individual. He walketh through dry places, deserts, where there is nothing at tractive, and he is restless because he finds no congenial home. This explains why he wishes to go back to his familiar haunt in the man. The sinful heart is the natural home of the evil spirit. 44. He findeth it empty, swept, and gar nished. Nothing new, no great interest, no ful ness of the Holy Spirit had taken his place. Here was the fatal mistake of the man. The emptiness of the house was an invitation to the evil spirit to return. 45. Seven other spirits. Even had spirits want company ; sins grow in clusters. Evils are allied one to another. And dwell there. They knew they could remain in a heart that being once cleansed did not put good in the place of the evil. Applications. "The popular superstition which credits every deserted house with being haunted, and peoples it with had spirits, has a germ of truth." " ' We must empty by filling,' said a divinely enlightened woman, Ellice Hop kins ; and a wise man has said, ' Nothing is ever displaced until it is replaced.' In these two utter ances lies the secret (if it be a secret) of all reform. Here, as elsewhere, nature (which abhors a vacu um) teaches. We cannot pump the darkness out of a room : we must empty it by filling it with light. One tallow-dip will do more to exclude darkness than a thousand steam-pumps. The only way to shut out disease is to fill the veins with health. In morals we must banish the degrading by the ele vating — not by prohibition but by substitution. We must crowd out the saloon by the reading- room, the lecture, the hoys' guild, and the young 12 : 46-48. MATTHEW. 157 46 If While he was yet spaawng to the muTtSes, behold, g|S * mother and his « breth ren stood without, ffiuSf to speak "&11 him. 47 And one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand with out, Sf to speak *£" thee. 48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? x For verB. 46-50, see Mark 3. 31-35 & Luke 8. 19-21. 14. 1 Cor. 9. 5. Gal. 1. 19. y ch. 13. 55. Mark 6. 3. John 2. 12 & 7. 3, 5, 10. Acts 1, men's club, with its light and pleasant rooms, its games, and its cheerful welcome." 1 So shall it be also unto this wicked genera tion. They had cast out idolatry, and the neglect of God's worship and of God's Word. The nation had " become empty, swept, and garnished, — swept and garnished by the decencies of civiliza tion and discoveries of secular knowledge, but empty of living and earnest faith." 2 They had not filled the nation with piety, with good works, with labors for the salvation of men. The place of the old had not been filled. Then entered impurity and selfishness, ambition, hypocrisy, adultery, false swearing, narrowness, hate of what was good, love of money, and love of praise. The end was that the nation and the temple were de stroyed, and destroyed by these very evils, as the story of the destruction of Jerusalem forty years later shows. If they had only taken Christ and the Holy Spirit into their emptied house, they would have remained unto this day. The same principle holds of every reform, whether of the individual or the nation. Unless the converted or reformed man or the church is filled with the Holy Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit, with faith and love and absorbing interest in God's kingdom, in labors for others, in devo tion to missions and all good things, living and earnest, — that soul or that church will grow worse instead of better. THE FIFTH FORM OF OPPOSITION: FKOM HIS OWN FAMILY, vers. 46-50. Time. Autumn, A. D. 28. Place. Capernaum. Parallels. Mark 3 : 31-35 ; Luke 8: 19-21. 46. While he yet talked to the people. In the house where he had just been discoursing, and apparently interrupting his discourse. His mother Mary, no doubt with the very best of in tentions and deepest love. His brethren. Their names, James, Joses, Simon, Judas, are given in Matt. 13 : 55 and Mark (i : 3. " Some understand them to have been his literal ' brethren,' others think they were the sons of Cleophas and Mary, the sisterand namesake of the Virgin." 3 In the latter case, they were cousins of Jesus, and prob ably adopted into the family. Commentators are about equally and earnestly divided between the two opinions. Joseph was not mentioned, and was probably dead. At this time his brethren did not believe on him (John 7 : 5). Stood with out. Having arrived at Capernaum after a jour ney of some hours from Nazareth on purpose to lay hold of him (Mark 3 : 21), they stood without the house, or on the outskirts of the circle of his hearers, desiring to speak with him. 47. They sent a message to him, probably passing the word from one person to another, till some one said unto him that his mother and brothers were waiting to speak to him. The Reason seems to have been that he ap peared to them to be out of his mind (Mark 3 : 21). " It was only an honest fear that he was going crazy, and needed to be taken care of," as Festus thought Paul was out of his mind. For (1) he was making the religious leaders his enemies ; (2) he was preachingstrange, almost revolutionary doctrines ; (3) the great crowds and the conse quent excitement might render him fanatical ; (4) he was not taking the place which they sup posed the Messiah would take. Such a Messiah as he was seemed almost absurd to them ; (5) without doubt many false or exaggerated stories were told concerning him, put in circulation by the Pharisees and his enemies. (6) They probably thought he was in danger of his life. Opposition from Friends is very common in the career of reformers and of those who depart from the ordinary course. History is full of in stances. It is very frequent, too, in the case of those who, in irreligious families or societies, seek to become Christians. (See Matt. 10: 24, 35-37.) Here is a severe test. But the only way in which this world can be improved and saved is by that faith, and character, and truth which will do right no matter who opposes. They who when " at Rome do as the Romans do " in matters of conscience will never change Rome into the city of God. 48. He answered . . . Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? There is nothing contemptuous in this reply, nor any hint that Jesus ignored earthly relationships. We know » Wayland Hoyt, D. D. ' Alford. s Cambridge Bible. 158 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13. 49 And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren ! 50 For z whosoever shall ° do the will of my Father which is in heaven, theh^me is my brother, and sister, and mother. z Cp. John 15. 14 & Heb. 2. 11. a ch. 7. 21. Cp. Luke 11. 28. that he loved his mother by his care for her when dying on the cross. But the answer was twofold. First, he taught them that his earthly relations had no control over his divine work. It was im possible for them then to understand him, or to judge correctly as to his duty. Second, he used these earthly relationships as an illustration and an invitation. 49. And, looking round about (Mark), he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples. Not merely the twelve, but those who followed him, and were learning his will. A disciple is a learner, one who goes to school to another, who accepts of his teaching. Behold these are my mother and my breth ren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father. And be thus like their Father in heaven having his Spirit, his aims, his character. The same is my brother, etc., because born of the same Father (John 3 : 3, 5) ; because like Jesus in nature ; because a more than brotherly affection arises between them. How much is involved in this relationship with Jesus ! By it we become children and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. We can inherit from our good parents three things : (1) A nature, tendencies toward good, possibilities of great usefulness and happiness. (2) We may inherit possessions, wealth, rank, home. (3) We inherit the love and care and training of a good home. All these in an infi nite degree we inherit from our Father if we are the brothers and sisters of Christ ; a, pure and holy nature, capable of infinite blessedness ; all the wealth of heaven as our home, so perfect, so beautiful, so rich in every good ; and the personal care and love of God himself. And mother. Expressing the tenderest, purest, and deepest love on earth, the very ideal and type of love. With such affection are the disciples of Jesus bound together with him, — an affection which can be expressed only by the dearest and holiest ties. CHAPTER 13. A Chapter of Parables. Section XIII. — A NEW METHOD OF TEACHING; BY PARABLES. Seven Parables illustrating Various As pects of the Kingdom of Heaven. 1. The Sowers. 2. The Tares. 3. The Mustard Seed. 4. The Leaven. 5. The Hid Treasure. 6. The Pearl of Great Price. 7. The Draw-Net. Autumn 50. Time. A. d. 28. The same day as ch. 12 : 22- Place. Beside the Sea of Galilee. Place in Life of Christ. The last quarter of the second year. The middle of the Galilean ministry. We now begin a new epoch in the teaching of Christ, growing out of the bitter opposition to his work, the perverse misunderstanding of his teaching, and the dulness of response to the truths he taught. The opposition, as usual, brings out new truths and new methods which have been a power all through the ages, just as the small black film in the electric bulb, by ob structing the flow of electricity, produces the brilliant light. The Group of Eight Parables. We have here another instance of Matthew's favorite method of grouping together things of a kind. It may have been the Master's also, for it is prob able that these eight parables (seven in Matthew, and one other in Mark) were all spoken at one time, concerning the kingdom of heaven in vari ous aspects, and they should be read and studied as a group, in order to obtain a view of the drift and burden of Jesus' teaching at this time. 13 : 1-3. MATTHEW. 159 L To» tEaf day went Je'sus out of the house, b and sat by the sea side. "lil"""'s were gathered t06ether unto him- great multitudes, cso that he On 2 And Breatthere eXied into a s&, and sat ; and aii the whoIe multitude stood on the gK. 3 And "he spake many thtogs unt0 them many things in parables, saying, Behold, -tae sower went forth to sow ; b For vers. 1-15, see Mark 4. 1-12. 55. 10. Amos 9. 13. Luke 8. 4-10. c Cp. Mark 3. 9. Luke 5. 1-3. d ver. 34. e Cp. Isai. These parables are followed by a group of mira cles, as was the Sermon on the Mount in the record given by Matthew, as if on purpose to con firm the teacher's authority for the great truths he spoke. These miracles, according to the ar rangement of Andrews, Stevens and Burton, and others, were : the Stilling of the Tempest, the Gadarene Demoniac, Jairus' Daughter, the Woman with the issue of blood, Two Blind Men, and the Dumb Demoniac. A BUSY DAY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS, vers. 1-3. The Preacher. 1. The same day, in which the events of the last chapter, vers. 22-50, took place, — the miracle, the opposition, the dis courses, the interference of his family. These were followed by the parables of this chapter. Went Jesus out of the house, where he had been discoursing, and sat by the sea side. How Jesus loved the country and the sea ! " O Galilee, sweet Galilee, Where Jesus loved so much to be ; O Galilee, blue Galilee, Come sing thy song again to me." 1 The Audiences. 2. Great multitudes were gathered together unto him. From every city (Luke), including every variety of character re presented in the parables spoken. Most of them had heard him and seen his miracles, or heard of him. Great expectations were aroused con cerning the Messiah and his kingdom that was at hand, and these needed both encouragement and correction. So that he went into a ship. A fishing boat. Here he sat as in a pulpit, while the multitudes stood upon the circular shores of the hay, which rise up as they recede from the water, thus forming a great amphitheatre crowded with people, of which Jesus in the fishing-boat was the centre. The Pulpit. Macgregor, in his "Rob Roy," once approached this place, and spoke to those on the shore. " It was remarkable," he says, "how distinctly every word was heard, though our voices were not raised, even at three hun dred yards off; and it was very easy to com prehend how, in this clear air, a preacher sitting in a boat could address a vast multitude standing upon the shore." The Text. His text was close at hand. The hillsides in full view " were green with vineyard terraces," olive orchards, fig and almond trees on every slope. "The first winter rains cause the earth to break forth into a wealth of flowers, which continue to increase, until in spring this beauteous coat of many colors completely covers the surface. Their variety of form and color also baffles description." "A French botanist told me that he had found no laud which could compare with Syria for its flowers." 2 " There was the undulating corn-field descend ing to the water's edge. There was the trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from fall-. ing here and there on either side of it, or upon it ; itself hard with constant tramp of horse, mule,' and human feet. There was the ' good ' rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of that plain and its neighborhood from the bare hills, elsewhere descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky ground of the hillside protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes. There were the large bushes of thorn — the 'nabk,' that kind of which tradition says that the crown of thorns was woven — springing up, like the fruit-trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat." 3 His Method of Teaching. 3. And he spake many things ... in parables. Eight are reported. Note. Jesus' method of teaching, and its ad vantages. (1) Jesus first states the facts, points to nature's picture. This picture is impressed on the mind as a permanent seed plot, easy to be retained ; out of which can come a perpetual harvest of spiritual truths, easily recalled when ever these facts are presented to eye or mind. (2) This method enables one to plant truth in unwilling minds, shut to other methods of teach ing. 1 Robert Morris. 2 Prof. W. H. Thomson, M. D., Parables and Their Home. 3 Dean A. P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine. 160 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13. (3) It illustrates, illuminates the truths, like the sun shining through a stained-glass window. (4) It puts truth in forms that may gradually unfold under larger experiences, as an acorn de velops into an oak. A Parable is a story picture of familiar things, which illustrates, illumines, and impresses some great truth. It is a similitude in narrative form, accepted as true in the familiar sphere, in order to illustrate and establish truths in the higher religious sphere.1 It is a comparison of facts in an earthly realm with facts in the spiritual realm. Parables from Nature. " ' Can you apply a parable ? ' says one of Robert Louis Stevenson's characters. ' It is not the same thing as a reason, but usually vastly more convincing.' 'Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact, and no spiritual fact can be understood except by first knowing the natural fact, which is, as it were, its double."' Illustrations from nature, " all are but letters of the alphabet by which we spell Influence." 2 " Here is a story book Thy Father hath written for thee, — Come wander with me, she said, Into regions yet untrod, And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God." 8 This world, with all its forces and powers, seems made purposely to express in visible forms, as in an incarnation, the invisible facts of the spiritual world, the spiritual truths we most need in our daily lives. Earthly things are made after the pattern of the heavenly. " What if earth Be hut the shadow of heaven, and things therein Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought." * Consider how large a part of our words express ing spiritual things are metaphors, — word par ables derived from physical things ; as heaven, spirit, heart, courage, vision, angel. " Earth 's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God." B " Of all the things that a teacher should know how to do, the most important, without any ex ception, is to be able to tell a story." 6 I. THE SOWEB, vers. 1-9, 19-23. Parallels. Mark 4 : 2-20 ; Luke 8 : 4-15. The Interpretation is given by Jesus him self in vers. 19-23. It will be given here in con nection with the parable. The Sower. 3. A sower went forth to sow. " Whosoever soweth the word of God in the hearts of the people is represented by the sower in the parable ; " hut most especially Jesus Christ, who brought the Word of God from heaven, and by his teaching, his life, and his Gospel sowed the good seed in the hearts of men. The Sowing. Went forth to sow. (1) The farmers of Palestine, then as now, lived in vil lages as a protection against robbers, and went forth to the open fields when they would sow. So Jesus went out from heaven to sow good seed in this world. He went oat to the people all over the country. So did the apostles go out all over the world scattering the good seed. We must not expect the field to come to us ; we must go to the field to be sown. " Go out into the high ways and hedges and compel them to come in." (2) The sower sows in the proper season, most of all in the springtime. Late sowings of most seeds are far less effectual. (3) But the sower also sows at all times when there is an opportunity. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the even ing withhold not thy hand." (4) He sows abun dantly. Note the great superabundance of seed which God sows in the natural world. One grain of corn in a few years could cover the whole earth with growing corn. There are thousands of times as many seeds as can find room to grow. Mr. Darwin found nearly five hundred seeds in a cup ful of mud from the bottom of a pond. This is a type of the abundance of good seed in the spiritual world ; of the way we should sow the good seed ; of the fact that we should not be dis appointed if some of the good seed should fail of good fruit. (5) He is very careful to sow only good seed. (6) He sows by his life, by his words, by his character, by his personal, unconscious in fluence, by his deeds. The Seed (Luke 8: 11) is the Word of God. It is living seed. " Good seed has tremen dous vitality. It can handle a million times its own weight of matter, transmuting it from death to life. Hence it is a most expressive symbol to convey the unspeakable vitality of God's words."7 There is great variety of seed, for all times, and seasons, and soils, and culture. How ever good the seed, it must be sown in the soil, watered from heaven, and vitalized by the Holy Spirit, as by the sun in the spring. " The king dom belongs to living, growing things, and is thus subject to the same laws as grain, leaven, mustard seed, and the like." 8 1 The freshest and most original book on the parables is The Parables by the Lake, Prof. Wm. H. Thomson, M. D., LL. D., son of the author of the Land and the Book. Trench on The Parables never grows old. Works on The Parables, by Bruce, Julicher, Taylor, Macdonald, Arnot, Dods, Guthrie. 2 Walter L. Hervey, Ph. D., ex-President of Teachers' College, New York, in Picture Work. » Longfellow. * Milton. B Mrs. Browning. < G. Stanley Hall, Pres. of Clark University. 7 Bishop Warren. 8 Int. Crit. Com. 13 : 4-6. MATTHEW. 161 4 ASndwahsen he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the wrus9 came and devoured them: up: 5 andothers fell upon thl'roeky places, where they had not much earth : and sSughtway they IprSnl up, because they had no deepness of earth : 6 and •''when the sun was risen, they were scorched ; and because they had no root, » they withered away. / James 1.11. o John 15. 6. The Soil is the soul of man, including heart, conscience, mind, memory, his whole nature. The person largely determines the kind of soil he will be. " The trampled ground can become soft, the rocky ground deep, and the thorns be rooted out." Therefore no one can excuse him self for being bad soil for the good seed. He can go to God for a new heart, and can be changed into fruitful soil. The Culture. God gives us only the seeds of the truth, the seeds of his kingdom, the seeds of holy joy. and heavenly character, the seeds of usefulness and success, together with all the help we need for their growth and culture. For a good harvest it is absolutely necessary to have three things : the best seed, the best soil, and the best care. "God has done his part. Therefore, the kind of harvest depends on our reception and care of the good seed. All experience tells us that when the ground is broken up by upheavals (as the fields by ploughing and culture) the human heart is oftener ready to receive the seed of the kingdom than before." 1 Good Seed by the Wayside, vers. 4, 19. 4. Some seeds fell by the way side. "The grain fields are rarely fenced, though the land marks are definite and plain. There are little paths leading through, hither and thither, some being the highways along which the horsemen ride and asses carry their burdens. It was along such a way as this — a foot or so in width — that the seed fell which the birds of the air immedi ately devoured." 2 " It is of exactly the same soil as the rest, but many passengers have trodden it hard." And the fowls (birds) came and devoured them, because they were in sight. " Birds in Syria, and especially about the Lake of Tiberias, are extraordinarily numerous. As Syria is the winter feeding ground of many mi gratory birds from northern Europe and Asia, this marsh (of the Huleh Lake) is then filled with a greater variety and multitude of waterfowl than I have ever seen elsewhere." "Myriads of crows come from all quarters of the heavens." " At early dawn they begin their calls again, and then make long lines of flight for the nearest wheat fields." " Descending to the plain of Gen nesaret, we passed a, hillside which was black with over one thousand of them, who were wait ing there for the unhappy ploughmen to move far enough away for them to descend on their fields."i 19. Heareth the word . . . and understandeth it not. For the heart is unprepared to receive it. A thousand cares, and pleasures, and worldly in terests have tramped over the heart, so that the good seed cannot sink into it. When one is in tensely interested in any one thing, other and better things remain unheeded and make little or no impression. The din and rattle of the streets drown the music of the cathedral chimes. Then cometh the wicked one, "the devil" (Luke), and catcheth (snatcheth) away that which was sown. The great adversary uses various means for this purpose : evil thoughts, selfish interests, doubts, criticisms of the teacher's manner, thoughts of pleasure or of work suggested during prayer or amid the most solemn appeals, neglect to obey the truth heard, which leads to the loss of the truth. As soon as there is the least danger of one's becoming a Christian, he is on hand to prevent it. In the midst of a revival he will set his servants to call away the attention, by inno cent amusements, the rush of business, or the pressure of school studies. Note that the wicked one cannot take away the good seed unless we let him. He cannot de stroy the seed if the soil is good. Good Seed on Rocky Places, vers. 5, 6, 20, 21. 5. Some fell upon stony (rocky) places, where they had not much earth. It did not fall among stones, for on account of the nature of the rocks "the most vigorous growth of wheat may be seen on land which at first sight seems covered with stones."1 But it fell on flat stretches of rock thinly covered with an inch or so of soil. Seed on such soil sprang up sooner than the rest, because the dry, underlying rock drew and retained the heat of the sun, and made it, for a time, like a forcing house or hotbed, so that forthwith (straightway) they sprung up. 6. When the sun was up, they were scorched. The sun soon dried up the hot sur face soil, which could draw up no moisture from 1 Prof. W. H. Thomson, Parables and their Home. s Prof. I. H. Hall. 162 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13:7. 7 And S, fell „£!?& * thorns ; and the thorns "KEF up, and choked them : h Jer. 4. 3. the deep earth, and the roots had no depth of soil into which to run and drink in the moisture.1 20. The same is he that heareth the word, and anon (straightway) with joy receiveth it. Their emotions are touched, but the word does not reach their moral nature ; and their will and character are unchanged. They are moved by the winds of popular excitement or enthusiasm, but there is no new life. " Their fault is not the mere fact of receiving the word with joy. For joy is a characteristic of deep as well as of shallow natures. Absence of joys in a religious life is a sign, not of depth, but of dulness. Joy without thought is a definition of the stony-ground hearer." 2 21. Hath he not root in himself. No deep principle, no real change of heart, no fire within, but only warmth from without. " It is a mistake, however, to confound this class with impulsive characters in general. Persons of an impulsive temperament are often so on account of a natu rally strong warmth of feeling, and thus they may be among the best and sweetest persons in the world. Their many mishaps, however, often cause them to be underrated, as inferior to really smaller natures with cooler heads- But it should be remembered that he who never mistook men from the first called the impulsive and oft-stum bling Peter the rock (John 1 : 42). The stony- ground hearers, on the other hand, are that nu merous class who in any new thing see only its favorable aspects, and sanguinely follow, expect ing nothing else. But it takes a deeper nature than theirs to weigh the difficulties which come with all true good in life. Hence they are too weak in soul to encounter difficulties, and with the first experience thereof, as Mark expresses it (R. V.), 'having no root in themselves, straight way they stumble and fall before it.' " 8 "When tribulation. This word " tribulation," both the English and the Latin equivalent of the Greek, is derived from the Latin tribulum, which was the threshing instrument or roller whereby the Roman husbandman separated the corn from the husks ; and tribulatio in its primary signifi cance was the act of this separation. But sorrow, distress, and adversity, being the appointed means for the separating in men of their chaff from their wheat, of whatever in them was light, and trivial, and poor, from the solid and the true, therefore these sorrows were called tribulations, threshings, i. e., of the inner spiritual man, without which there could he no fitting him for the heavenly garner.4 Often numberless small annoyances are greater tribulations than heavy sorrows . A whole army has been defeated by wasps. Or persecu tion, almost certain to arise. Because of the word. This would test them whether they were true Christians or had embraced religion for its rewards and pleasures. He is offended. Made to stumble. Good Seed among Thorns, vers. 7, 22. 7. And some fell among thorns, " not among standing thorns, but among those, beneath the surface, ready to spring up."5 In good soil, but preoccupied with the roots of thorns. "Here and there we may see small stalks protruding. They are the stumps of the most noxious weed of Gennesaret, the strong and rapidly growing prickly astragalus, a coarse, perennial plant, with its roots penetrating, as we found by experiment, several feet deep, and which the fellahin are too indolent to dig up and extirpate, contenting them selves with chopping down the year's growth with their mattock."6 "These thorns are not brier bushes or brambles, but an aftergrowth of a variety of thistles, which come up quickly in every wheat field of Palestine, but the natural time for them to appear is after the wheat is ripened. When, therefore, the wheat is reaped, the ground is seen covered with the new green growth of this strong-leaved thistle, which then springs rapidly up to about the same height, and as dense, as the wheat which preceded it. As it dries it turns white, so that at a distance it re sembles a harvest field with grain, and thus gives point to the words of Jeremiah (12 : 13), ' They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns,' — a very painful harvest, for the spikes on the thistles' leaves are both long and sharp." 3 And choked them. Took up the virtue of the soil and shaded them from the sunshine, so that little of the wheat came to maturity and few of the grains filled out. 22. The care (anxiety) of this world. The absorption in worldly interests of labor, business, and pleasure. And the deceitfulness of riches. Riches which deceive by giving us the impression that they are able to bestow what they cannot give ; which make things seem honest which are not so ; which are continually luring men on in the search for blessings that elude them. Luke 1 See Dr. Peabody's Plutarch on the Delay of Divine Justice, p. 48. His reference to the "Gardens of Adonis" as applied to vessels or shallow earth beds, where what is sown can only spring up and wither without coming to seed. This term occurs in Plato's Phadrus. 2 Prof. A. B. Bruce. 3 Prof. W. H. Thomson, 4 Arbp. Trench. B Prof. Vincent. « Canon Tristram. M. D. 13 : 8, 9. MATTHEW. 163 8 «5M£ fell uPonntothe good ground, and broy&£drtl1 fruit, some some six^T' some **&$*¦ 9^HYttthathears, tohear- ,: hundredfold, let him hear. i ver. 23. Gen. 26. 12. j See ch. 11. 15. adds the " pleasures of this life." Even pleasures which are right in themselves may become too absorbing, may occupy too much attention, and thus choke the Word.1 Note. It is not "this world," but the cares of this world, not "riches," but the deceitful- ness of riches, that choke the Word. It is the undue longing for riches, whether they are ob tained or not, that destroys the power of heavenly things. "As the productive parts of a field in Palestine will sooner or later be covered with these thorns, the lesson of the parable is not that Christians will escape thorny days by rich fruit bearing. Strong and abundant thistles, on the contrary, are signs of naturally good soil. It is Christian to be diligent in business, though the result be increase in the world's goods, with con sequent cares and responsibilities. But what a sower in Palestine knows that he should do is to get his seed in early. If he sows too late, his wheat will have a hard contest with the inevitable thorns which will be sure to appear in their time." " The deceptive resemblance at a distance of a thistle-covered field to one of good grain has its counterpart in many a showy but utterly barren, if not cruel, growth of modern civilization." 2 Our religious life may he injured by the excess of things which are right in themselves. Trees will not flourish on the north side of the house ; nor many flowers under the dense shade of trees ; nor religion under the shade of excessive cares and labors to become rich. The demands of society, of business, of pleasures, of household cares, may absorb so much of our time and interest that there is neither time nor strength for religious duties, family and secret prayer, the study of God's word, visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted, helping the poor. The wheat and the thorns are having a great struggle in many of our lives. IX. Good Seed in Good Ground, vers. 8, 23. 8. Other fell into good ground. The larger part of the field sown was of this kind. And brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. " At Geneva, in 1855, I got from an adjoining field a single ear or spike of barley containing two hundred and seventy-six grains. Trench, in a note, remarks that ' Herodotus mentions that two hundredfold was a common return in the plain of Babylon, and sometimes three ; and Niebuhr mentions a species of maize that returns four hundredfold.' In 1868, a year remarkable for its heat in Great Britain, it is mentioned in the newspapers that, in a field of wheat in Kent, there were many single seeds which produced, each, ' thirty straws, topped with closely set and fully developed ears, which yielded be tween nine hundred and one thousand grains from a single parent seed.' " 3 " Sixteen years ago a single small coffee plant was sent to Blantyre, Africa, and from it five million coffee trees have since been derived. How like the growth of a good seed and its influence ! " 9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. This is a call to pay special attention to what Jesus had been teaching, implying that there was a deeper spiritual meaning, mines of gold and gems beneath the surface, that would escape the notice of the care less hearer. Prejudice, selfishness, indifference, absorption in the things of this world, false ideas of the kingdom of God and the Messiah, would so dull their ears that they would not hear the great spiritual truths which Jesus was teaching through this parable . ' ' There is a form of deafness known to physicians in which the person affected is able to hear everything except words. In such a case the ear, as an apparatus for mere "hearing, may be so perfect that the tick of a watch or the song of a bird is readily appreciated, but owing to a local injury deeper than the ear, for it is in the brain it self, all spoken words of his mother tongue are as unintelligible to the sufferer as those of a foreign language. Give him a book, and he may read as un- derstandingly as ever, but every word addressed to him through his ear reaches his consciousness only as a sound, not as a word. There is a moral deaf ness which corresponds to this physical infirmity, but which, instead of being rare, is as common as it is harmful and disabling. To all men there is given an inner ear, which has been fashioned to hear Wisdom's words, but that ear often seems so dull of hearing that there appears no sign of response to her utterances." 2 This experience of not hearing by the inner ear is illustrated in every 1 Compare Ovid's Metamorphoses, v. 486 : — ' Now the too ardent sun, now furious showers With baleful stars, and bitter winds combine The crop to ravage ; while the greedy fowl Snatch the strown seeds ; and grass with stubborn roots, And thorn and darnel plague the ripening grain." See Virgil's story of Laocoon and his sons crushed by enfolding serpents. 2 Trot. W. H. Thomson, M. D., LL. D., in Parables and their Home. 3 Morison. 164 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 10-12. 10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables ? 11 AmWe answered and said unto them, Because *%&&£%$?£!& 'to know -the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12 ™ For whosoever hath, to bim shall be given, and he shall have more abun dance : but whosoever hath not," from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. k ch. 19. 11. Col. 1. 27. Cp. 1 Cor. 2. 6-10 & 1 John 2. 20, 27. See ch. 11. 25. I Wisd. 2. 22. n ch. 25. 29. Mark 4. 25. Luke 8. 18 & 19. 26. Cp. John 15. 2 & James 4. 6. o Cp. Rev. 2. 5. m See Rom. 16. 25. walk in life. What a man sees in nature, in a hook, in a historical fact, depends on what he has within him behind his natural eyes. The eyes and the ears are but the instruments by which are conveyed outward facts to the soul. . It is the spiritual eyes and ears which decide what is really seen and heard.1 Why Jesus spoke in Parables. 10. The disciples came to Jesus some time when he was alone (Mark). It is mentioned here, not because the explanation followed immediately, before he spoke more parables, but to connect the explana tion in the record with the parable. They asked the meaning of this parable (Luke), and also Why speakest thou unto thi m in parables ? The last question is answered first, as a prepara tion for the explanation. First Reason. 11. Because it is given unto you to know. It is to enlighten you who have been prepared to understand and use aright the truths set forth by the parables. You have put yourselves under my instructions, yon have re ceived some conception of what the kingdom of God is, and of the true Messiah, you have been obe dient, and willing to learn and to do. Therefore you are able to understand, and will not pervert your knowledge. And the parables are a method of instruction which will enable you to understand what otherwise would remain a mystery, and which will transfigure, and illumine, and unfold the truth continually more and more as you grow in grace, and knowledge, and experience. The mysteries, pw-Hipia., from pvm, to close or shut, something from which all but the initiated were shut out. In classic Greek " mystery " is applied to religious ceremonies or celebrations to which no one was admitted except those who were formally initiated. Hence in the New Tes tament it means that which we would not know unless it was revealed in some way. Not things necessarily hard to understand, hut those of which the meaning has not been perceived, and cannot be perceived, except by those who are willing to understand, and have opened their minds to the revelation of God. " Thus Paul, in Phil. 4 : 12, says, I am instructed (jiepvyuai) both to be full and to be hungry, etc . But the R. V. gives more correctly the force of instructed, by rendering, I have learned the secret ; the verb being pveta (from the same root as p-vcrnqpia), to initiate into the mysteries." 2 The general prin ciple is stated in the next verse. 12. For whosoever hath, in the sense that the man with the five talents in the parable had, or possessed, that money, by his faithful use of it. That man has capital, not who merely holds it in his name or safe, but who knows its powers and capabilities, and how to make it accomplish its purposes. The man with the one talent buried it ; he did not have it. To him shall be given. Be cause his use of what he has fits him to use more. He that hath arithmetic can he given algebra. He that hath the alphabet can have all literature. The clerk or apprentice that is faithful in the affairs entrusted to him, so as to have them, can be advanced to better and more skilful work. ¦Whosoever hath not, does not make use of so as to gain full possession. From him shall be taken away even that he hath, what was en trusted to him. The opportunities pass away, the powers wane, the abilities diminish ; the neglected garden runs to weeds ; the machinery not used loses its power by rust.8 Second Reason. To hide the full truth from those who were prejudiced against him and ever ready to distort and pervert whatsoever he taught, and not only to make it a hindrance to their know ledge of the truth instead of a help, but to use 1 Compare the German poem ending, — " The one with yawning made reply, ' What have we seen ? Not much have I ! Trees, meadows, mountains, groves, and streams, Blue sky, and clouds, and sunny gleams.' " The other, smiling, said the same ; But with face transfigured, and eyes aflame : ' Trees, meadows, mountains, groves, and streams, Blue sky, and clouds, and sunny gleams.' " Also the familiar story Eyes and no Eyes. Prof. Scrip ture of Tale, in his Thinking, Feeling, Doing, furnishes Beveral illustrations. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 3 See a capital illustration in Dickens' ingenious story of the Skitzlanders in his Household Words. 13 : 13-15. MATTHEW. 165 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables; because "SfSf see not; and hear ing they hear not, " neither do they understand. 14 And unn0 them is fulfilled the prophecy of tS'S&\ which saith, " By hearing ye shall hear, and shall mno0Ue understand ; SS seeing ye shall see, and shall inno°wise perceive : 15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, ind'S ears are 'dull of hearing, 'their eyes they have closed; nStS&gT they should „A, with g£ e;v and \nd their eyes, Anndd hear with ggf ears, »<™d "understand with thS heart, Tna should " btonnaTgeanie,Vnad I should heal them. p Deut. 29. 4. Jer. 5. 21. Ezek. 12. 2. Rom. 11. 8. 2 Cor. 3. 14 & 4. 4. Cp. Isai. 42. 19, 20. ch. 15. 10 & 16. 12. Mark 8. 21. r John 12. 40. Acts 28. 26, 27. Cited from Isai. 6. 9, 10. iCp. John 9. 39, 41. u Cp. Rom. 10. 10. v See Luke 22. 32. q ver. 19, 51. i Cp. Heb. 5. 11. their perversion and distortions to hinder the mis sion of Jesus, and prevent the people from receiv ing the truth. 13. Because they seeing see not the real meaning ; as one seeing a person in a distorting mirror, like those of which there was a whole corridor full at the Paris exposition. Saw him, but did not see him as he really was. For instance, if Jesus had plainly told the facts about his kingdom, which have since been real ized, its true relation to the Jewish common wealth and the Roman Empire, no power could have made them understand what he said, or kept them from perverting his meaning, from arraying the whole Jewish commonwealth against him, and making him out a traitor to the Roman emperor. And yet he did teach the truth in parables, whose meaning was gradually unfolded in due time ; but such stories could not be used to his destruction, and they would be good seed planted in their minds, which would in due time grow into a knowledge of the truth. He wanted them to see, but in order to see truly they must not see till they were able to see correctly.1 Moreover the minds of the people, and espe cially of the Pharisees, were preoccupied with en tirely different ideas concerning the kingdom and the Messiah from those presented by Christ, ideas instilled into them from childhood. The king and the kingdom were to excel all nations in worldly power and magnificence, like " Solomon in all his glory." The Messiah was to be a hero warrior, greater than David or Csesar. "Whose heart, indeed, would not burn, even among our selves now, at the thought of the avenger of that one scene alone, though there were many others like it, which but a few years before was enacted by the proconsul Varus, when he crucified two thousand of its chosen youths in groups at all the crossroads of the land as a demonstration of what Rome was to them ! " 2 There was thus little room in their thoughts for such a Messiah as Jesus, or such a kingdom as he was founding. So they would have made a bad use of the true picture of the future, if they had been shown it. 14, 15. Fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, Isaiah (6: 9, 10). This was spoken in reference to the Jews, 130 to 150 years before their exile, when Isaiah was called to prophesy to them. The prophet was forewarned at the beginning of his mission that he would have hut partial success, that their heart, the seat of intelligence, the moral nature and the will, is waxed (grown) gross, "fat," in Isaiah ; covered up so that it was difficult to make an impression upon it, so that they would refuse to do right and obey God, and hence be almost exterminated as a nation, their land laid waste, their city and temple destroyed. Yet there was hope, for a remnant would remain faithful. The nation would be cut down like a tree, leaving only a stump, but a new shoot would spring up, the nation would be restored, and the new shoot would be greater than the former tnee. This was almost literally repeated and fulfilled in the time of Christ. He came, like Isaiah, a messenger from God, with warnings and invita tions. The Jews, like their ancestors, had their ears dull of hearing, and their eyes tbey have closed,s lest at any time they should see that Jesus was their Messiah, that by receiving and obeying him they could be saved, both individu ally and as a nation ; should see the real meaning 1 Pres. Noah Porter, in his Books and Reading, begins with the description of a South Sea savage in a modern city, and especially in a library, showing to how many things he is blind. 2 Prof. W. H. Thomson. 8 Cheyne (Isaiah) cites the case of a son of the Great Mogul, who had his eyes sealed up three years by his father as a punishment. Dante pictures the envious, on the second cornice of Purgatory, with their eyes sewed up: — " ' For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild Is done, because it will not quiet stay.' " (Purgatorio, xiii. 70-72)— M. R. Vincent. 166 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 16-24. 16 But '"blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. 17 wFor verily I say unto you, x that many prophets and righteous mmeave de sired to see 1neYhmSs which ye see, and ""SSftMST : and to hear Win?/ which ye hear, and liavenot heard the^bt. 18 IT ''Hear then ye therefore the parable of the sower. 19 When any one heareth the word of 2the kingdom, and a understandeth ft not, S cometh b the weTued one, and Snaa\cSh away that which hath lien sown in his heart. This is he wlffi3£Ew£*d by the way side. 20 2ffi he that ^^JS^S0^ places, 'liT16 is he that heareth the word, and strafghtway "with joy receiveth it ; 21 Je? hath he not root in himself, but der!a™J>u, for a while; ifA when tribula tion or persecution ariseth because of the word, s&|htway e he stmSiieth!" 22 Hlnd he^wM^wn6'1 among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word ; and •''the care of g th? world, and h the deceitf ulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 23 2nd he that rwas^vTupon° the good ground, tnis is he that heareth the word, and a understandeth Hi who°veaiiy 'beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some aan J hun dredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 24 IT Another parable S he '"before'0 them, saying, * The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man "hat11 sowed good seed in his field : w Luke 10. 23, 24. Cp. ch. 16. 17. z Heb. 11.13. 1 Pet. 1. 10-12. Cp. John 8. 56. y For vers. 18-23, see Mark 4. 13-20 & Luke 8. 11-15. z ver. 38. ch. 4. 23 & 8. 12. a See ver. 13. b ch. 5. 37 & 6. 13. John 17. 15. Eph. 6. 16. 2 Thess. 3. 3. 1 John 2. 13, 14 & 3. 12 & 5. 18, 19. e Cp. Isai. 58. 2 & Ezek. 33. 31, 32 & Mark 6. 20 & John 5. 35. d Gal. 1. 6. Cp. Hos. 6. 4 & Gal. 5. 7. e See ch. 11. 6. / See ch. 6. 25. g 2 Tim. 4. 10. h 1 Tim. 6. 9, 10, 17. Cp. ch. 19. 23 & Mark 10. 23 & Acts 5. 1-11 & Heb. 3. 13. i Hos. 14. 8. John 15. 5, 16. Phil. 1. 11. Col. 1. 6. j ver. 8. k vers. 37^2. Cp. Mark. 4. 26-29. of the kingdom of heaven, and how they might desired to see those things which ye see. The belong to it; lest they should be converted, lit., prophets foretold, and the righteous longed and should turn again, from their evil ways into the hoped for the coming of the Messiah and the paths of righteousness, which is conversion ; and golden age he was to bring. The whole Old Tes- God should heal them of their sins, their sor- tament points to and prepares for these times. rows, and their burdens. Like their ancestors, Vers. 18-23 were commented upon in connec- the Jews of Christ's day were, within forty years, tion with the parable. scattered over the earth, their city and temple were destroyed, amid distress and calamities like Ir- ARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND those which preceded the exile. TABES, vers. 24-30, 36^3. 16. But in Christ's time, too, there was a rem- In the last parable we studied about the forma- nant, the small new shoot, the select circle of be- tion of the kingdom, and the things that hindered lievers, who would grow into a greater kingdom men from receiving the truth. In this one we see than the Jews ever knew. Blessed are your the good and bad growing together and what to eyes, for they see, they recognize the Messiah, do about it. they hear his voice as the voice of God, they The Kingdom or Heaven. 24. The king- enter the kingdom of heaven. dom of heaven is the kingdom which has its We need insight, the blinds of the soul thrown origin in heaven, and which Jesus as king came to open, the windows cleansed, the veil parted, the establish on earth ; in which the laws of heaven spiritual ear-trumpet to hear, the telescope to see are obeyed on earth, and thus earth becomes like with, so that we may live in the presence of the heaven. It is not a separate enclosure, a hounded great realities of life. " The poetic idealism of kingdom, like the kingdoms of men, hut a per- to-day will he the prose reality of to-morrow."1 vasive spirit embodied in men everywhere, just 17. Many prophets and righteous men have as Englishmen, in whatever country they live, 13 : 25. MATTHEW. 167 25 out* while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares aiso among the wheat, and went hS5T' or in whatever business they engage, all over the world, still belong to the kingdom of Great Bri tain. The members of God's kingdom are repre sented by the good seed which Jesus sowed in the world. The Sower of Good Seed, vers. 24, 37. Likened unto a man which sowed good seed. The man represents the Son of man (ver. 37), who is the source of all good seed. He began in the Garden of Eden, and has been sowing ever since. Every good man, wherever found, is a child of God, born from above by the Spirit, and made alive with the life of God. And Jesus Christ is the medium through which the sowing is done. The Good Seed, vers. 24, 38. The good seed are the children of the kingdom (ver. 38), those who in heart belong to the kingdom, are filled with its spirit, and live according to its principles. (1.) God's children are seed, not mere grains of sand ; for they are living, they are the means of increasing the disciples ; through them the whole world is to be filled with the fruits of the Spirit and the children of the kingdom. Dead seeds do not increase. A dead church does not grow ; and this is fortunate, for neither God nor man desires an increase of that kind of Christians or churches.1 (2.) There is a great variety of good seed adapted to all seasons and all circumstances, pro ducing different kinds of fruit at different times. (3.) Each produces fruit after its kind. It is necessary to be good if we would increase good ness. Imperfect Christians tend to multiply im perfect Christians. Every error or fault of ours is doubly evil ; it injures ourselves, and it injures others. (4.) All Christians are God-planted, planted where he desires them to be, " by the streams of water" (Ps. 1:3). Professor Vincent on this Psalm says : ' ' The gospel man is not like a tree which grows wild. He is like a tree planted, and that in a place which will best promote his growth. ' Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and planted you ' (the true rendering of ordained in John 15 : 16). He is always planted by rivers of water. Men find these channels in the most unlikely places ; in the most unpromising parts of God's garden," as amid troubles, difficulties, bereavements, sickness. The Field sown, vers. 24, 38. The field is the world. It is not the church, but the whole world ; not Christian lands, but all lands in which the true church is the good seed. In his field. The whole world belongs rightfully to Christ. The sowing of tares is a usurpation. Christ "came unto his own." The Takes among the Wheat, vers. 25, 26, 38, 39. 25. But while men slept, {. e.., at night, in secret. It was not when the sower slept, for " he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep ; " nor when the church is asleep, for Satan is often most busy sowing tares when the church is awake and in earnest, but secretly, unobserved, unrecognized. His enemy. The wicked one, the devil (vers. 38, 39). He was the original source of evil among men. He seeks to implant and cultivate his character in them, in order to make them as bad as himself, and thus destroy the kingdom of God, to which he is opposed. It is a part of the great conflict between good and evil. "Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there." Sowed tares among the wheat.2 Tares " are not a degenerate kind of wheat, as both the na tives and many commentators have imagined, but a distinct species, which has no original relation ship to wheat or barley."3 "In the Oriental wheat fields the most troublesome weed of all is the zuwan of the Arabs, the ' tares ' (zizania) of our version, commonly called ' darnel,' Polium temulentum of botanists. It belongs to the rye grass family, and very closely resembles in general 1 See E. E. Hale's Ten Times One Is Ten. 2 One or two curious examples may be interesting and instructive. (1) In The Land of the Kangaroo, we are told how an enthusiastic Scotchman brought with him to Australia a thistle plant on his return from Scotland. It was welcomed by a great dinner, of which the thistle was the centrepiece. Speeches were made and congratula tions offered. But the thistle soon scattered its seeds, till thistles became one of the great pests of the country, and an act of Parliament was passed for their destruction. Our Pacific coast has had a somewhat similar experience with the Canada thistle. (2) A few years ago, a French professor living in Med- ford, near Boston, was studying an imported gypsy moth in the interests of science, when by accident the cater pillars crawled out, or the eggs blew out of his house, and thus went forth a brood of troubles like those which flew from the famed Pandora's box. The scientist gave notice of the danger, but it seemed insignificant. But ten or fifteen years later the citizens of Medford were filled with consternation to see their trees, flowers, shrubs, vege tables, and other crops devastated as by a consuming fire. They fought them in vain. The State of Massachusetts has already, 1899, within ten years, appropriated nearly a million dollars to extirpate the pest, and Professor Per- nald thinks it will take about a million and a half dollars more for ten years, to destroy this devastating evil. 3 Prof. Thomson. 168 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 26-28. 26 But when the blade waprW pranT® up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 ink the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst ao'unot sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares ? 28 Andhe said unto them, An enemy hath done this. ArS'the servants S.y unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? appearance the rye-grass largely cultivated in our pastures for fodder, and which has been intro duced from Europe into America. Darnel is a common corn-field weed in southern Europe and all the Mediterranean countries. It is an annual, and in the earlier stages of its growth cannot be discriminated from wheat ; but the moment the ear is developed the difference is unmistakable. Hence it is not till nearly harvest time that it can be safely weeded out, — when, if the field is much infested by it, it is pulled up by the women and carried away in bundles, to use as fuel for their ovens. Darnel has this remarkable peculiarity, that it is the only grass with which we are ac quainted, the seeds of which are poisonous ; hence the danger of the darnel growing among the wheat, for if any of the seed should, through im perfect winnowing, remain mingled with the wholesome grain, serious consequences might result. The seeds, when eaten, produce giddiness, stupor, and even death ; they are not less noxious to animals and birds." 1 He says that in our north ern climate the quick grass (Triticum repens, witch-grass), very like wheat in general appear ance, takes the place of tares in the wheat fields, and though not poisonous is more mischievous. " Trench relates a similar trick of malice from Ireland, where he knew an outgoing tenant who, in spite at his ejection, sowed wild oats in the fields of the proprietor, which ripened and seeded themselves before the crops, so that it became next to impossible to get rid of them. Dr. Alford, too, mentions that a field belonging to him in Leicestershire, England, was maliciously sown with charlock, and that heavy damages were ob tained by the tenant against the offender." 2 The Interpretation. (1) The tares are the children of the wicked one (ver. 38), who are filled with his spirit, live according to his principles, and are under his control. They are not a degenerate form of virtue, hut as distinct as virtue and vice. They often resemble the good till the fruit begins to appear, but they are as different as wheat and tares, as thistles and roses. (2) We must expect to find bad men in the church, in every reform, in every good cause. It is folly to say with some that we will not join any society that has had men in it. (3) "As there are tares in the vegetable world, so most people have some tares in their characters, — fierce passions among holy emotions, bad prin ciples in intellectual systems, dangerous notions mingled with the loftiest piety." 3 (4) The better the soil for wheat, the better it is for tares. The more the ground is prepared for the good, the more earnest Satan is to plant the bad. There are a thousand weeds sown in a garden to one in the Sahara sands. There are many more evils in the civilized land, made so by Christian principles, than in the wilds of savage life. Dr. Thomson says : " Hence have come the sad disappointments of many reformers, who, while rejoicing at the doing away of old evils, as if every evil would then cease, have quite for gotten how men with selfish instincts would find this newly prepared field good for them also." We are to measure the values not by counting the weeds, but by the number and usefulness of the good plants. (5) We distinguish tares from wheat by the fruit. Some of the worst things pose as virtues at the beginning, but results will tell. Hence one value of reading history. 26. Brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. When the grain is headed out ; there " can be no mistake then. As once I heard it re marked in that country, ' the ears which God has blessed bow their heads, hut these accursed tares stick theirs above the whole field ! ' For the tare then carries a tall light head of small dark grains, which in every respect contrasts with the weighty golden ear of the gqod seed." 4 (6) But all through their existence there was a difference in the inner life ; and the difference in the harvest is the result of this difference in nature. (7) Satan uses various means for sowing his tares. Often good men and wise unintentionally help him. " The lie brought forth others, Dark sisters and brothers, And fathers and mothers, A horrible crew." 27. The servants of the householder. The officers and leaders in the church. The Tares and Wheat growing together. 28. Wilt thou then that we . . . gather them 1 Canon Tristram, in Simdaij-School Time. 2 Prof. Philip Schaff, LL. D. a Bp. H. W. Warren. ' Prof. Thomson, M. D. 13 : 29, 30. MATTHEW. 169 saith', !Nay; lest hapiy while ye gather up the tares, ye root up als0 the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the time of the harvest I wiU say to the reapers, Gather >retougthCT first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but "* gather the wheat into my barn. I Cp. 1 Cor. 4. 5. m ch. 3. 12. up ? The tares ought not to he there. They are an evil. Let us root them out. 29. May. This plan was forbidden (1) be cause to root out the tares would ruin the crop, and defeat the purpose for which the good seed was sown. Lost while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat. Because there was danger of mistaking the wheat for tares ; because the roots of the two were intertwined together ; and because the wheat would be trodden down by any one going through it for the purpose. Good and evil are so mingled in this world that it is impossible wholly to separate them in this life without ruining the good as well as the evil, and making a desert instead of a somewhat weedy garden.1 Persecution injures the good far more than it helps it, and sows another kind of tares in the place of those which it roots up. Persecutors, in trying to root out the bad, are often grievously mistaken, and root up the finest of the wheat instead. (2) It is wise to let the moral wheat and tares grow together, because the wheat may have a good influence over the tares, and change them into wheat. This is expressed a few verses later in the parable of the leaven. The truth, coming into contact with men who are now tares because they have the nature of their father the devil, the wicked one, may drive out the tare nature, and replace it with the wheat nature. " Culti vation, improvement by tillage, has done a good deal for some weeds. The potato used to be called a weed, but we do not call it so now, be cause, by much care and attention, it has become useful, profitable, and far from troublesome to man. I think the tomato was once called a weed also. You can see why it is no longer. Perhaps some of you can remember, or find out, about other plants that have lost the odious title."2 (3) Christians themselves are educated and dis ciplined by contact with the tares. They would not be nearly so good if shut off in a community by themselves. Tares would still come in. If the wheat does not seek to change the tares into wheat, the wheat will degenerate into tares. This is always so when good people would fence them selves in from all contact with the world, whether by monasteries and convents, or by exclusiveness of churches, or neglect of missionary work, whether home or foreign. Bishop Warren says : " Some would like the devil to be killed by God ; it is better that he be killed by us. So far as his influence is concerned, this is possible." The Harvest Time, vers. 30, 39. Let both grow together until the harvest, which takes place at the end of the world (ver. 39), or age. In the original the word " world " (alav) here is an entirely different word from that translated " world " in ver. 38. It does not refer to the physical world, bnt to the present era, or age, which ends at the day of judgment and the com ing of the Son of man. Say to the reapers. The reapers are the angels (ver. 39). (Matt. 16 : 27 ; 24 : 31 ; 2 Thess. 1 : 7.) Gather ye to gether first the tares. These were gathered out as far as possible in stalks bearing their heads of seed. But in addition to this, since flour "of mixed wheat and tares cannot he given even to animals, all the baskets of wheat are carried from the threshing-floor to the flat roofs of their houses, where they are emptied out on mats, and the tedious separation of grain from grain is carried on, sometimes for days, until the wheat is finally rid of this unhappy admixture." 3 To burn them. So as to destroy their power of evil, and to keep them from spreading. They shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend (ver. 41). That cause others to stumble in the path of righteousness. These, and they which do iniquity themselves, shall he cast into a furnace of fire, where there shaU be wailing and gnashing of teeth (ver. 42), showing the terrible result of being tares. (1) This is all they are fit for. No other end is possible. Evil must be de stroyed. (2) It is a just punishment. It grows out of their very nature, as Sodom was consumed through the inflammable material in it. (3) It is intended to keep wickedness from spreading and destroying all the good, just as weeds are burned to keep them from multiplying and destroying the good grain. Gather the wheat into my barn, where it will be preserved, and accomplish the end for which it was sown. Then (ver. 43), when sepa rated from evil, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun. The Greek word means burst ing forth into light as from behind a cloud. This 1 See Hawthorne's story of "The Birthmark," in his Mosses from an Old Manse. 2 Juniata Stafford in Sunday-School Times. 3 Prof. W. H. Thomson. 170 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 31, 32. 31 f Another parable let* he fobtforeto them, saying, " The kingdom of heaven is like „nto ° a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field ; 32 wS indeed is *5£K£n* all seeds; but when it is grown, it is thgreSl&nXng herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof. n For ver. 31, 32, see Mark 4. 30-32 & Luke 13. 18, 19. o ch. 17. 20. Luke 17. 6. is the symbol of gladness, of truth, of glory, of life in themselves, and of giving light, and life, and cheer to all around. (See Dan. 12: 3.) "Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes forth a vessel for the refiner." Practical. (1) Here are found hope and cheer amid times of opposition and the flourish ing of evil. (2) Make the evil help the good. Overcome the evil by cherishing and strengthen ing the good. Putting a plant from the hothouse out of doors for freer growth often gives it the victory over the insects which are destroying it. (3) Only at harvest time, and only by God's angels, can there be a complete separation of all evil from all good. in. PABABLE OF THE MUSTABD SEED, vers. 31, 32. 31. Another parable. To show another side of the kingdom of God and thus correct any mis takes which are sure to rise if only one side is seen. 31,32. Like to a grain of mustard seed, , . . which indeed is the least of all seeds. Not the least of all seeds which botanists know, but the smallest of the seeds the people daily used ; and the smallest of these in contrast with the plant which grows from it. Greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree. Not massive like a fir tree of Lebanon, or oak, but an herb so large that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. It became the greatest of the kind that grew from such seeds. The Application. (1) The emphasis here is on the smallness of the beginnings of Christianity. No sect, no party in Palestine, no known nation began in so small, unnoticed, and apparently feeble a manner, — the teaching of a poor, un learned man, without army, or money, or politi cal influence ; a teaching hidden in the hearts of a few disciples, unseen and unrecognized as a power. (Compare Dan. 2 : 35, 45; Ps. 72: 16.) 1 (2) The seed though small was alive with a per sistent life. (3) The plant represents the outward organized kingdom of God, which is to-day the greatest and most powerful kingdom in the world, and has not yet attained its growth. (4) It grows not only from its inner life, but ab sorbs its elements from the air, and earth, and water. So grows the kingdom of God from within, but it absorbs into it all the forces of edu cation, science, wealth, organization, commerce, discoveries. (5) The branches may represent "the various divisions and portions of his kingdom in different countries and in different methods of work, all filled with his one life ; and in the soul, the various faculties it controls, the various directions of re ligious development, in thought, feeling, work." 2 (6) The birds of the air may refer to the sys tems of thought, institutions, hospitals, colleges, sciences, educational discoveries, all the methods and appliances of civilization which flourish best and most under the shadow of Christianity. Also to the fact that Christianity gives shelter to the weary, the wandering, and the oppressed. (7) "The individual application points to the small beginnings of divine grace ; a word, a thought, a passing sentence may prove to be the little seed which eventually fills and shadows the whole heart and being, and calls all thoughts, all passions, all delights, to come and shelter under it." 3 (8) This parable is full of hope for all Christian teachers and workers who are apt to be discour aged at the smallness of the seed they plant and its often unnoticed growth.4 " Out of the shadows of night The world rolls into light ; It is daybreak everywhere." 1 See this fact illustrated by the contrast between the fruit-tree of Mohammedanism, and the fruit-tree of Christianity, in Professor Thomson's Parables and Their Home, pp. 91-96. 2 Prof. Alexander. 3 Dean Alford. * Dr. Dorchester's Religious Progress of the World and Dr. A. E. Schauffler's Progress of Missions give sta tistics and diagrams showing in most interesting and vivid ways how wonderfully the religion of Christ has progressed in the world. a. n. 1000 50 millions in Christian lands. " 1500100 ' " Doubled in 500 years. " 1800 200 " " 300 " " 1880415 " " 80 " 13 : 33-35. MATTHEW. 171 33 Another parable spake he unto them; "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in « three measures of meal, till rtheitwwha°sleairas leavened. 34 "All these things spake Je'sus ,n paries unto the multlKtJtnudesables; and with out a parable spake he nothing unto them : 35 uS? it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, ' I will p Luke 13. 20. 21. I Cited from Ps. 78. 2. q Gen. 18. 6. r 1 Cor. 5. 6. Gal. 5. 9. s ver. 3. Mark 4. 33, 34. Cp. John 16. 25, 29. IV. PABABLE OE THE LEAVEN, ver. 33. 33. Spake he unto them. To the people on the seashore. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven. Leaven among the Jews generally consisted of a lump of old dough, in a high state of fermentation, inserted in the bread preparar tory to baking. The Greek comes from a word meaning to boil, while the English leaven is from the Latin levare, to raise. Which a woman took. Breadmaking usually devolved upon women. Three measures of meal. The Greek word for measure here denotes a Hebrew seah, a measure equal to five or six quarts, the ordinary measure for household purposes. The three measures would therefore contain an ephah, or about a bushel. This was a large quantity of meal to be transformed by a very small quantity of leaven. New Light from Modern Science. "To this parable of the leaven modern science gives a peculiar significance which was wholly unknown in the times when the parable was first uttered. Then, and until very lately, it was supposed that the leavening of bread was caused by an inani mate material acting by purely physical processes upon the meal which it fermented. Pasteur has demonstrated, to the acceptance of the whole scientific world, that ferments are not portions of lifeless organic matter, but are actually living organisms, and that the fermentation which they occasion is a necessary consequence or manifes tation of their vital activity and growth." 1 " One part mixed with two thousand parts will change the whole in a few hours. It had long been a mystery how so small a quantity of one sub stance should be able to effect such a change upon so large a mass of another. But the dis covery that leaven contains a fungous plant which multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and is sus tained by the matter into which the leaven is in troduced, furnishes an explanation." 2 Applications. (1) " This parable relates, not to the outward, visible increase which the king dom is destined to undergo, hut to the inward transformation it will effect." s It operates si lently, without observation, but with constantly increasing pervasiveness till the whole mass of mankind, all hearts, all nations, all commerce and business, social life, and political institutions, shall be transformed. (2) It is continually working upon that which is next to it ; it works from particle to particle, from individual to individual. " Each true Chris tian, leavened by Christianity, operates as leaven upon his neighbor." 4 (3) It transforms into its own nature that with which it comes in contact. Hence it is of the utmost importance that the leaven should be pure, that the Christian character should he as perfect as possible in doctrine and in life. " Wild " Yeast. " The desired result is often utterly vitiated by the contamination of the proper ferment by the entrance with it of some form of what is technically termed a ' wild ' yeast, which may grow so as wholly to supplant with its evil working the action of a ' cultivated ' yeast. How to procure a ' pure ' yeast is, there fore, one of the most carefully investigated prob lems of this branch of economic chemistry." 1 (4) Indirect Action of Leaven. "One re sult of the action of these living cells is the forma tion of what may be termed pervasive chemical principles, which extend to some distance from the cells into the surrounding fermentable ma terial, profoundly, though at first scarcely visibly, modifying it and preparing it for the subsequent extension to it of the growing ferment."1 So Christianity extends its influence far beyond its actual disciples and modifies almost everything in Christian lands, as there is a penumbra of par tial light far beyond the direct rays of the sun. 34. Without a parable spake he not unto them at this time. He was planting good seed for a future harvest. 35. EulfUled which was spoken by the pro phet, in Ps. 78 : 2. The inscription at the head of the psalm ascribes it to Asaph. " That which l Prof. W. H. Thomson. 2 President Hitchcock, in Religious Truths Illustrated by Science. 8 Prof. A. B. Bruce. 1 See E. E. Hale's Ten Times One Is Ten. 172 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13:36-44. open my mouth in parables; "I will utter things • which ""nS1"* "m* from the foundation of the world. 36 Then J^ieftnt the "tuimSSf7, and went into "the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, x Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 37 And'he answered and said, untothem- He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man ; 38 andthe field is the world ; and the good seed, these are the » Soli's311 of the king dom; aSd the tares are • the clf„dnrsen of the wev!fl one\ 39 andtle enemy that sowed them is the devil; and "the harvest is b the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares c are gathered UP and burned with fire ; so shall it be in " the end of $? world. 41 dThe Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all e things that cause°stumbiing, and ¦'them **&& do iniquity,1 42 "and1 shall cast them into the furnace of fire: * there shall be th™eep!ng and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall i the righteous shine forth as the sun s in the kingdom of their Father. * H^'hat hath ears, t0 hear' let him hear. 44 f AgaThVhe kingdom of heaven 'is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; the which when a man hath found, ^SflSfr and infohris joy %rrf "-goeth and selleth all that he hath, and "buyeth that field. M Cp. ver. 11 & Rom. 16. 25, 26 & 1 Cor. 2. 7. v ch. 25. 34. Luke 11. 50. Heb. 4. 3, al. Cp. John 17. 24 & Eph. 1. 4 & 1 Pet. 1. 20. wver. 1. x vers. 24-30. Cp. ch. 15. 15. y ch. 8. 12. Cp. ver. 43. s John 8. 44. Acts 13. 10. 1 John 3. 10. Cp. ch. 23. 15. See ver. 19. a Joel 3. 13. Eev. 14. 15. 6 ver. 49. ch. 24. 3 & 28. 20. Cp. Dan. 12. 13 & Heb. 9. 26. c John 15. 6. Cp. ch. 3. 12. d ch. 24. 31. e ch. 16. 23 & 18. 7. Cp. Zeph. 1. 3. / ch. 7. 23. g ver. 50. Rev. 9. 2. Cp. Rev. 19. 20 & 20. 10. h See ch. 8. 12. i Prov. 4. 18. Dan. 12. 3. Cp. 1 Cor. 15.41, 42. j Cp. ver. 38 & ch. 25. 34 & 26. 29 & Luke 12. 32. A See ch. 11. 15. I Prov. 2. 4. m Cp. ch. 25. 9 & Prov. 23. 23 & Phil. 3. 7, 8. n Cp. Isai. 55. 1 & Rev. 3. 18. the Old Testament prophet says of himself finds he had been speaking to the multitudes on the its fittest expression, its highest realization, in the shore. Here he could explain things to the twelve Great Prophet of the kingdom of heaven." * and other devoted disciples, and speak some para- I will utter (epev£op.a.i), originally " to belch, to bles especially to them. Declare unto us. (The disgorge. Homer uses it of the sea surging against explanation is given in connection with the para- the shore (Iliad, xvii. 265) ; Pindar of the erup- ble.) tion of jEtna (Pyth. 1 : 40). There seems to lie in the word a sense oifull, impassioned utterance, V. THE HID TBEASUBE, ver. 44. as of a prophet."2 Things which have been 44. Again. This parable and the next were kept secret from the foundation of the world. spoken in the house to the disciples alone. They The Psalmist proceeds to rehearse the history of represent different phases of the same truth. Israel, because under it are veiled moral princi- The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure pies and truths which the Jews had uot recog- hid in a field. The hiding of treasure is neces- nized in God's dealings with them. The history sary where there are no banks, where massacres is " one long Old Testament parable." It was an are frequent, and where there is great difficulty in example of God's providential dealings, a type transferring such treasure from one country to and prefiguration of his dealings also with the another. In the unsettled state of the country Jews in Christ's day. A new meaning was now often the owners never returned, and all know- being revealed, which no past generation had un- ledge of the treasure was lost. derstood or could understand. '' The land of the parables," says Prof. Thom- 36. Then Jesus . . . went into the house, the son, " is, in fact, undoubtedly full of such buried one mentioned in 13 : 1, from the boat, from which treasures, for scarce » year passed of my resi- 1 Perowne on The Psalms. ' Prof . M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 13 : 45, 46. MATTHEW. 173 45 IT Again, the kingdom of heaven is hke unto a manffi'SaVSWt seeking goodly pearls : 46 Whahd havin|had found ° one pearl of great price, he"' went and sold all that he had, and " bought it. o ch. 7. 6. Job 28. 18 (mg.). Cp. Prov. 3. 14, 15 & 8. 11, al. dence there in which I did not hear of such vlis- coveries," as one he describes as taking place during his residence in Sidon, when some peas ants, while digging trenches for planting orange trees, found three or four boxes of gold coins of Philip of Macedon and " of Alexander the Great, of the most beautiful workmanship, appearing as if they had been just struck from the mint. They were probably deposited by some embezzler among Alexander's own army officials." SeUeth aU that he hath, and buyeth that field. "It can be readily appreciated that to any one of that poverty-stricken hand the disparity between the worth of the least of these gold pieces and the utmost reward of his daily toil (12 cents a day of our money) would make him willing to part with all his worldly goods, if so he could gain that treasure." 1 Jesus says nothing of the morality of the man who bought the field, but simply refers to a familiar fact, to illustrate his point. VI. THE PEABL OF GBEAT PBICE, vers. 45, 46. 45. Like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls. " The representation indicates the antiquity of a still existing Oriental profession, that of travelling jewellers, persons who deal in precious stones and pearls, and go about seeking for opportunities of making advantageous pur chases or exchanges, and taking journeys to re mote countries for this purpose, and again in an other direction to find the best market for the valuables they have secured. In the course of their operations it frequently happens that they meet with some rich and costly gem, for the sake of obtaining which they sell off all their existing stock, and every article of valuable property they may possess, in order to raise the purchase money. Indeed, the jewellers of the East, as a body, are perhaps the greatest travellers in the world." 2 46. Found one pearl of great price. " A pearl of the first quality is unquestionably the most beautiful object in nature. However brilliant the hard and cold diamond may be, yet it cannot approach in loveliness the bright but deli cate lustre of the pearl. The worth is always intrinsic, and wholly dependent on its own pro perties. Hence the very great difference in pearls. There are natural pearls of a beautiful form and ample size, which, however, do not display those wonderful reflections of white fight mingled with azure which command a great price." 1 " The old writers speak of it as altogether won derful, and to be honored above all jewels that the eyes of man have beheld. Nothing else was so pure, so rare, so exquisite. As for its origin, they thought it was at first a drop of dew from heaven, condensed within the seashell, and dou bling there its native perfections." "Its irides cence seemed the result of sympathy with the seven colors of the sunbeam."8 Julius Caesar gave Servilia, the mother of Brutus, a pearl worth 6,000,000 sesterces ($240,000). The famous pearl which Cleopatra dissolved at a feast, and then drank to the health of Marc Antony, was one of a pair set in earrings, and said to be worth $400,- 000 of our money when the purchasing power of money was ten or fifteen times as great as now.4 Sold all that he had and bought it, see above, the quotation from Kitto. It was worth more than all other things they possessed. Practical. The above two parables present the same great truth under different aspects. (1) The kingdom of heaven, by what it is, by what it gives to those who enter, by what it makes of them, is the most precious thing within the power of man to receive and enjoy. All other things together are of less value. (2) The kingdom of heaven is like hidden treasure. Its value is not recognized by many. They are in the midst of it, it is on every hand, but they know no more its value than did the children in South Africa whom the traveller found playing with diamonds, thinking them to be com mon pebbles. He saw their value, and the African diamond mines were discovered. All the inven tions of modern civilization, countless treasures, were hidden from almost every one a century ago. Even to those who do know something of the kingdom of heaven, there are vast realms of blessings as yet unseen and unknown. New ex- i The Parables and Their Home. Prof. Thomson also speaks of the finding of a similar treasure graphically de scribed in the Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny, by W. Forbes Mitchell, p. 152. Some soldiers of the English army in India " raised from a well at Poona boxes con- taming money valued at £306,250, besides plate and other valuables said to be worth more than a million sterling, which had been secreted there by Nana Sahib in his flight from Cawnpore." 2 Kitto, in Pictorial Bible. » Rev. Morgan Dix, D. D. * See Harper's new Dictionary of Classical Literature. 174 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 47. 47 f Again, the kingdom of heaven is p like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and •' gathered of every kind: p ch. 4. 19. q Cp. ver. 38 & ch. 22. 10 & 25. 2. periences and deeper study reveal new precious- ness in religion and in Christ, as the telescope and microscope reveal wonders in the world wholly unseen by the natural eyes. Science has not created a new world, bnt only revealed more treasures in the old world. We do not need a new Gospel any more than we need a new world, but only a fuller vision of the treasures in the old Gospel. (3) There are two kinds of treasures in the kingdom of heaven: 1. Those which belong to all who enter the kingdom, salvation, forgiveness, the promises, heaven, a new life, new hopes, new aims. These are to increase in value, to develop. They are beginnings, which are to grow continu ally, till the whole man is transfigured by the grace of God. 2. Other treasures are like the pearl, of which Mr. Dieulafait says : " Of all the objects employed as ornaments, the pearl is al most the only one which derives nothing from art. On the contrary, all attempts to give it more value only end in deteriorating it." We cannot increase the love of God, or the gift of his Son, or the truths of the Gospel, or the blessedness of heaven. But we can learn more of their value, we can see them more clearly, as we can a land scape when the mists are blown away. (4) There are two ways of obtaining the trea sures: 1. The finding of the hidden treasure " might occur to any one, though in fact it usually comes to a poor workingman while engaged in his ordinary daily toil, and because he happened to be so engaged." 1 Every true disciple has found the great treasure. 2. But the pearl mer chant " devotes himself to a definite search, for which he has undergone a long training, so that he can appreciate the different values between pearls, while he never ceases to hope that he will yet gain possession of some unequalled prize which will crown the labor of his life. Special knowledge, indeed, of the highest order is re quisite on the part of a pearl merchant." 1 The pearl was sought with great exertions, and often with great danger. The highest experiences, the noblest character, the greatest usefulness, the truest wisdom, the loftiest and clearest truths, the best of the kingdom of heaven, are never found accidentally, but are the reward of long and patient search. (5) In all cases none can obtain the blessings of the kingdom of heaven without selling all they have to obtain it. This one thing must be first, and all other things subordinate. Everything in consistent with it must be put away, " even as a man," says Trench, " would willingly fling down pebbles and mosses, which hitherto he had been gathering, and with which he had filled his hands, if pearls and precious stones were offered him in their stead." And not merely some fortunate one here and there, as with worldly pearls and treasure, but every one can possess the treasures of the kingdom. ' ' The precious pearl of the parable does not preclude there being in the world many other beautiful and costly gems which are worth seeking and possessing. It only enjoins the search for the one pearl which will be worth presenting to the king, and it implies that the knowledge of all true pearls, instead of hinder ing, will rather assist the more in finding this greatest of them all." l VII. FAHABLE OF THE DBAW-BTET, vers. 47-50. 47. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net. A very long and large net or seine, with floats to keep one edge at the surface, and sink ers to keep the other deep in the water. This net is swept around a shoal of fishes by means of boats, the two ends brought together, and all drawn to the shore. The parable of the tares re ferred to the good and evil in the wide world ; this, to the good and evil within the limits of the church itself. And gathered of every kind. "Among those gathered within the net at one time was a large shoal of sting-rays, a fish which is a flat, leathery, ungainly-looking creature, resembling our flounder, but armed with a long tapering tail ending in a barbed spine, which is a danger ous weapon both for offence and defence. When these are numerous, other fishes are apt to be scarce in the catch, and so the baskets were but half filled, while the discarded rays were left upon the sand. At times the dreaded electrical torpedo is landed, while at others the Sidon fish ermen are driven to distraction by immense shoals of sardines, for, as the Arabs do not know how to preserve them, they simply leave them to poison the air with their decaying heaps. At no time is their catch good throughout, for the Mediterra nean teems with a wonderful variety of life, in cluding ' each kind of badness ' as every fisher man there will feelingly tell you." 1 Good and bad were to he brought into the Church in the very act of seeking for good or that which becomes good, because the Church can 1 Prof. Wm. H. Thomson, The Parables and Their Home. 13 : 48-53. MATTHEW. 175 48 wilSch1,' when it was tinea, 'they drew uPon\he°be»eh; and tuey sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but ';asl the bad they cast away. 49 So shall it be fn sthe end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and ' sever the wicked from among the rignteous, 50 "and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: "there shall be th^weepfng and gnashing of teeth. 51 jcsus saith unto them. * Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea: Lord' 52 ffihfiia9 unto them, Therefore every -scribe x wi„^2^3^fiS&. to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man ufat'fs a" householder, which '¦> bringeth forth out of his treasure thing! new and old. 53 IT And it came to pass, "iat when Je'sus had finished these parables, he de parted thence. r John 21. 11. s See ver. 39. t ch. 25 32. Cp. ver. 41. n See ver. 42. v vers. 10-16. Cp. John 10, 6 & 16. 29. w ch. 23. 34. x ch. 28. 19. y Cp. ch. 12. 35. no more read the hearts of men than the fisher men can see the kinds of fish which the seine is gathering from the sea. The sting-rays, the tor pedoes, and the sardines, insignificant in them selves but troublesome from their numbers, are all types of men who have been brought unwit tingly into the Church, but do not belong there. This is true, in varying degrees, of all ages and all churches. It is true of revivals, and all sea sons of ingathering. And there is no process of exclusion which can wholly prevent it. 48. Gathered the good into vessels. These were preserved for their proper use. 49, 50. End of the world, etc. See on vers. 40-42. CONCLUSION, vers. 51, 52. 51. Have ye understood all these things? They did understand much of this teaching with the aid of Jesus' own interpretations. How much of all the possible contents they could not tell. They say unto him, Xea, Lord. Not that we are to suppose that they understood the things to their summits and their depths. Who even yet has thus exhausted or comprehended them ? But they saw light streaming through them. It was light from heaven ; it would increase ; and by and by they would be able to see more and more clearly, more and more minutely, more and more com prehensively, farther up, farther down, farther out, and farther in.1 52. Therefore, because you have understood, every scribe which is instructed, discipled, made a disciple or learner, unto the kingdom of heaven, in distinction\o the scribes of the Jewish law. Bringeth forth, flings out, throws forth with vigor and zeal, out of his treasure, treasury, store-house, as water bursts forth from a full vessel. Things new and old. Some of the new things are far better than the old. Sometimes the old are better. Both are needed. Thus the teacher will be ready for all emergencies. JESUS IHT HIS OWS COUNTEY, vers. 53-58. 53. He departed thence. Accordingto Mark Jesus and his disciples sailed across the lake, where they encountered a fearful storm. They landed in the region of Gadara, where he healed the wild demoniac. He returned to Capernaum, and after several miracles there he went into his own country, Nazareth, twenty miles S. W. of Capernaum. Here he had been brought up from early childhood and had spent most of his life. Here was the home of his mother and family. Here he had worked many years as a carpenter and cabinet-maker, and was well known. His sisters, probably married to Nazarenes, still dwelt there (ver. 56). Why Jesus visited his Home. Several months before this, in April, A. D. 28, at the be ginning of his Galilean ministry, Jesus had pro claimed the Gospel in Nazareth, the home of his youth and early manhood, but had been re jected with violence, and an attempt made to murder him by easting him down a precipice (Luke 4 : 14-30). Why should he make another attempt ? (1) His heart must have yearned for his kin dred and the friends of his youth. For it is re corded (John 7 : 5) that " neither did his brethren believe in him." The true Christian, like his Master, cares most anxiously for the salvation of his friends and kindred at home. 176 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 13 : 54-57. 54 And whencoeinta|come into "his own country 6he taught them in their syna gogue, insomuch that c they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this Zan this wisdom, and these mighty works ? 55 dIs not this ethe carpenter's son? is not his mother called Ma'ry? and •''his brethren, Jame§, and jSsSpn, and Si'mon, and Ju'das ? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us ? Whence then hath this '££% all these things ? 57 And g they were offended in him. But Je'sus said unto them, ''A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. z For vers. 54-58, see Mark 6. 1-6. Cp. Luke 4. 16-30. a ch. 2. 23. Luke 4. 23. b See ch. 4. 23. c See ch. 7.28. dCp. Luke 4.22 & John 6. 42. e Cp. Mark 6. 3. / See ch. 12. 46. g See ch. 11. 6. A Luke 4. 24. John 4. 44. Cp. Jer. 11. 21 & 12. 6 & John 7. 5. (2) Jesus would manifest his true, loving, and forgiving spirit to his townsmen who had once so violently rejected him. He laid up nothing against them. "He was rich in persevering love. He was patient not only in suffering ill, but in doing well." (3) The circumstances would give hope that he might now succeed where he had failed before. Then he was almost unknown in that region ; now he is well known and famous, attended by a band of disciples, and "the whole land is aflame with the report of his wonderful works and teach ing." There was hope that all this might influ ence them to listen to him. 54. He taught them in their synagogue, their regular place of worship. Much freedom was allowed in these services, and people of note were frequently invited to speak. Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works ? They had known Jesus all his life, they knew his circumstances, the amount of his education, his limited advantages, and knew that he had not derived them from any known source. He was merely a carpenter's son, and had made furniture or cart wheels or yokes for them ; for he was himself a carpenter like his father. This fact is interesting as showing the dignity of labor, and the possibilities of those who labor. It was fitting employment for the early years of the Son of God. During this period of work he gained all his humanly obtained knowledge. He worked in obedience to his parents, and prob ably to help support his mother. He did all for the glory of God. The lowliest work is exalted into the highest by being done for the love of Christ, and to help and save those for whom he died. His mother called Mary. The absence of the name of Joseph has always been taken to show that Mary was now known apart from her husband, i. e., as a widow. 55, 56. His brethren, James, etc., . . . sisters . . . aU with us. These four were either (1) own brothers and sisters of Jesns, children of Joseph and Mary ; or (2) children of Joseph by a former marriage ; or (3) cousins (brothers taken in the wider sense of near relatives), children of Cleophas (B. V., Clopas) and Mary, sister of Mary the mother of Jesus (John 19: 25, with Mark 15 : 40). It is impossible to decide which ; hut the weight of Protestant authority, on the whole, favors the idea that they were own brothel's of Jesus. James, not the apostle James, but one called "the just," and "the bishop of Jerusalem." After the dispersion of the disciples and the departure of Peter (Acts 12 : 17), he occupied the most prominent position in the church of Jerusa lem, and stood at the head of the Jewish con verts. He was the author of the Epistle of James. He was sentenced to be stoned by the Sanhedrim, A. D. 62. Joses, or Joseph. Nothing is known of him, or, with certainty, of the others mentioned here ; though by some, including Farrar, Judas, or Jude, is regarded as the author of the Epistle of Jude. 57. And they were offended in him. Greek, they were scandalized at him. This is one of the few instances in which the English verb scan dalize expresses better the sense of the Greek than any other in the language. To be scan dalized is to he offended or shocked by some action considered wrong or outrageous.1 The contrast between his origin, family, education, on the one hand, and, on the other, the expected king outshining Solomon in all his glory, and triumphing over Rome, was too great for their faith, and they despised and ridiculed his claims. A prophet is not without honour, etc. This is a very common experience. Greatness is often an invisible quality, manifested on special occa sions, and hence not realized in ordinary circum stances. But Jesus' greatness was in all things to those who could see. But as we cannot easily realize a great genius or general, if clothed in beggar's rags, or in an inferior body, so the people 1 Century Diet. 14 : 1. MATTHEW. 177 58 And he did not many mighty works there 'because of their unbelief. i Cp. ch. 17. 20. of Nazareth did not recognize the Son of God in the familiar guise of a Galilean mechanic. The proverbs, " No man is a hero to his own ser vant," and "Distance lends enchantment to the view, ' ' express similar experiences. The people of Nazareth were not well enough acquainted with Jesus to see his real glory. They saw only the outside. The trouble was not with the prophet, but with the people who had not insight enough to see the reality. Distance oftens helps us to see the reality. A cloud glorified in the setting sun is hut a fog when we are close by it.1 58. He did not, Mark says he could not do, many mighty works there, except that he healed a few sick folks (Mark), because of their unbelief. "May we not say that among the conditions to which Christ subjected himself on earth was this, that he put forth his powers of healing only as a means of spiritual development, and only, therefore, to those in whom at least a germ of faith was awakened ; and that, this being wanting, he could not heal without violat ing the fundamental principle of his life ? And may Ave not say further, that this essential prin ciple still holds good ; that, by its very nature, his salvation can be made available only to such as are willing in humble trust to accept it ; and that, where the trust is wanting, it is still true that Christ cannot do the mighty work of sal vation ? " 2 To do mighty works for an unbeliev ing people would indorse and encourage unbelief. Why should men seek faith in God and the life which flows from it, if they can obtain all they want without it ? 8 CHAPTER 14. Section xiv., including chapters 14, 15, and 16: 1-12, continues the account of the Galilean ministry, recording various important truths, without* chronological order or logical connection, but in the natural order as suggested by circumstances ; like the'various colors in a painting, all necessary to complete the picture of the Galilean ministry. Section XIV. -VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY. Time. Spring of A. D. 29. The third year of Jesus' ministry. 1. The Martyrdom op John the Baptist, vers. 1-12. 2. Feeding the Five Thousand, vers. 13-21. 3. The Storm at Sea. Peter's Experience and Lesson in Faith, vers. 22-33. 4. Healing Great Numbers at Gennesaret, vers. 34-36. Place. Chiefly in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. 1 'At that seSSn * Her'od the tetrarch heard the ?e"Jrtfcaonce0rfnmg Je'sus, j For ver. 1-12, see Mark 6. 14-29 & Luke 9. 7-9. k Luke 3. 1. Acts 13. 1. I. THE MAETYBDOM OP JOHN THE BAPTIST, vers. 1-12. Time. March, A. D. 29, after a year in prison. Place. John was imprisoned and put to death at Macherus, a strong fortress and castle on the borders of Arabia, nine miles east of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The feast held by Herod at which Herodias demanded the head of John the Baptist was probably held in this castle. Parallels. Mark 6: 14-29; Luke 9: 7-9. Herod's Troubled Conscience. 1. At that time. That period of Jesus' ministry while the twelve were on their Galilean mission, begun in chap. 10: 1, 5, and continuing all winter. 1 Compare Cassius' feelings toward Caesar, in Shake speare's Julius Csesar, and Consuelo's advice to An- zoleto to leave Venice, because " this is a bad place for one who has been seen running about in rags." 2 Lyman Abbott. 3 Compare Buskin's Modern Painters, vol. v., " Peace," " No pay is receivable by any true man ; but power is receivable by him in the faith and love you give him," etc. 178 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 14 : 2, 3. 2 and said unto his servants, 'This is JShn the Bap'tist ; he is risen from the dead ; and therefore - mighty To^sep^^wor'k6'"861™3 in him. 3 IT For * H6r'od had laid hold on John, and bound him, and ° put him in prison for tto1£ff3!!iS5&». his brother Phil'lp's wife. I ch. 16. 14. m ch. 13. 54 (mg.). n Luke 3. 19, 20. o ch. 11. 2. John 3. 24. III. as seeing a visioh in his sleep just before his last battle, in which appear the ghosts of those whom he had murdered. One by one they come, rehearse the crimes he had committed upon them, and cry, " Despair, and die. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow." " Conscience is a thousand swords." About this time they returned to report to Jesus (Matt. 14: 12,13, compared with Mark 6: 30-32). Herod the tetrarch. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great (who slew the Bethlehem in nocents), and heir to one fourth of his kingdom, — Galilee and Perea. Hence he is called tetrarch, which means " ruler of a fourth part." "Of all the contemptible wretches of Scripture — not ex cluding Judas, who is in some ways a great prob lem — Herod Antipas is the greatest, — a little, petty, disgraceful Nero, a King John of England, a bundle of petty vices." 1 Heard of the fame of Jesus. R. V., " Heard the report concerning Jesus." His marvellous works and teachings had so penetrated and stirred the whole people that the news reached the ears of the king. 2. Said unto his servants. Officers, who were discussing as to who Jesus was, some saying that he was Elijah, others that he was a prophet like the prophets of old ; but Herod, impelled by a guilty conscience, feared that it was John the Baptist, whom he had murdered, risen from the dead. " If we mistake not, that dissevered head was rarely thenceforth' absent from Herod's haunted imagination from that day forward till he lay upon his dying bed." 2 Therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. Better as R. V., " do these powers work in him." He thought that John had brought back with him those larger powers, those diviner gifts, which the spirit receives when it enters upon the heavenly life ; and the prophet could now exert those powers in sterner reproof and more terrible faithfulness. The memory of his crime doubtless haunted him, as Banquo's ghost haunted Macbeth with its silent horror : — " My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain." s Compare Lady Macbeth talking in her sleep: " All the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand." Shakespeare represents Richard Nero was haunted by the ghost of his mother, whom he had put to death. Caligula suffered from want of sleep, being haunted by the faces of his murdered victims. Every one knows Victor Hugo's beautiful poem La Conscience, the story of Cain fleeing away before the eye of God. The Furies of classic mythology " are commonly represented as brandishing each » torch in one hand and a scourge of snakes in the other." 4 Contrast Herod living amid such terrors of con science, and John the martyr in heaven, wearing a crown of victory, clothed in white raiment, made white in the blood of the Lamb, and amid all that is described in Rev. 7 : 13-17. John's Courageous Reproof of the King. Probably at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee. 3. Por Herod had laid hold on, arrested, John . . . and put him in prison, in a dungeon of his castle Macherus, according to Josephus.6 Por Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. The crime of the guilty pair was one of mani fold malignity and double dyed turpitude. (1) Herod was married to the daughter of Aretas, an Arabian king, but abandoned her for the sake of Herodias. (2) Herodias was the wife of her uncle Philip, an older brother of Herod Antipas, but she deserted him and eloped with the younger brother. (3) Herod was guilty of the basest treachery to his brother. For it was while visiting his brother Philip in Rome that he became acquainted with Herodias, and, as a guest, he plotted against the honor and happi ness of one who was both brother and host. (4) Herodias was " an able, ambitious, unprinci pled, but bewitching and ensnaring woman" i John Watson, D. D. (Ian Maclaren). 2 Canon Farrar. 3 Shakespeare. * Compare Browning's Poems, " Pippa Passes." " I know no poem since Macbeth that so portrays the agony of an awakened conscience." — Pres. Stanley Hall's A Study of Fears. Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, vol. ii., " The Bosom Serpent," where the chief character continually exclaims, " It gnaws me." Hood's Poems, " Dream of Eugene Aram." Roman poet Persius, Satires, about thirty years after the murder of John, uses this ex perience of Herod to show how superstitious fear mars all the pleasures of life. " The Furies " in Classical Diction ary. An interesting parallel to Herod and his course here is given in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. iv. pp. 456-9, con cerning Xerxes. On the power of conscience, see Joseph Cook's Monday Lectures (vol. iv.), "Conscience," where are brought together illustrations from a wide range of literature. c Ant. xviii. 5 : 2. 14 : 4-6. MATTHEW. 179 4 For JQhn said unto him, " It is not lawful for thee to have her. 5 And when he would have put him to death, he 3 feared the multitude, because they counted him as r a prophet. 6 But when Hgr'od's 'birthday wa£mf ' the daughter of Hg-ro'dl-as danced SttortSS: and pleased Her'od. p Lev. 18. 16 & 20. 21. o ch. 21. 26. Cp. ch. 21. 46. r See ch. 11. 9. s Gen. 40. 20. When she married Philip, she probably expected that, as the oldest son of Herod the Great, he would be heir of the whole kingdom. But in this she was disappointed. Her husband was a poor man, disinherited by his father, without rank or place at court ; while his younger brother, Antipas, was rich and a king. (5) All these crimes were not the mere fruit of a sudden, un expected storm of temptation; but were made possible by the bad characters and innumerable lesser wickednesses which prepared the way . The tree the storm blows over has almost always rottenness at the root, without which the storm would have raged in vain. " In Cleopatra, the par amour of Mark Antony, Shakespeare has depicted the type of Herodias in all its features of mingled attractiveness and abandonment." 1 Herodias was the Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare. She was the Jezebel who ruled Ahab, as she now ruled Herod, and who sought the life of the prophet Elijah, as now she sought the life of Elijah's suc cessor. 4. Por John said. Imperfect, implying that he said it repeatedly. Herod probably invited John to preach before the court. It is not law ful for thee, etc. (1) Because he had put away his lawful wife. (2) He had persuaded Herodias to forsake her husband, Herod's brother Philip, for the sake of rank and wealth. (3) He had mar ried Herodias, his niece and sister-in-law, con trary to the law (Lev. 18 : 12-14). Why John reproved Herod. (1) Herod's course was bringing untold evils upon the people. Aretas, indignant at the affront Herod had put upon him, had declared war ; and at the very time of John's reproof, preparations for war were actively going on. John sought to stop the flood of horrors this would roll upon the people. (2) John could not effectively denounce the sins of the people if he let sins in high places go unreproved. (3) Unrehuked crime in high places teaches, in dorses, and propagates crime among the peo ple.2 5. And when he would have put him to death. Urged on by Herodias, the bitter enemy of John (Mark). She must stop his speaking, and death alone could do it. The reason was that if Herod had yielded to John, she was a lost and ruined woman, dethroned, abandoned, disgraced, with nowhere to go. Either John must die, or her whole life was lost. She was like Lady Mac beth, continually urging her husband on, — " In firm of purpose, give me the daggers." She was his evil genius, but she could not succeed as yet in persuading Herod to give the necessary orders. He "let 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would.'" He feared the multitude, who might rise up in revolt, or report him to the emperor, if he killed a prophet. He was even then on the verge of war, and was likely to bring untold evils on the nation. He feared John too (Mark), who with his mighty eloquence could arouse the people to revolt,8 as Queen Mary feared John Knox, and Ahab feared Elijah though urged on by Jezebel. There is nothing so cowardly as a guilty con science, or so to be feared by evil-doers as a holy man who voices the truth of God. To kill John would be fighting against all the higher unknown powers. Herod had John brought to him and "heard him gladly." His soul was perplexed. Thus John was kept in the dungeon for a year. It was during this year that he sent a delegation of his disciples to Jesus to inquire if he really were the Messiah. The Martyrdom of John. The scene now changes to Macherus. 6. 'When Herod's birthday was kept. Or came, and was kept with a great banquet to which the nobles and military officers (Mark) were in vited. "It is evening, and the castle-palace is brilliantly lighted up. The sound of music and shouts of revelry fall into the deep dungeon where waits the prisoner of Christ." The daughter of Herodias, by her former husband. Her name was Salome, and she afterwards married her uncle, Herod Philip II., tetrarch of Itursea. Danced before them, or " in the midst," as R. V. She had been sent by her mother to gain an opportunity for killing John. It was a shrewd 1 Prof. Stalker. 2 Compare Bishop Latimer preaching before Henry VIII. Foster's Cyclopedia of Illustrations, 93S. Luther before the Diet of Worms. Socrates and the Athenians : Plato'o Apology, p. 23. * Compare Mark Antony's speech, — " Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue In every wound of C;esar, that should move The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." 180 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 14 : 7, 8. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. 8 And she, being "MSSS** ber mother, 3& Give me here JKaSSEffiSSSS a charger. John the bap'tist. scheme to take advantage of Herod's half intoxi cated condition. The dancing was usually with the accompani ment of tambourines or bells attached to the fin gers, and with songs. " Dancing women were abundant, and in such banquets it was common for them to appear, transparently robed, and exe cute voluptuous and impurely suggestive dances." The princess was probably young, beautiful, graceful, and fascinating ; Herod and his com panions were intoxicated with "the perilous witchery of her beauty." " No reputable maiden could ever have done what she did. The dancing girls in the Orient are exceedingly popular as en tertainers, but their profession is one the practice of which, it is not too much to say, is ruinous alike to themselves and to the spectators." 1 And pleased Herod. The scheme succeeded. They were " fascinated by the novel spectacle of a high born and charming girl going through the volup tuous movements of an Oriental dance." 7. Promised ... to give her whatsoever she would ask. Even to half of his kingdom (Mark) ; a wild and reckless promise that could have been made only by one who had lost his wits by drunkenness. A Temperance Lesson can be taught from this rash promise. Wine and strong drink dis tort the judgment long before they produce drunkenness. A drinking man is not a safe busi ness man. " O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains ! " " Herod's foolish offer of whatever she might ask is precisely what one acquainted with the cir cumstances would expect. On such occasions men vie with each other in the value of their gifts to the dancer. Many a man finds himself in strait ened circumstances long after taking part in a similar entertainment. A writer on the far East gives this curious fact : ' The dancer, Laal-Koner, gained such an ascendency over the Mogul em peror Ma'az ed-Din, that he made her joint- governess of the empire with himself.' " 1 A Kingdom for a Dance. Herod was willing to give away half of his kingdom for the sight of an immoral dance. Poor fool ! But how many in our day give away the whole kingdom of their souls, with health and hope, prosperity, peace, and goodness, — yea, the whole kingdom of heaven, — for the paltry price of a glass of wine ; the pleasure of the table ; the gratification of passion or pride ; the acquisition of a little money ! The race of Esau still lives, who sell their birth right for a mess of pottage. 8. And she, being before instructed of her mother. She went to her mother and said, What The Charger. shall I ask ? (Mark). Which of all the beautiful things offered her, — " palaces, jewels, gorgeous apparel, — all that a girl's heart could desire." Her mother replied in words Salome repeated to the king. Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger, a large platter, which was charged, i. e., loaded with meats to be brought to the banquet. By what argument could she per suade her daughter to ask such a gift instead of riches, palaces, and jewels? Professor Stalker puts these words in the mother's mouth : " Little fool, you know not what you ask : what would all these things he to you and me, unqueened and outcast, as we may he any day if John the Bap tist lives." Ask that, and you can have the others ; without that, all other things will be apples of Sodom. Compare the two views of her feelings (1) by Charles Lamb : — " A cruel triumph, wicked pride, That for your sport a saint had died." (2) In a poem by Lucy Hooper : — " Away with lute and harp, . . . and dance 1 . . . O fearful mother ! I have brought to thee The silent dead, with his rebuking glance, And the crushed heart of one to whom are given Wild dreams of judgment and offended heaven." 1 Rev. W. Ewing, a missionary in Syria. 14 : 9-12. MATTHEW. 181 9 And the king was ISJ^^SffS^'S^oitffi^'SS' and * them which sat Sme^'wiM him'' he commanded It to be given ; ""'' 10 and he sent, and beheaded J5hn in the prison. 11 And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel : and she brought ft to her mother. 12 And ' his disciples came, and took up the corpse, and buried him; and they went and told Je'sus. t See ch. 9. 14. 9. And the king was sorry. Not penitent, but troubled and anxious. He had expected some entirely different request. There were danger and a troubled conscience in the gift. Neverthe less for the oath's sake. It should be oaths', not oath's, which is a printer's or editor's error. The word is plural in the original (see R. V.). Herod had placed himself in a dilemma to make a choice of two evils, — to break a rash, wicked oath, or to commit murder. And them which sat with him. Pride, and fear of immediate public opinion, turned the scale, for John would have few friends in that assembly. Probably if the oaths had been secret, he would not have hesi tated to break them. He commanded it to be given her. The wily Herodias had gained her desire, which for a year had been refused by Herod. 10. Beheaded John in the prison. If the feast was at Macherus, the prison was in one of the dungeons of the castle, and the request was answered in a very brief time. 11. His head was brought in a charger, as meats to a feast. " The sight of the Baptist's head would he a feast to Herodias. She seemed to triumph after a year's waiting." She brought it to her mother. She had sacrificed much to please her mother. But that mother did not gain her end. John was silenced, but conscience and the voice of God were not silenced. The stain of blood could never be washed away, nor "all the perfumes of Arabia sweeten " the guilty soul. The ghost of John was worse than Banquo's ghost to Macbeth. She died in exile. 12. And went and told Jesus, who was most interested, as the one of whom John was the fore runner and friend. They doubtless afterwards became the disciples of Jesus. Go and tell Jesus. So should we go and tell Jesus all our troubles and works. (1) It will comfort us to have his sympathy. (2) It will make us feel more clearly that we are workers together with him. (3) It will keep ns from those things we are unwilling to tell. (4) It will bring us into more intimate friendship and acquaintance with Jesus. (5) He will give us the guidance and light we need. Herod and Herodias: Their Apparent Success, but Real Failure. They seemed to succeed, but their life was a, failure. John seemed to fail, but his lif e was a marvellous suc cess. They had riches and honor. They had all that luxury could give. They fared sumptuously every day, hut their lives were a failure, for there were hitter ingredients in their cup of life which destroyed its fascinations. The tempter whis pered, — " Be mine and Sin's for one short hour, and then Be all thy life the happiest man of men." But they found it true, — " Ah, brother, have you not full oft Found, even as the Roman did, That in Life's most delicious draught, Surgit amari aliquid ? " (Something bitter comes unbid). (1.) From this moment began for Herod Anti pas a series of annoyances and misfortunes, which only culminated in his death years afterwards in discrowned royalty and unpitied exile. And Herodias suffered all with him. "Our pleasant vices," it has well been said, "are made the in struments to punish us." (2.) Their success was brief as well as troubled. Herodias proved the curse and ruin of Herod. The people attributed all his later misfortunes to his murder of John the Baptist. On account of her there was a war with Aretas of Arabia, the father of Herod's divorced wife, in which he was worsted. In A. d. 38, less than ten years after the murder of John, " Herodias' ambition, against her husband's better judgment, led him to Rome to solicit the title of king, lately given to Agrippa (Acts 12 : 1), the brother of Herodias. Antipas not only failed, but was deprived of his domin ions, and banished to Lyons, in Gaul, where he died. The apparent faithfulness of the woman to her husband in his fallen fortunes seems the only redeeming point in her history." 1 Salome married her uncle, Herod Philip. " A tradition or legend," says Ellicott, "relates that Salome's death was retributive in its outward form. She fell upon the ice, and in the fall her head was severed from the body." 1 Edersheim. 182 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 14 : 13. 13 H sowSEen Je'sus heard °f it, "he withS™ thence KcXto a desert place apart : and when the HutuS heard thereof, they followed him on foot Trom the cities. u For vers. 13-21, see Mark 6. 32^4 & Luke 9. 10-17 & John 6. 1-13. Cp. ch. 15. 32-38 & 16. 9 & Mark 8. 2-9. (3.) All through his seeming prosperity Herod's conscience was powerful enough to trouble him, but not enough to restrain him from sin. No regrets that, like Herod's, are weaker than the fear of man, no washing of hands like Pilate's, no tears like Esau's, can cleanse the guilty soul. (4.) Herod is pilloried in history. All ages see this crime like Cain's mark on his forehead. He has an immortality of infamy. The Seeming Failure and Real Success of John. John's life was short. His work lasted less than two years. (1.) John's first success lay in the fact that he preserved his manhood and his character untar nished amid great temptations. He was a hero. He was gold tried in the fire. No man's life is a failure who is himself a moral success and is a victor on the battlefield of the heart. " Shake speare beats triumphal marches, not for success ful persons alone, but also for the conquered and the slain." l (2.) John finished the work that was given him to do. His life was a completed whole. Had he lived longer, he would have marred the perfec tion of this work. After the Messiah had come and was established, the work of the forerunner was ended. " That life is long which answers life's great end." - " We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 3 " He liveth long who liveth well ; All other life is short and vain ; He liveth longest who can tell Of living most for heavenly gain." (3.) John the Baptist has part in all the tri umphs of Christianity for which he prepared the way. He still prepares the way for the coming of Christ, for repentance must ever precede the full redemption of the soul. (4.) John lives through all ages by his example. He holds up before all men an ideal of heroism, courage, faithfulness to duty. He is a perpetual inspiration. " Oh, may J join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence ; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge man's search To vaster issues." 4 (5.) John is one of the great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12 : 1 ; Luke 15 : 10), who are watching the progress of the kingdom of God among men. (6.) In heaven he wears the victor's crown, and dwells forever in the joy of his Lord, eating of "the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God," "a pillar in the temple of my God, " having ' ' the morning star ' ' and ' ' the new name." " If thou wilt be a hero, and wilt strive To help thy fellow and exalt thyself, Thy feet, at last, shall stand on jasper floors ; Thy heart, at last, shall seem a thousand hearts — Each single heart with myriad raptures filled — While thou shalt sit with princes and with kings, Rich in the jewel of a ransomed soul." II. FEEDING THE PIVE THOUSAND, vers. 13-21. Time. Spring of A. d. 28, soon after the death of John the Baptist. Place. The plain of Butaiha, belonging to Bethsaida (Luke 9 : 10), a " desert ; " i. e., an un cultivated, uninhabited place, a short distance southeast of Bethsaida, on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. Parallels. Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 1-15. Scene I. Jesus with his Disciples retires to an Uninhabited Region. 13. When Jesus heard of It. The death of John the Baptist, through John's disciples, who, according to the previous verse, went to Galilee and told Jesus. He departed thence. From Galilee, and probably Capernaum, where Jesus made his home, so far as he had one. By ship, or boat, probably a fishing boat. Into a desert place apart. The wild pasture lands and uninhabited country southeast of Beth saida. They sailed in a northeast direction out of Herod Antipas' dominions into those of Philip. Two reasons are given for leaving Galilee. First. The martyrdom of John. The excite ment on account of Herod's murder of the pro phet might end in a political revolt (Josephus, Ant. xviii. 5 : 2), which was entirely contrary to the plans and principles of Jesus in inaugurating his kingdom, and yet he might he involved in it, 1 Dowden on Shakespeare. 2 Young, Night Thoughts. 8 Bailey. 4 George Eliot. 14 : 14. MATTHEW. 183 14 And 'ftSSS" forth, and » saw a great multitude, and ^Sh^XZS™™ toward them^ and he healed their sick_ v Cp. ch. 9. 36. or seem to be, if he remained. The desire shown, when he fed the five thousand, to make him a king may have been one expression of this ten dency to revolution. Perhaps, also, as Andrew suggests, " he himself desired a few hours for solitary communion with God, for the refresh ment of his own spirit, agitated by the death of John, whom he mourned as a faithful friend, and in whose untimely and violent end he saw the sign and foreshadowing of his own approach ing death." Second. From Mark 6: 30, 31, we learn the additional reason, that the disciples had just re turned from their missionary tour in Galilee, and needed rest ; which could not be easily obtained at this time amid the crowds. So many came that they had not time even to eat. They needed this retirement (1) for physical rest ; (2) for instruction in review of their labors ; (3) for communion with God ; (4) for that wider and truer view of their work which comes from seeing it as a whole, as a landscape is seen from a mountain top. Scene II. The Gathering Multitudes. The multitudes followed him. Probably early in the morning. Some one had noticed the direction in which Jesus went, and they could watch the course of his boat nearly all the way. They flocked from all directions, some over the sea, some by the land route along the northern shore, the numbers increasing from every city and vil lage on the way ; for at this time the western and northern shores were populous with towns and villas. Two reasons are given in John's account for the greatness of the crowd. First. It was just the Passover at Jerusalem, which every man among the Jews was required to attend. The great roads to Jerusalem passed near the head of the lake. These were thronged with pilgrims going up to the Passover, who thus had leisure to stop and see and hear the great pro phet. Pilgrims from every part of Galilee were also going up to Jerusalem. They had broken away from their homes and business, and had time to go out of their way to see and hear him whose fame had gone out over the whole region. Second. They were attracted by the miracles which Jesus did. The attraction was not merely curiosity and wonder, but also a semi-conscious ness that these showed that Jesus was the pro phet who could help them in many needs of their souls. Doubtless some had sicknesses or pains of their own and others had friends who were sick. " The wonderful stream of pilgrims which, in our day, converges each year on Mecca, or towards the more famous temples of India, gives us some idea of the vast movements of population which marked similar religious anniversaries in an tiquity." 1 Scene III. Jesus busy helping the Mul titudes. First. Jesus gathered his disciples around him in some nook on the mountain side over looking the plain, and there sat, the posture of a teacher, with his disciples (John 6 : 3), probably in the earlier part of the day. They had just returned from their tour around Galilee (Mark), and would wish to talk over their plans, their successes, their mistakes, and receive the instruc tion they would soon need as to the true way of preaching the Gospel to the world, and as to the Gospel they should preach. The death of John the Baptist would also be a fruitful theme, and many a wise word on duty, faithfulness, and de votion, and the martyr's crown that was within the vision of their own future, would be spoken. Thus were the disciples being trained for their future work for the multitudes. It is quite probable that Jesus may have gathered his dis ciples again around him in the afternoon at the close of his other labors, just before he fed the multitude. Second. 14. Jesus went forth. From his retreat, where he was gaining his needed rest, and welcomed the multitudes (Luke 9: 11, R. V.), and taught them many things concerning the kingdom of God (Mark and Luke). Third. He saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark). The fields were white to the harvest. Their bodily hunger, and need of healing were but a type of their deeper hunger for spiritual food and the more deadly disease of sin. The hungering multitudes were a picture of the great world, restless and hungry. They need eternal life ; they need to have their souls nourished and strengthened ; they need to be satisfied with love, and forgiveness, and hope, and faith, and cour age ; they are dying for want of the bread of life, hut do not realize what it is they need. Jesus has compassion for all the people of the world. His soul longs to help them. He desires to be their Shepherd, and he has come from afar, at great cost, to furnish thom with healing and with the bread of life. i Geikie. Zola's Lourdes gives a striking picture of crowds pouring out of the cities on the way for healing. 184 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 14 : 15-19. 15 1 And when even was ToSefthe13 disciples came to him, saying, "^SaMS?1 and the time is already past ; " send the SSmt& away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves Tifood!s' 16 But Je'sus said unto them, They have no need "o0golway;; *give ye them to eat. 17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. 18 AndV said, Bring them hither to me. 19 And he commanded the iSmmiis to sit down on the grass'; and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and v looking up to heaven, she blessed, and brake' and gave the loaves to thl disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes'. w ver. 22. Cp. ch. 15. 23. x Cp. 2 Kin. 4. 42-44. Mark 8. 7 & 14. 22. Luke 24. 30. Cp. 1 Cor. 14. 16. y Mark 7. 34! John 11. 41 & 17. 1. z ch. 26. 16. 1 Sam. 9. 13. Fourth. And he healed their sick. Thus giving weight and authority to his instructions, and showing God's lovingkiudness, and illustrat ing what the Gospel will do for soul and body. Scene IV. The Committee of Wats and Means. 15. When it was evening, "when the day began to wear away " (Luke). His disciples came to him. By combining all the accounts the conversation at this time would be about as follows : — Jesus (speaking to Philip, whose home was at Bethsaida, and who therefore was acquainted with the region and the people). "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John). Philip. " Two hundred pennyworth (thirty-four dollars' worth) of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little " (John). The Apostles. Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and country round about, and lodge (Luke), and buy them selves victuals. Jesus (ver. 16). They need not depart ; give ye them to eat. The Apostles. " Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread and give them to eat?" (Mark). Jesus. " How many loaves have ye ? Go and see " (Mark). Andrew (returning from the search, and speak ing for the apostles). We have a lad here (John) who has (ver. 17) five loaves and two fishes ; hut what are these among so many ? (John). Matthew uses the common word for fishes ; but John uses another word " (opsdria), a diminu tive, which properly means what was eaten along with the bread, and specially refers to the small and generally dried or pickled fish eaten with bread, like our 'sardines,' or the ; caviar' of Russia, the pickled herrings of Holland and Germany. Millions were caught in the lake. We know that both the salting and pickling of them was a special industry among its fisher men." 1 The loaves were round flat cakes, like large crackers, and were made of barley. Scene V. The Five Thousand fed. 19. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. To recline, according to the customary posture of eating. The grass would be luxuriant at this time of the year. Mark says they sat by hundreds and fifties. "The Jewish dining-room was arranged like the Ro man : three tables forming three sides of a square, with divans or couches following the outside line of the . tables. The open end of the square admitted the servants who waited at table. This explains the arrangement of the multitude here described by Mark. The people sat down, liter ally, in table-companies, arranged like guests at table ; some companies of a hundred and some of fifty, in squares or oblongs open at one end, so that the disciples could pass along the inside and distribute the loaves." " The red, blue, and yellow clothing of the poorest Orientals makes an Eastern crowd full of color ; a fact which would appeal to Peter's eye, suggesting the ap pearance of flower-beds in a garden."2 Mark tells us they sat in ranks, which literally means garden plots, or flower beds. Morison's descrip tion of the arrangement differs from that of Prof. Vincent and Meyer, in that he makes the view to be a hundred fifties when seen from one direc tion, and fifty of these hundreds when viewed in another direction, each hundred constituting a distinct party or group. And looking up to heaven, as the source of all good. He blessed. The Greek word means "praised, celebrated with praise." The mean ing differs bnt little from the word used by John, "he gave thanks."3 The act was natural and simple enough, the " saying grace " of the head of a Jewish household as he gathered his family around him. And brake. " 'T was seedtime when he blessed the bread, 'T was harvest when he brake." 1 Edersheim. 2 Prof. Vincent, Word Studies. Thayer, Greek-English N. T. Lexicon. 14 : 20, 21. MATTHEW. 185 20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up 0thatVhfcbTemainSi over of uStaoken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And they that hd?deeatn were about five thousand men, beside women and children. Gave the loaves to his disciples, as a matter of convenience, and as an object lesson both to them and to the people. The divine gifts were conveyed through human instrumentality, as in the case of spiritual food. " Doubtless the faith of the disciples was severely tried when they were required to advance each man to his separate hundred with his morsel of bread." 20. They did an eat. No one, not even the children, went away hungry, but each had all he wanted. As always with the Gospel there was " ' Enough for each, enough for all, Enough forevermore.' " They took up of the fragments that re mained. The broken pieces, as Jesus had com manded them, so that nothing be wasted (John). The gathering of the fragments was an object lesson of precious truth, and completed the proof of the miracle, for more remained than there was to begin with. Twelve baskets fuU. " They were small hand- baskets specially provided for the Jews to carry Levitically clean food while travelling in Samaria or other heathen districts." 1 " They were made of rushes, reeds, twigs, or ropes."2 "Wicker baskets." " Their sizes were probably variable, but the word is used for a Boeotian measure of capacity equal to two gallons." 3 21 . Pive thousand. The arrangement made it easy to know the number. Practical Suggestions. (1) Take note of the example of Jesus in blessing the bread before eat ing. Food mingled with gratitude and love is doubly blessed. (2) The hope of the world's salvation is in the wonderful power of God in multiplying the littles ; the numbers, the wealth, the power of Christians are enough for the salvation of the world, if they will distribute what God gives them, and if Lis blessing goes with it. (3) Jesus conferred a great privilege on the disciples in making them the instruments of con ferring his bounty. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Jesus could have rained manna from heaven, or summoned angels to help, but he gave this privilege to his disciples. The fountain that gives what it receives is fresh, and clear, and beautiful. The bog that receives and does not give is malarious, foul, reptile-haunted. So the oil in the widow's cruse increased by pouring out. And the grain in creases not in the storehouse, but when scattered on the ground. " This is the arithmetic of the kingdom. Earthly arithmetic says, ' Give, and want.' Heavenly arithmetic says, ' Give, and grow rich.' " 4 (4) Again and again in their future work would arise the question, "What are these among so many ? " These few disciples, these few instru mentalities, these weak powers, these few princi ples of truth, — what are these among the millions of people to be brought into the kingdom, and the mighty powers of opposition to be overthrown ? Jesus by his miracle showed them that in him lay the power that could multiply these feeble instru mentalities. It was a miracle of instruction in cheer and hope and faith, a miracle of promise of victory. We need not be troubled by our small talents, or meagre means, or few opportunities, if we consecrate them to Christ and his service. Most of the greatest results in the world have begun thus. (5) " This is a charming lesson for small boys. Notice that Christ almost always had men in partnership with him in working his greatest mir acles. How interested this boy must have been, not to have eaten that lunch of his, while even men were getting hungry ! — for boys are always hungry."5 This young boy was a small Chris tian Endeavor Society, perhaps one of the Jun iors. (6) Our duties and our privileges are not measured by what we can do of ourselves, bnt by what God is willing to do through us. We can not turn the machinery of the factory, but we can let the water on to the wheel. We cannot push the steamship across the ocean, but we can let on the steam for the engine to do it. (7) Science as well as religion says, " Gather up the fragments." Many of the most useful things are now made out of what was once thrown away. The former refuse in making kerosene oil is now worth more than the oil. The waste of logs is made into paper. We extract beautiful colors from the dung-heap, and delicious per fumes and essences from offal of the streets. " The wastes of a cotton mill founded the fortune of one of the greatest families in England. Peter Cooper used to say that he built the Cooper In- 1 Prof. Vincent. 2 Prof. Davis, Bib. Die. a Prof. A. Macalister, in Scribner's New Dictionary of the Bible. 1 A. F. Schauffler, D. D. c Bishop H. W. Warren. 186 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 14:22. 22 H "And straightway JehseU8 b constrained i£| disciples to enter into thetoat, and to go before him unto the other side, waue he shoiSTLnd the multitudes away. a For vers. 22-33, see Mark 6. 45-51 & John 6. 15-21. b Cp. ch. 8. 18. stitute by picking up the refuse that the butcher shops threw aside." Let nothing be wasted or lost in God's work. Using well or wasting the fragments of time, of opportunity, the nooks and corners of life, makes all the difference between success and fail ure. This is especially true of spiritual work. Often the best results are gained from the use of frag ments of our business or daily life, the by-products of living. (8) " The twelve baskets were an apt symbol of that love which exhausts not itself by loving, but after all its outgoings upon others abides itself far richer than it would have done but for these, of the multiplying which there ever is in a true dispensing." l (9) Jesus is the Bread of Life. The next day, Jesus makes an explanation of the truths taught by this miracle, showing that he himself was the true bread from heaven, and was to their souls what this miracle of the loaves was to their bodies. The soul needs food as really as the body. Every faculty of the soul needs its own food, that will strengthen and sustain its life, develop its powers, make it grow into the fulness and per fection of its nature. Whatever enlarges the soul, builds up the character, increases faith, hope, love, knowledge, and all the virtues, makes the conscience more tender and true, cultures the will, perfects the judgment, and enables the soul to work out a pure and holy life, and fits it for heaven, — whatever does these things is the bread of life. There is also the inspiring function of food. It generates heat, vigor, vitality, energy. So Jesus strengthens and inspires all the activities by his personal power over our souls. We have hints of this in the power certain people have over us to inspire, awaken, and uplift us. Their presence is an atmosphere of health. We want to live bet ter when we are near them. So with Jesus : when we draw near to him in love, we feel " His being working in my own, The footsteps of his life in mine." We find in looking over our life that the things which have ministered most to our soul's growth come from' the personal power of soul over soul, manifested (1) by the character, (2) by a myste rious, undefined influence, (3) by single acts of heroic or saintly virtue, (4) by hooks recording these characters or deeds. All these personal influences are exerted, in the highest degree by Jesus over those who love, trust, and obey him. III. THE STOKM AT SEA. PETEB'S EXPEBIEBTCE, vers. 22-33. Time. The night following the miracle of the loaves. Parallels. Mark 6 : 45-52 ; John 6 : 14-21. Christ stilling a Tempest. Matt. 8 : 23- 27 ; Mark 4 : 35-41 ; Luke 8 : 22-25. I. Jesus in Prayer on the Mountain Side. The Disciples at Sea on the way Home. 22. And straightway, immediately after he had fed the multitudes. Jesus constrained. Urged, compelled by his authority and influence, contrary to their own natural desires. The dis ciples were reluctant to go away and leave their teacher alone in this desert place at night. It seemed like disloyalty and desertion. John (6 : 15) gives a reason for this urgency, in the fact that the people in their excitement tried to make Jesus a king. To get into a ship. Better as in R. V., to enter the boat, the one they had come in ; not very large, for it could be propelled by oars. And to go before him unto the other side. " To Bethsaida " (Mark) ; " toward Capernaum " (John) ; this being the ultimate point to be reached. Bethsaida would he a safe and quiet harbor where they could rest till Jesus came to them in the morning. "We infer that he sent them to Bethsaida, which was not far off (Luke 9 : 10), at the mouth of the Jordan, directing them to await him there, so that they would cross together to Capernaum, on the opposite shore, which they actually did, after the miracle. This accords best with all the details as given by the three evangelists." 2 The Training of the Disciples. "Jesus will not have them to be clinging only to the sense of his bodily presence, — as ivy, needing always an outward support, — but as hardy forest trees which can brave a blast ; and this time he puts them forth into the danger alone, even as some loving mother bird thrusts her fledglings from the nest, that they may find their own wings, and learn to use them. And by the issue he will awaken in them a confidence in his ever- ready help." l While he sent the multitudes away, which he could do more easily if the disciples went first as an example, and as showing that Jesus had completed his work for the day. 1 Trenci). 1 Prof. Scharf in Rev. Com. 14 : 23-26. MATTHEW. 187 23 And Ser he had sent the multitudes away, c he went up into tire mountain apart to pray: and when rnheevenim" was come, he was there alone. 24 But the & was now in the midst of the sea, distSeVoy'the waves j for the wind was contrary. 25 And d in the fourth watch of the night Jehel,^ment unto them, walking uPSn the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, e they were troubled, saying, It is f an apparition; and they cried out for fear. cLuke6. 12&9. 28. Cp. Mark 1. 35 & Luke 5. 10. d C p. Mark 13. 35. e Cp. Luke 24. 37. /Wisd.17.15. agony. The Sea of Galilee is peculiarly liable to these sudden storms. (See on 8 : 24.) 23. He went up into a, the, mountain, the hills back of the plain. Apart. Privately, by himself alone. To pray, as his disciples must pray, if they would be like their Master. " And as he prayed, the faithful stars in the heavens shone out." And when the evening was come. The second or late evening, beginning with sun set. The darkness had now descended upon the whole scene. He was there alone. This season of prayer alone with God lasted several hours, for it began in the evening after sunset ; and he did not come to his disciples till the fourth watch, or between three and six o'clock the next morning (ver. 25). Why Jesus prayed. (1) To keep in constant communion with his heavenly Father. He always kept in communication with his base of supplies. "Jesus was wont, even as we are, to refresh a wasted strength by draughts from the celestial springs ; and as Antaeus, in his wrestling, re covered himself as he touched the ground, so we find Jesus, in the great crises of his life, falling back upon heaven."1 (2) He needed the things he asked for, — strength, hope, wisdom, long vision, patienee. (3) This was another crisis in his ex perience. The people desired then and there to make him a king (John), thus renewing with special force one of his three great temptations in the wilderness, — to obtain a worldly kingdom, and greatness and honor, with ease and plenty and immediate success, instead of a spiritual kingdom and the salvation of men by the hard and slow way of self-denial and the cross. II. The Disciples in a Storm at Sea. Con trary Winds. 24. But the ship (the fishing boat) was now in the midst of the sea, which was here only about five miles across. When Jesus came to them they had gone twenty-five or thirty furlongs (John 6 : 19), not quite three miles. Tossed with waves. The expression in the original is forcible, "tortured by the waves." The corresponding noun, /Sacravos, is translated tor ments in Matt. 4 : 24, " the rack or instrument of torture by which one is forced to divulge the truth." The sea was writhing like a man in " The winds like demons scream and rave ! The sheeted foam blends wave with wave ! " = Por the wind was contrary. From the north or northeast. From any point on the eastern shore, the disciples would require to steer north ward in order to reach Bethsaida. But a con trary wind, blowing strongly from the northeast, drove them back far into the sea; so that the real direction in which they went was westerly, toward Capernaum. Contrary Winds. In every life there are contrary winds, opposing our progress, interfer ing with our hopes, fierce temptations urging us from our course of duty. And yet all these are meant to he a means of strength, of training, of education, of higher character. They mean sweeter harps, higher thrones, brighter crowns. " Botanists tell us that the fruits on a tree are arrested growths. They would naturally develop into new twigs and branches, but the progress is checked in some way, and the growths are stunted. Yet the tree does not allow them to be failures ; it turns its thwarted developments into something even better than its first hopes. So it may be with thwarted hopes and plans in human life : they may become rich fruits in the char acter." 3 III. Jesus appears to Them walking on the Water. Although they seem alone, yet the eye of Jesus is watching them (Mark). 25. And in the fourth watch of the night. Between three and six o'clock in the morning. The night was divided by the Romans into four watches, of about three hours each, from sunset to sunrise. Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. In the extremity of their danger, exhaustion, and despondency, Jesus came to his disciples by his supernatural power over nature. He was, and is, Lord of every element and force of nature, and could control and wield them at his will. 26. They were troubled, saying, It is a 1 H. Burton. 2 Geo. Lansing Taylor. ' J. R. Miller, D. D. 188 THE TEACBERS' COMMENTARY. 14 : 27-31. 27 But straightway Je'sus spake unto them, saying, '¦> Be of good cheer ; it is I; "be not afraid. 28 And Pe'ter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto t-Vipp on thp ™tel- Lllcc upon bile waters. 29 And he said, Come. And when Pe'ter wa^cntme down Som* the bo'af.'ind " walked upon WIG waters, uO come ^O J G 5U.S. 30 But when he saw the wind, D01sterous' he was afraid ; and beginning to sink, he cried- 0ut, saying, 'Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Je'sus stretched forth m| hand, and too?hfidof him, and Stn unto him, j O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou * doubt ? g ch. 17. 7. Cp. Deut. 31. 6 i ch. 6. 30. * Cp. James 1. 6. Isai. 41. 13 & 43. 1, 2 & John 16. 33. h Cp. John 21. 7. i Cp. ch. 8. 25, spirit. The word in the Greek is not the usual one for " spirit." It was rather an apparition, a ghost, a phantom, a spectre, and hence to them a sign of disaster or death. " He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speck upon the waters ; then as a human figure." He may have been magnified in the dimness of early dawn, as often happens in a mist or in a mirage. They cried out for fear (the apparition was worse than the storm), and therefore (ver. 27) straightway Jesus spake unto them. They could recognize the familiar tones of his voice. Be of good cheer ; it is I. Your Master ; I, who a few months ago bade the storm cease by my " Peace, be still; " I, who have wrought so many miracles in your presence ; I, who am the Son of God. IV. Peter's Strange Experience. 28. Lord, if it be thou. Rather, " since it is thou ; " not expressing a doubt, or at most but the linger ing echo of doubts driven away by Christ's assur ing words. Bid me eome unto thee on the water, or waters. Not "/ei me," but " give me the word of command." Why Peter made this Request. (1) It was in striking harmony with his impulsive, sanguine, bold, and self-confident character at this time. (2) There was doubtless a commingling of higher and lower motives, as is usual. He wanted to greet his Master with glad welcome of love ; he wanted to show his confidence in him ; he wanted to express his natural courage and his boyish de light in adventure. There was possibly some pride and self-conceit, a desire to outdo the others and to show his courage and his willingness to do anything his Master did. It may have been a partial reaction from his former fears of the storm. 29. And he said, Come. Make a trial of your faith. Jesus knew that by permitting him to make the trial, Peter would learn some very im portant lessons he needed much. He walked on the water. Not necessarily very far; and yet so long as he thus walked, it was through supernatural aid from Christ, which could operate upon him only so long as he had faith. 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, i. e., the high waves, impelled by the wind rush ing against him, he was afraid ; and begin ning to sink. He looked at his troubles instead of to Him wno could sustain him. We have always reason for fear and discouragement when we do this. He cried, saying, Lord, save me. Peter had sense enough and faith enough to do the one sensible thing. Here was an example of genuine prayer ; short, earnest, to the point, prompted by a sense of need, looking to Jesus, answered. 31. And immediately. Mark the immediately. Jesus did not delay. Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him. He answers to Peter's faith in him, although that faith was small. O thou of little faith. Real faith, hut too little of it. "Wherefore didst thou doubt ? Why could not you, who have witnessed my power so many times, hold on a little longer, and against seem ing difficulties ? Peter had courage and faith, but both were imperfect. Compare his actions a year later, when he was confident that he would die with Jesus before he would deny him, followed so soon by his three denials and his repentance. Perhaps this scene among the waves was a preparation for that more terrible trial and experience. Lessons from Peter's Experience. (1) We learn a lesson against over-confidence in self, against the least tinge of conceit. It is best not to sing too loudly, although it expresses our pur pose and hope. (2) We learn a lesson of faith in Jesus. He is ready to help even weak and im perfect faith, and answer the cry "Lord, save me." (3) We learn that we must look beyond the danger to Jesus himself. Looking at our selves, at our weakness, our unworthiness, we sink in despair ; but looking to Jesus, we find assurance and hope and cheer. It is the same 14 : 32-36. MATTHEW. 189 32 And when they were gSnTup into the boat', the wind ceased. 33 S l they that were in the sWp ooateand m worshipped him, saying, "Of a truth thou art ° the Son of God. 34 H p And when they nldcrSd over, they came "J00 the land, uSto 9Geh-n§s'a- r6t. 35 And when the men of that place had kI£Xwd8B of him, they sent out into all that ¦Son7 round about, and 'brought unto him all that were dis?Sed; 36 and they besought him that they might only touch the * bolder of his garment : and 'as many as touched were made periectly whole. I ver. 22. m See ch. 8. 2. n Cp. John 6. 14. o ch. 16. 16 & 26. 63. Ps. 2. 7. Mark 1.1. Luke 1. 35 & 4. 41 - John 1. 49 & 9. 35 & 10. 36 & 11. 27 & 20. 31. Acts 9. 20, al. Cp. ch. 3. 17 Cp. John 6. 24, 25. q Luke 5. 1. r ch. 4. 24. s See ch. 9. 20 p For vers. 34^36, see Mark 6. 53-56. I Mark 3. 10. Luke 6. 19. Cp. Acts 5. 15. when we look at the evils and dangers in politi cal, social, and business life, and do not also look beyond them to the Gospel, and the ever-living Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and what they have already done for the world. ' ' The most wonderful things in life are not our dangers, but our deliverances." 32. The wind ceased. A beautiful word in ' the Greek ; the wind grew weary, sank away like one who is weary with his fierce struggles, and lies down to rest. 33. They that were in the ship. R. V., "boat." " Others besides the disciples." Came and worshipped him. Reverently bowing and making the following confession. Mark says of the disciples : " They were sore amazed in them selves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened." Of a truth thou art the Son of God. This new display of power had con vinced them. It was not so marvellous as the mir acle of the loaves, but was more striking in form. IV. HEALING MANY AT GEETKTESABET, vers. 34-36. 34. And when they were gone over, which John says was immediately (John 6: 21), they came into the land of Gennesaret. A small district four miles long and two or three wide, on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, to which it gave one of its names. Capernaum was situated in this district. Josephus describes it as the garden of the whole land, and possessing a fertility and loveliness almost unparalleled.1 35. Had knowledge of him. Recognized Jesus, knew who he was, and that he had arrived upon their shores. They sent out into all that country. Encouraged by the marvellous miracles he had just performed. Some had been fed in the Bethsaida desert, others had heard the story of the disciples upon the sea. Brought unto him all that were diseased. Some had not heard, and needed to he notified ; others were unable to come of themselves ; others needed the impulse of an invitation, and the encouragement of those who believed. There are the same kinds of spiritually needy ones now, and it is the duty of all who know Jesus to send out into all the country around and bring them to him. 36. Only touch the hem of his garment. A woman had been thus healed in the presence of a crowd, so that these people were not supersti tious, but had strong faith. See notes on chap. 9: 20-22. 1 Alexander. 190 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 15 : 1-3. CHAPTER 15. Section XIV. -VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY (continued). Some False Traditions of the Elders, vers. 1-20. The Syrophenician Woman's Faith, vers. 21-28. Multitudes Healed, vers. 29-31. Feeding of the Four Thousand, vers. 32-39. Time. Spring and Summer of A. D. 29. Place. Galilee and surrounding regions. 1 u Tdu-kt came tn To'ono » scribes ar,r\ i> Phar'i-sees, which were of Je-ru'sa-lem, ± x niiJM there come LUeJoEjUo from Je-ru'sa-lem Pilar l-sees din-l scribes, saying, 2 '"Why do thy disciples transgress *the tradition of "the elders ? *for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3 And he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the com mandment of God because of your tradition ? u For vers. 1-20, see Mark 7. 1-23. z Luke 11. 38. v Mark 3. 22. w Cp. ch. 9. 11. x Gal. 1. 14. Col. 2. 8. y Heb. 11. 2. I. SOME FALSE TRADITIONS OP THE ELDERS, vers. 1-20. Time. April, a. d. 29, closely following the last chapter. Place. Capernaum. Parallels. Mark 7 : 1-23. 1. Then came. During his stay in Gennesaret and Capernaum after feeding the five thousand. Scribes and Pharisees. Those most given to traditions and ceremonial observances. Which were of Jerusalem. Those who, on their way to the Passover, had seen the miracle of the loaves and many other miracles, and the desire of the people to make Jesus king, would report what they had seen and heard, and awaken no little excitement at Jerusalem. So that after the feast (they would not leave the feast for this purpose, of course) these leading men went down to Galilee, probably as a deputation, to see what was going on, and what measures could he best taken to put a stop to it. Saying. The question arose from what they had seen the apostles do on some recent occasion. This was the first thing they could find to criticise. 2. Why do thy disciples, and you claiming to be an authoritative religious teacher, transgress the tradition of the elders? You should set a better example. Tradition "denotes what is passed along from one to another, and, among the Jews, the body of Rabbinical interpretation of the written law, preserved by oral transmission from one generation to another." " They compared the written word to water ; the traditionary ex position to the wine which must he mingled with it." i They wash not their hands when they eat bread. This does not in the least refer to wash ing their hands for health or cleanliness. "The Israelites, who, like other Oriental nations, fed with their fingers, washed their hands before meals, for the sake of cleanliness. But these customary washings were distinct from the cere monial ablutions : in the former water was poured upon the hands; in the latter the hands were plunged in water. When, therefore, some of the Pharisees remarked that our Lord's disciples ate with ' unwashen hands,' it is not to he understood literally that they did not at all wash their hands, but that they did not wash them ceremonially, ac cording to their own practice." 2 It was to avoid ceremonial pollution from contact, or possible contact, with things ceremonially unclean . ' ' The duty of washing before meat is not inculcated in the law, hut only in the traditions of the scribes. So rigidly did the Jews observe it, that Rabbi Akiba, being imprisoned, and having water scarcely sufficient to sustain life given him, pre ferred dying of thirst to eating without washing hishands." 1 The Pharisaic law was a caricature, a distorted exaggeration of a law meant for health and cleanliness. 3. He answered and said unto them by an ad hominem argument. How can you blame me while you are doing far worse ? Why do ye also. He does not deny that his disciples were careless about the traditions of the elders, but ye also 1 Alford. 2 Cambridge Bible. So Int. Crit. Com. See, also; Farrar's The Life of Lives, " Pharisaic Religionism." 15 : 4-9. MATTHEW. 191 4 For God comman*1u; saying- - Honour thy father and thy mother: and, b He that speaketffevii of father or mother, let him die the death. 5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to flii father or ^ mother, Itu^'X^^Tet thou mightest haveleen profited by me; i9 given to God-, 6 And honour not v> f„fi,„_ or his mother, he shall befree. he shall .not honour HIS Idiner. And ye commandment _f p^ of none effect by „„.-_ j~~„/kj-,'~„ word oi tjroa because of your tradition. T d fe hypocrites, well did f:^i prophesy of you, saying, 8 "This people d™^ ^1'™'°™ with the.r mouth, and honoureth me wrth {&£ liPS ; && their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain doYhe? worship me, TeSS&^doctrmes the ""SS^ST" of men. have 'made Toid the a Cited from Ex. 20. 12, which see. d ch. 23. 13. e Cited from Isai. 29. 13. 6 Cited from Ex. 21. 17, which see. Cp. Ezek. 33. 31. / Col. 2. 22. Tit. c Gal. 3. 17 (Gk.). Cp. Rom. 2. 23. 1. 14. transgress something far greater, even the com mandment of God. God's Command. Jesus now gives an example of what he charged against them. , 4. Por God commanded, in the Fifth Com mandment, Honour thy father and mother. Treat them with reverence and affection ; includ ing respect, obedience, and support. He that curseth, speaketh evil of, revileth, father or mother (Ex. 21 : 17 ; Lev. 20 : 9). To curse is to treat with disrespect, evil speaking, neglect. Let him die the death. Heb., "dying he shall die." This is the appropriate penalty of such a crime, because it strikes at the very root of national life and prosperity, and of religion and morality. The Pharisees' Tradition. 5. But ye say, in contradiction to God's command, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, etc. This is clearer in the R. V. "That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given to God." 6. And honour not his father ... he shall be free from the obligation to honor them by supporting them, or caring for them in their old age. Thus any man could he excused from spend ing money for the comfort and support of his parents if only he would contribute the amount to the Temple treasury, or the support of religion. The Rabbis, in commenting on the Mosaic law of vows (Lev. ch. 27 ; Num. ch. 30), decided that any man wishing to avoid the burden of support ing his parents could make a vow to give all such money to the Temple, but without specifying the time when it was to be given. So that he could use the money all his life for himself, but was forbidden to give any of this consecrated money to his parents. Dr. Abbott well says, " Such casuistry would be incredible were not its parallel to be found in the Jesuitical casuistry of the seventeenth century." Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect, " deprived of its authority, » 1 "abrogated," 2 by your tradition. Farrar,in his Life of Lives, quotes from Dr. Frankl, a Jewish writer, who, speaking of the Pharisees to-day in Jerusalem, says that to call a man a Pharisee "is the bitterest term of reproach." "They proudly separate themselves from the rest of their co-religionists. Fanatical, bigoted, intolerant, quarrelsome, and in truth irreligious, with them the outward observance of the ceremonial law is everything ; the moral law little binding." 3 7. Ye hypocrites. Hypocrite is etymologically an actor, who plays the part of a hero, a king, a nobleman, and in dress and speech represents them, while he is really an entirely different per son, however worthy and great he may be. The ancient actors used to play in masks, which made the word a still more perfect metaphor for a hypocrite. Esaias, Isaiah. Prophesy (Isai. 29: 13). What he said to the Jews of his day was still more ap plicable to the Pharisees of Christ's day. 8. Their heart is far from me. Formalism had killed the religion of the heart. 9. In vain they do worship me. Such wor ship was good for nothing as worship. It neither pleased God nor profited man. It was of no use for character or morals. Teaching for, as their, doctrines, precepts, duties, principles of virtue, the commandments, binding rules and regulations, of men, like their traditions. The effect was seen in the character of the Pharisees themselves. They were particular about trifles, but cared nothing for the principles of morality. They could tithe to the last atom of mint, anise, and cummin, and then devour widows' houses, be dishonest, immoral, and selfish. Their formal prayers fostered pride, but kept them from no "respectable" crime. "And that was why the Pharisees were the only class which Jesus eared publicly to expose." i Meyer. s Frankl, The Jews in the East, ii. 27. 192 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 15 : 10-17. 10 II And he called t0 wm the multitude, and said unto them, '¦> Hear, and under stand : 11 ''Not that which XSn into the mouth deflleth the man; but that which proceeded out of the mouth, this deflleth the man. 12 Then came the disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Phari sees, were 'offended, when they heard this saying? 13 But he answered and said, ¦'Every plant' which my heavenly Father '^piantelnot ed' * shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: 'they ,£, blind leader9g°ui $£ bIind' And -if the blind £& the bhnd, both shaU faU into thapuf' 15 SpS'ter'answIred and said unto him, "Declare unto us §£ parable. 16 And Jeheus said, "Are ye also even yet without understanding? 17 Do TeJeefve yendotf and' that " whatsoever ^gShlnto11' the mouth pffin into the belly, and is cast out into the draught ? g ch. 13. 51. h See Acts 10. 14, 15. i See ch. 5. 29. .j Cp. Isai. 60. 21 & 61. 3 & John 15. 1, 2 & 1 Cor. 3. 9. k Jude 12. I ch. 23. 16, 24. Cp. Isai. 56. 10 & Mai. 2. 8. m Luke 6. 39. n Cp. ch. 13. 36. o ch. 16. 9. p Cp. 1 Cor. 6. 13. 10. And he called the multitude, who had been standing in the background listening to the discussion. Said unto them, Hear, and under stand. Let me explain to you about this washing of hands, lest you misunderstand my meaning. The Pharisees were too prejudiced. 11. Hot that which goeth into the mouth deflleth a man, makes him common, morally unclean, impure. It cannot affect his character. Jesus does not say that it was unimportant to keep the Mosaic law distinguishing between clean and unclean meats. The meat cannot affect his character, but disobedience can. Nor does he refer at all to the fact that one may take disease into his system through eating and drinking ; and that disobedience to the laws of health is a moral wrong, and deteriorates the character. It is the moral act, and not what is eaten, that defiles the man. Jesus lays down the principle that what is taken into the body does not affect the character. Eating ambrosia and drinking nectar do not make one heavenly ; nor, if transubstantiation were true, could eating the real body of Jesus make any one better or holier. But that which eometh out of the mouth, the catalogue of evils given in verses 19, 20. This deflleth a man. Because they come from the heart, and affect the character and the moral nature. They defile the soul, which is the man. It is not the coming out of the mouth that defiles, but the kind of things which come out. The uttering them not only shows what is in the heart, but also intensifies the evil qualities themselves. 12. His disciples . . . said, . . . Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, scan dalized, irritated ; they stumbled over it as an obstacle to accepting his teachings; "they could not get over it ; " they were more opposed than ever. This saying, in verse 11, as the sum or basis of his teaching on this subject. 13. He answered and said, Every plant, etc. The plant symbolizes the doctrines, teachings, principles. Those which are merely human, and do not have their source in God, shaU De rooted up. They cannot endure. The Pharisees' tra ditional teachings must be swept away, because they are not from God. They may he offended, hut that does not help the matter. Even what I teach, if it he not from my heavenly Father, can not prevail. Therefore the Pharisees need not stumble over my teaching. If it is true, they can not destroy it. If it is false, it will be destroyed without their aid. 14. Therefore let them alone. For nothing you can say or do will change them, and time will test which teachings are true. Wait and see. He does not say, Let their teachings alone ; for Jesus himself contested them by positive teach ing of the truth. It is by discussion that the bad doctrines were rooted up. They be blind lead ers of the blind. They do not see the truth, and are leading the people into errors, into moral evils, and the result will be that both shall fall into the ditch. "Palestine was full of wells, cisterns, pits, quarries, often unguarded, and it abounded in blind persons. Such events as the blind falling into them could not have been un common." These blind leaders induced the people to reject the Messiah. They filled them with sins, with false principles, with selfishness and contentions ; and within 40 years the city, the Temple, and the nation perished. 15. Then answered Peter. He did not quite 15 : 18-22. MATTHEW. 193 understand the parable or illustration, and wanted more light, and Jesus gave it to him in the follow ing verses. II. THE 18 But q "he6 things which proceed out of the mouth come forth o£ito'f the heart ; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart Comeceorth revil thoughts, 'murders, adulteries, fornica tions, thefts, false witness, ^"^ffiSSf : 20 "thes? are the things which defile the man: but "to eat with unwashen hands deflleth not the man. 21 H "IS Je'sus went „ut thence, and ^S'ew into the ^ft8 of Tyre and ST'don. 22 And- behold, a ' <&$2£»&£22££* came out S^SS^SSt and cried, untohim' saying, " Have mercy on me, O Lord, & son of Da'vid ; my daughter is griev ously vexed with a devil. q ch. 12. 34. James 3. 6. r James 2. 4. Cp. ch. 9. 4 & Gen. 6. 5 & Ps. 56. 5, al. s ch. 5. 22, 28. See Ex. 20. 13-16. (Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 6. 4. u 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. v Mark 7. 2, 5. to For vers. 21-28, see Mark 7. 24^30. x Gen. 10. 15, 19. Judg. 1. 30-33. Cp. Mark 7. 26 (& mg.). y See ch. 9. 27. people should take time for retirement and re pose. The time taken to sharpen the scythe brings no loss to the mower. 22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan. Mark says a Greek or Gentile, but a. Syrophenician by race. "She was a Gentile as to religion, prob ably Greek-speaking, under the influence of Greek manners and customs ; but descended from the old stock of the Phenicians of Syria, who belonged to the Canaanites of the Old Testa ment." 1 There were two branches of Phenicians, one in Syria and one in the Carthage region of Africa. Cried unto him. Jesus had gone , privately into a house, but he could not be hid (Mark 7 : 24) ; the woman in her great anxiety for help had found him. She had doubtless heard of his miracles of healing in Galilee, and some who heard the Sermon on the Mount were from Tyre and Sidon (Mark 3: 8). Have mercy on me. For her daughter's trouble was her own. O Lord, thou Son of David. She so addresses Jesus, because, from living in the neighborhood of the Jews, she was familiar with their Messianic expectations, and with the Messiah's title, as well as with the Messianic reputation of Jesus.8 My daughter (Mark says "little daughter" in the Greek) is grievously vexed with a. devil, or demon. Lit., badly demonized (see on 8 : 28-34). Mark calls it "an unclean spirit," because it produces uncleanness of body and soul. The Torment of this disease may be learned from the description of similar cases. One such, a boy, is described as often falling into the fire and often into the water (Matt. 17 : 15, 18). The spirit makes him dumb, " and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away " (Mark 9: 17, 18). The Gadarene demoniac was wild and fierce, "crying, and cutting himself with stones." SYBOPHEKUCIAH' WOMAN'S FAITH, vers. 21-28. Time. Early Summer, A. D. 29, closely follow ing the above discussion. Place. Phenicia, of which the chief cities were Tyre and Sidon. Parallel. Mark 7: 24-30. The Great Sorrow. 21. Then Jesus went thence. 'This was a retreat. The Pharisees were more bitterly opposed to him than ever. " It is difficult for us to imagine the hot indigna tion which his teaching awakened in the Phari sees." Friends, too, were alienated (John 6: 59, etc.) ; so that " Capernaum was again hostile and perhaps unsafe." 1 That discussion marked a crisis in the life of Prof. Swete on Mark. 2 So Int. Crit. Com. ' Meyer. 194 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 15 : 23-26. 23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, ' Send her away ; for she crieth after us. 24 But he answered and said, a I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Is/ra-el. 25 Butnsto?amee and b worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 AEd he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread' and t0 "cast St to the dogs. z Cp. ch. 14. 15. a Rom. 15. 8. See ch. 10. 5, 6. b See ch. 8.. 2. c ch. 7. 6. FAITH TRIUMPHING OVER GREAT OBSTACLES. First Obstacle. The fact that this woman was a foreigner and a heathen, brought up with out a knowledge of the true God, and in educa tion and training opposed to the teachings and religion of Jesus. She must overcome her preju dices and the prejudices of her countrymen. Her faith overcame this obstacle. That she went to Jesus at all shows her faith. Second Obstacle. She came without invita tion to one she had probably never spoken with, perhaps not seen, and who was of a race which despised both her race and religion, and who was trying to avoid all notice and attention. She overcame this obstacle by the knowledge of what Jesus had already done in Galilee, and especially at an earlier time, for people from her own coun try (Luke 6: 17), and by her knowledge that Jesus was thought to be the true Messiah from God. Third Obstacle. Seeming Neglect. 23. But he answered her not a word. He appeared to treat her with neglect and indifference. It seems, by what follows, as if he arose and left the house. Various reasons are given for this silence. (1) To test and deepen the woman's faith, and make her receptive of larger blessing. (2) That her faith might encourage men in all ages to trust in Jesus. (3) Some think Jesus was really perplexed as to what he ought to do. He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. He had commanded his disciples to preach and heal only among the Jews (10 : 5, 6). He is now asked to break over his own instructions. But he saw that there was a higher law which made this exception right. The mother overcame this obstacle by still pressing her petition, like the woman before the unjust judge. Fourth Obstacle. The interference of the disciples, who besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. "Crying is a large share of woman's occupation in the East. Women are employed as public mourners at a funeral, when they attend to whatever demonstrations are to be made, often crying aloud, shrieking, and tearing the hair. They go before army officers to plead for the release of conscripted recruits. They cry for mercy and kind treatment for prison ers. They plead with the landlord who is about to evict his tenants."1 " To one who has ever held any prominent or official position in the East the persistency of pleading women is a fact which he will never forget. They will not be driven from their purpose by a rough manner. Severe language does not deter them. They are not wearied by delays. They will sit and wait hour after hour, and come day after day, ignoring all kinds of refusals. They are importunate beyond anything that is ever experienced in our Western life." 2 Note. There are still a few disciples and churches who would send away the poor and the sorrowing, those who call for help, collectors for missions and for charity, because they are a trouble, and " cry after us." But they probably meant that he should grant her request and thus stop her cries, for Jesus replies to their request by giving as his reason for his treatment of her, that he was (ver. 24) not sent hut unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was his first work, as h& had before said to his disciples. " It was of primary moment that he should make sure of a foothold on which lie might plant his moral machinery for moving the world." 3 To have worked first among the Gen tiles would have rendered the founding of the kingdom far more difficult. A very little fire can kindle a city or a world ; but ten times as much heat as that little fire contains would not, if widely diffused, kindle anything. 25. Then came she and worshipped him, by prostrating herself before him in the Oriental fashion, kneeling down and bowing her head to the ground. She probably had overheard the conversation of Jesus with his disciples. Fifth Obstacle. Jesus shows her a reason why she could not claim his help. 26. But he answered, with a comparison probably not unfamiliar to her as expressing the feelings of the Jews toward the Gentiles. It is not meet, fitting, proper, to take (to take away) the children's bread, and to oast it to 1 H. C. Trumbull, in Sunday-School Times. 2 Hon. Selah Merrill, Consul at Jerusalem. 1 President Dwight. 15 : 27, 28. MATfHEW. 195 27 bS? she said, TYe!?' Lord : foryeeven the dogs eat of d the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 28 Then Je'sus answered and said unto her, O woman, "great % thy faith : •'be it done unto thee even as thou wilt. "And her daughter was /miheaiedole from that Yery hour. d Cp. Luke 16. 21. e See ch. 9. 2. / Cp. ch. 8. 13. g ch. 9. 22 & 17. 18. Cp. John 4. 52, 53. dogs (literally, the little dogs, domestic dogs). The "children" are the Jews; the "dogs" are the Gentiles. "There was some reason lying at the base of the designation. The heathens around were, in the mass, exceedingly unclean aud ferocious ; barking too, incessantly, at the true God and true godliness." J Jesus softens the usual harsh expression of the proverb into house dogs, or pet dogs, the companions and friends of the children. Edersheim suggests that there is hope in the very expression ; for the children and the domestic dogs had the same master, and all belonged to the home, though in differ ent degrees. Mark adds another way of hope in the same direction in recording Jesus' ex pression, " Let the children first be filled." Jew and Gentile are both to be fed with the bread from heaven, only it should first be given to the Jew.2 27. And (but) she said. "Not all the snows of her native Lebanon could quench the fire of love which was burning on the altar of her heart, and prompt as an echo came forth the glorious and immortal answer," 3 Truth, Lord. But out of its very truth she brings an argument for the granting of her request. Yet. Rather, as in R. V., " for even." It is not in spite of, but because of, the truth of the proverb that she argues for help. The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. " These were probably something more than what would accidentally fall from the table. It was the custom during the meal for the guests after thrusting their hands into the common dish to wipe them on the sdft white part of the bread, which, having thus used, they threw to the dogs."4 So let me have the crumbs, what is left over after you have done all you plan for the Jews. It will not take anything away from them if you help me. If I am a dog, I can fitly ask to be treated as a dog. 28. O woman, great is thy faith. (1) Her faith was great in its love, being for her daughter. (2) It was great in its earnestness. (3) It was great in its foundations, the power and love of the Messiah, and his past good deeds to others. (4) It was great in its humility, conquering self. (5) It was great in overcoming obstacles. (6) It was great in its nature, — a perfect trust in the goodness and love of the Saviour. She went home, believing before she saw that what was promised had been done. "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." (7) It was great in its fruits. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. As she found on her return (Mark 7 : 30) ; for she acted upon her faith. Lessons prom the Syrophenician Woman's Faith. (1.) The individual soul and the world are grievously vexed with the devils of sin, lust, intemperance, dishonesty, selfishness, cruelty, hate. (2.) There is no power but that of Jesus and his Gospel that can cast them out. (3.) The church, all Christians, should be in tensely earnest in seeking to bring to Jesus him self all who are thus vexed, allowing no obstacle to prevent them, and no delays to discourage. (4.) The greatness of her faith was shown by its overcoming so many obstacles which would have been impassable barriers to a weak faith. She turned her very mountains of difficulty into stairways to success. (5. ) The delays and obstacles in her way were the means of increasing her faith. Faith grows. It grows by a more intimate acquaintance with the person in whom we trust. We see in him more sterling qualities, we know more certainly his reliable character, and thus we naturally trust him more. The Syrophenician was much better acquainted with Jesus at the close of this critical half hour than she was at its beginning. Ex perience and knowledge are great strengtheners of faith. (6.) When God delays the answer to our pray ers, it is to prepare us for larger and better an swers. Such faith always succeeds in obtaining either what we ask or something better. In the charming little booklet, Expectation Corner, the best tract on prayer I have ever seen, Adam Slowman was led into the Lord's treasure houses, and among many other wonders there revealed to him was the " Delayed Bless ings Office," where God kept certain things 1 Morison. 2 The story of Tobias and his dog, in the book of Tobit, in the Apocrypha. 3 Farrar. * Cambridge Bible. 196 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 15 : 29-32. 29 * And Je'sus departed lrom thence, and came * nigh unto the sea of GaTl-lee ; and he j went up into the mountain, and sat down there. 30 And ^at multitudes came unto mm, great multItudeS] having with them 'a""****™ * lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at JeiSS9' feet ; and he healed them : 31 'Kmuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb sSSufg, the "•maimed tol>e whole, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing: and "they glorified " the God of Is/ra-el. 32 IT ^InT Je'sus called unto him his disciples, untohim< and said, "I have compas sion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days' and have nothing to eat : and I w^uia not send them away fasting, lest hapiy they faint in the way. h For ver. 29-31, cp. Mark 7. 31-37. i ch. 4. 18. John 6. 1. j ch. 5. 1. * See ch. 11. 5. I See ch. 9. 33. m ch. 18. 8. Mark 9. 43. n ch. 9. 8. o Isai. 29. 23. Luke 1. 68. Acts 13. 17. p For vers. 32-39, see Mark 8. 1-10. Cp. ch. 14. 14r-21. q Cp. ch. 9. 36. prayed for until the wise time came to send them. " It takes a long time for some pensioners to learn that delays are not denials. . . . Ah, there are secrets of love and wisdom in the ' Delayed Blessings Department,' which are little dreamt of. Men would pluck their mercies green when the Lord would have them ripe." Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you (Isai. 30 : 18).1 III. MULTITUDES HEALED, vers. 29-31. Time. A few days after the miracle in Phe nicia. Place. Decapolis, " the region of ten cities," southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Parallels. Mark 7 : 31-37. Here Matthew gives another of his general pic tures of the work of Christ for men, of which we have had several before, as 4 : 23-25 ; 8 : 16, 17 ; 9 : 35, 36 ; 11 : 4-6. The apostle seems to de light in presenting this portrait of Jesus in all its grace and glory. 29. Jesus departed . . . thence. Going still far ther north through the territory of Sidon (Mark 7: 31), then eastward through northern Galilee, across the upper Jordan, and down on the east side of the sea of Galilee, to the part of Decap olis, " The Ten Cities " (Mark), which bordered on the southeast shore of the lake. He was thus still out of Herod's territory. " He was in the vicinity of Gadara, one of the tencities." And went up into a (the) mountain. "The moun tain range running along east of the lake." And sat down. The usual posture of a teacher. 30. And great multitudes came. Attracted by his teaching and his healing power. The hun gry go where there is food ; the chilly seek the fire. The previous healing of the Gadarene demo niac in this region would awaken great interest in Jesus. And cast them down. Threw them down, indicating their eagerness and haste. And he healed them. 31. The multitude wondered. " It is a new era — Israel conquers the heathen world, not by force, but by love ; not by outward means, but by the manifestation of life power from above. Truly, this is the Messianic conquest and reign ; and they glorified the God of Israel." IV. FOUH THE FEEDING OF THE THOUSAND, vers. 32-39. Time. Summer of A. D. 29, closely following the healing of great numbers of the sick. Place. Decapolis, near where he had healed the Gadarene demoniac. Parallel. Mark 8 : 1-9. 32. This miracle is so similar to the feeding of the five thousand that there is no need of com ment beyond what is said in connection with that miracle (14 : 13-23). The two are so similar, even in minute details, that some have thought they were varying accounts of the same event. But in this case the same author would not have re peated them, and referred to them again as sepa rate miracles in 16 : 9, 10. And Prof. Gould, in the Int. Crit. Com. on Mark, well says that " if the real object of miracles was to meet some hu man need, then the recurrence of like conditions would lead to a recurrence of the miracle. And in the life of Jesus, with its frequent resort to sol itary places, and the disposition of the multitude to follow him wherever he went, the emergency of a hungry crowd in a place where supplies were not to be obtained, would be certain to recur." 1 Compare Stanley's prayer, as related in his Darkest Africa, vol. i. pp. 2 and 492. 16:1. MATTHEW. 197 33 And &fe disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so XS in SSS' as to fill so great a multitude V 34 And Je'sus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, r Seven, and a few smaii fishes. 35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground- 36 tSi he took the seven loaves and the fishes'; and he' gave thanks' and brake them, and gaye tQ his disciples, and the disciples to the mSdes. 37 And 'they did all eat, and were filled : and they took up oftUatwi0iX?mainehdat over of tKroken pieces, SeVdl baskets f ull. 38 And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. 39 And he sent away the 53ffi& and entereSftne boat, and came into the ,£381 g u Mag'da-la. Mag'a-dan. rch. 16. 10. sch. 26. 27. Mark 14. 23. Luke 22. 17, 19. John 6. 11, 23. Acts 27. 35. Rom. 14. 6. 1 Cor. 10.30 & 11. 24 & 14. 16. 1 Tim. 4. 3, 4. t Cp. 2 Kin. 4. 42-44. u Josh. 19. 38 ? 1 Mace. 5. 26, 36 ? Cp. Mark 8. 10. 37. Baskets (awupi&as), used in both accounts of this miracle, " is said to denote baskets of coiled or plaited materials, cords or reeds. Sometimes baskets of this sort were of considerable size. It was in a basket of this kind that Saul made his escape over the wall of Damascus (2 Cor. 11: 33). l "Large provision baskets or ham pers."2 In all four accounts of the feeding of the 5000 the word icoQivovs is used, of which our word coffins is a transcription. These were hand baskets of various sizes. 39. Magdala, R. V. "Magadan," probably at the southwest corner of the plain of Gennesaret. CHAPTER 16. Section XIV. — VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY (continued), vers. 1-12. 1. The Signs of the Times, vers. 1-4. Time. 2. The Leaven of the Pharisees, vers. 5-12. | Summer of a. d. 29. l"ANTDHthe Phar'i-sees. ^°™f^ S&d'du-cees came, and " tempting x iKd him that he would shew tlieni v a sign fr0m heaven. v For vers. 1-12, see Mark 8. 11-21. w See [John 8. 6]. x 1 Cor. 1. 22. See ch. 12. 38. y Luke 11. 16 & 21. 11. I. THE SIGHS OF THE TIMES, vers. 1-4. Time. Summer, A. D. 29. Immediately after the last chapter. Place. Capernaum, or the plain of Gennesa ret, on which was situated Magdala (15 : 39). Parallel. Mark 8 : 11-13. Compare Matt. 12 : 38, 39 : and Luke 12 : 54-56. 1. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees. The opposition was so intense that even these op posite religious parties, " the one being traditional ists, the other skeptics," united in an effort to entrap Jesus by asking him to shew them a sign from heaven, some marvel, like the manna, by Moses, or the sun standing still, by Joshua, or fire from heaven, by Elijah on Carmel, or the shekinah light in the tabernacle and temple, or the pillar of cloud and fire. This they asked tempting him, not to help them to see the truth, but to discredit Jesus, to make it seem to the people that he was unable to work real won ders from God ; for he always refused to do any miracles for the sake of showing his power. They were unwilling to see that Jesus was continually showing signs from heaven, the best kind of signs, for they best expressed the spirit and character istics of heaven. Mere wonders such as they de sired would hinder and not help the coming of the kingdom. 1 Prof. Swete. 2 Prof. Vincent. 198 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 16 : 2-6. 2 But be answered and said unto them, " When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather : for the heaven is red. 3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather today! for the leaven is red and lowring. 0t,eY2Sorw1mwytocan discern the face of the „£&. but f^nZl discern "the signs of the times' 4 c AATevfd and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the pr3o?nah°'nas' And ''he left them, and departed. 5 And v*?£ems disciples weclni°erae to the other side' theyaKo°rgottten to take bread. 6 IT And Je'sus said unto them, Take heed and e beware of J the leaven of the Phar'i-see§ and o£the S&d'du-ceeg. z Cp. Luke 12. 54, 55. a Luke 12. 56. e Luke 12. 1. / 1 Cor. 5. 6-8. Gal. 5. 9. b Cp. ch. 12. 28 & Luke 19. 44. c See ch. 12. 39. d ch. 4. 13 &21. 17. 2. He answered. Sighing deeply in his spirit (Mark), distressed at the blindness of these people, and their obstinate attitude of opposi tion to all that was best for themselves and their nation, as when he wept over Jerusa lem, a few months later. He proceeds to show them the insincerity and uselessness of their re quest. When it is evening, for only in the evening did the sign hold. It will be fair weather : for the sky — heaven, the same word as they used for the. place where they wanted the sign — is red. This was a usual sign in Palestine for fair weather. The translation " sky " for " heaven " obscures the point of the answer. 3. In the morning the same sign predicted stormy weather. The sky, the heaven, as above. O ye hypocrites, you prove yourselves insincere by your conduct, for ye can discern the face of the sky, the heaven. This you study carefully till you know what its varying expressions foretell. But can ye not ? Better, " ye cannot ; " because you are unwilling to study and read them without prejudice, you shut your eyes to them. Discern the signs of the times, which then existed and were written more clearly on the spiritual hea vens than the signs of the weather on the natural heavens. They asked for a sign ; but the spiritual sky was full of signs. That Jesus was fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah was a sign. His hea venly teachings and his divine works were signs. They were signs of fair weather, of the sunshine of Heaven's favor, of the coming of the heavenly kingdom, of the grace and glory that were offered to the Jews and to the world. On the other hand, there were very different signs of the times, signs of the approaching storm which swept the nation away as with a whirlwind, signs in their own character and conduct, signs in the sins and crimes which in Deuteronomy were threatened with direst punishment, signs in the hate of the rulers that led to the crucifixion of the Messiah. 4. A wicked . . . the sign of the prophet Jonas, Jonah. See on 12 : 38, 39. This sign was peculiarly appropriate to this occasion, especially so far as his preaching repentance to the Ninevites was a sign. And he left them. There was no thing more that he could do for these men. He could only wait and let the seeds of truth he had planted in their minds spring up if they would let them. II. THE LEAVEN OF THE PHABISEES, vers. 5-12. Time. Immediately after the above. Place. In a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Parallel. Mark 8 : 14-21. 5. When his disciples were come to the other side, to Bethsaida (Mark 8 : 22). As they drew near to and had practically reached their destination, they became aware that they had forgotten to take bread, the round flat loaves they were accustomed to carry. They had only one of these small loaves (Mark). " Three were not too much for a meal for one person." Apparently they had not yet left the boat (Mark). 6. Then Jesus, as usual taking every oppor tunity to teach a lesson from present events. Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. For leaven, see on 13 : 33. The leaven was their teaching (ver. 12), both by word and by example. Leaven is the type of an active, per vasive influence, whether for good or bad. The leaven of the Pharisees was their general spirit and character, manifested in hypocrisy, pride, ceremonialism, blindness to the truth, preju dice, selfishness, and the like. And of the Saddueees. Mark calls them Herodians, — the court party. " The leaven of Herod was world liness (and skepticism). The Herods were pro fessed Jews, who sought to leaven Judaism with 16 : 7-12. MATTHEW. 199 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, I,h becatfewoeokaTe taken no bread. g VF^when a Jg,§ug Perceived, he ^ unto them, hQ yQ Qf j^ f^ why ^^ ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread ? 9 'Do ye not yet "peS!™?' neither remember the ¦'Ave loaves of the five thou sand, and how many baskets ye took up ? 10 Neither *the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up ? 11 How is it that ye do not "perceive"1 that I spake " not to you concerning bread-? that 5gu?ould « beware of the leaven of the Phar'i-sees. and oftUe S&d'du- cees; 12 l Then understood they how that he bade tiS not beware of the leaven of bread, but of '"the Klnl of the Phar'i-sees. and ofthe Sad'du-cee§. g ch. 26. 10. h See ch. 6. 30. i ch. 15. 16. j ch. 14. 17-21. k ch. 15. 34-38. I ch. 17. 13. m Cp. ch. 5. 20 & 23. 3. the customs of heathenism. They represented the escape from the rigors and scruples of Pharisa ism into the license and irreligion of the world, instead of into the freedom of a spiritual religion. But the escape from spiritual blindness does not lie that way." 1 " The leaven of Herod was doubtless the practical unbelief which springs from a love of the world, and the immoralities to which in a coarser world it led." 2 7. They reasoned ... It is because we have taken no bread. They were not quick to see the spiritual truth, and understand Jesus' illustration. Leaven suggested bread, and the danger of contamination from food to be obtained of the Pharisees. They must not obtain their supplies from those who had shown themselves so unworthy by their treatment of Jesus. 8. O ye of little faith. (1) Of little spiritual perception, the insight into spiritual things which faith gives (see Hebrews 11 : 1-3) ; (2) of feeble trust in me and my power to supply your needs, as is implied by what follows. The kinds of faith interacted on each other. 9. Do ye not yet understand the meaning of the miracles you have lately witnessed, and that I can always supply your needs ? Baskets. The same word, koi#>lVovs, is used for baskets here as in the record of the miracle ; and ver. 10, the same word, inrvpiSas, as is used in the record of the feeding of the 4000. 12. Beware ... of the doctrine, the teach ing. What they taught, the method and spirit of their teaching, and the teaching of their lives and conduct. All this was diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus, and of the kingdom of heaven. Note. Between this verse and the next oc curs the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles (Oct. 11-18) and the events described in chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10: 1-21, of John. Time. Section XV. — REVELATION OF THE SUFFERING MESSIAH, 16 : 13-28. A distinct stage of development in the teaching of Jesus, and the training of the Twelve. The Settled Faith op the Disciples that Jesus was the Messiah, vers. 13-17. The Rook and the Keys, vers. 18-20. A Ftjkthek Revelation, — that the Mes siah must die and be raised again, vers. 21-23. The General Principle involved, vers. 24-28. Autumn, A. D. 29. Place. Cesarea Philippi. I. THE SETTLED FAITH OF THE DIS CIPLES THAT JESUS WAS THE MES SIAH, vers. 13-17. Parallel. Mark 8 : 27-30 ; Luke 9 : 18-21. The New Epoch. This journey marks a turn ing point or new epoch in the education of the disciples. They are drawing toward a great crisis. It is only six months before the crucifixion and resurrection, which end Jesus' visible earthly career. For these events and the great changes 1 Int. Crit. Com. 2 Prof. Swete. 200 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 16 : 13-17. 13f" NowwSen Je'sus came into the part? of Cses-a-re'a Phi-lfp'pl, he asked his disciples, saying, ^wno" do men say that I the Son of man ™v? 14 And they said, Some say 'i"'i"«"'Jok the B&p'tist; some, " #-il>h!: and others, jir£nn'ah\ or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But ^wSi" say ye that I am? 16 And Si'mon Pe'ter answered and said, q Thou art rthe Christ/ the Son of ' the living God. 17 And Je'sus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, "Si'mon B^-'^niii: for ""flesh and blood hath not revealed U unto thee, *but my Father which is in heaven. n For vers. 13-16, see Mark 8. 27-29 & Luke 9. 18-20. o ch. 14. 2. Mark 6. 14. Luke 9. 7. p Mark 6. 15. Luke 9'. 8. Cp. ch. 17. 10 & Mark 9. 11 & John 1. 21. q John 11. 27. r See ch. 1. 17. s See ch. 14. 33. (Deut. 5.26. Josh. 3. 10. Ps. 42. 2. Jer. 10. 10. Dan. 6. 20. Hos. 1. 10. Acts 14. 15. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 10. Heb. 3. 12, al. u Cp. ch. 13. 16. «Cp. John 1. 42 & 21. 15-17. w 1 Cor. 15. 50. Gal. 1. 16. Eph. 6. 12. Heb. 2. 14. * 1 Cor. 2. 10 & 12. 3. Cp. ch. 11. 25 & John 6. 45. they must make, the disciples must be prepared. Hence Jesus reveals to them more clearly his nature as the Messiah, and the nature of his kingdom, and for the first time shows them the necessity of his sufferings and death, first by his teachings, and then by the transfiguration scene. He also begins the organized church, — lays the first stones of the structure upon the great bed rock foundation. 13. When Jesus came, from Bethsaida, where the disciples landed with insufficient bread (Mark 8 : 22), on his way northward along the road that runs east of the Jordan to the coasts, parts, district, " the region belonging to a city, the country around it." Mark says " to the villages " of Caasarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, after he had been praying alone (Luke). As usual, the great epoch, the new work, began in prayer. His object seems to have been to draw out the faith of his disciples, and to reveal to them more fully his nature and his redeeming work. Whom (in modern English " who," as in R. V.) do men say that I the Son of man am ? The Son of man was a title he frequently applied to himself (see also Dan. 7 : 13, 14), but it is never applied to him by the apostles. It expressed his human, visible side, as the representative man, " the founder and ruler of the kingdom of God." Who do men say that I, who appear as a man, am ? 14. Some say . . . John the Baptist re turned to life. Among these was Herod (Matt. 14 : 1, 2). Some, Elias (Greek form of Elijah), who had wrought some great miracles, and had turned the tide of the nation from heathen wor ship to the true God, and was the promised fore runner of the Messiah (Mai. 4: 5, Ii). And others, Jeremias, the Greek form of Jeremiah. "Jere miah is placed first, because in the Jewish canon he was placed first among the Old Testament prophets." Or one of the prophets, i. e., " that one of the old prophets is risen again " (Luke 9 : 19). 15. But whom (R. V., " who ") say ye that I am? Observe "ye," plural, and by position in the Greek exceedingly emphatic — in contrast with the discordant popular opinions. What have you learned about me and my work during the two or three years you have known me ? What is the outcome of it all ? 10. And Simon Peter answered. The ques tion is addressed to all, and Peter, according to his natural boldness, answers for all. Thou art the Christ. The expected Messiah for whom the people were looking and hoping. " Christ " is the Greek, and "Messiah" is the Hebrew, for " anointed." Anointing was the method by which kings, and sometimes prophets, were set apart for their work. The Son of the living God. The Son of God in the highest sense, which could be asserted of no other being. God is here styled living " because he is the source of true life, and suggests that his Son is the fountain of life to men." * 17. Blessed art thou. Because thou hast opened thy heart to the truth ; because thou hast broken from the bondage of Jewish prejudice and worldly vision ; because thou hast such firm con fidence in such a Saviour. Faith, knowledge of Christ as the Son of God, almighty to save and infinite in love ; a heart in which truth finds a natural soil ; a character in harmony with Jesus ; broader outlooks into truth — are all exquisite blessings. Simon Bar-jona, i. e„ son of Jonah. Bar is Aramaic (the Syriac Hebrew then in use) for " son." Jonah should begin with a capital J, as in the R. V. For flesh and blood (man) hath not revealed this unto you. It has not its origin in the mere human knowledge, in the i Prof. Eiddle. 16 : 18. -MATTHEW. 201 18 And I Sso^a? unto thee, that "thou art Pe'ter, and 'upon this rock I will build my church ; and a the gates of b Ha'des shall not prevail against it. l/Cp. ch. 10. 2& Johnl. 42. 11. 23. z Eph. 2. 20. Rev. 21. 14. Cp. ch. 7. 24. a Job 38. 17. Isai. 38. 10. b See ch. workings of the human mind. But my Father which is in heaven. God flashed forth the truth, and Peter did not close his eyes that he might not see. Thus the disciples had learned the lesson of the Messiah, and were firmly fixed in that faith. They had reached a positive stage in their training. The foundation was laid, and firm. Standing on this they could go on to larger, more important, and more difficult truths, without los ing their faith. Practical Suggestions. (1.) Note the value of open confession. It required great courage for Peter thus to confess a truth contrary to the trend of public opinion. But such confession confirms one's faith, makes clearer the truth, and strengthens one's loyalty. Like Cortez, it burns one's ships behind him. It changes the soft clay into rock. (2.) The discussion concerning Christ and his claims, by the people, even when they were only questioning about it, or opposing the truth, was a great advantage. It awakened thought ; it pre pared people to receive the truth ; it made widely known the claims of Jesus, and the proofs he gave for his claims. All discussions are liable to evil, hut there are none so evil as deadness of mind and heart. Weeds are had, but not so bad as a desert. Storms are dangerous, but none so dangerous as the level stillness of a frozen sea. (3.) What think ye op Christ ? is the most important question for us. It is the crucial ques tion of our religious life, which will measure its height, its power, its comfort, its quality. Christ as a prophet, as a great teacher, as a noble exam ple, is of great value to us in many ways. But Christ as the atoning Redeemer, as the revealer of God's forgiving love, as the infinite Son of God, with all knowledge of the present and the future, with all power to save and help, every where present, — such a Christ is vastly more helpful and comforting. As Dr. Holland says, " The mightier the Christ of a church is, the mightier the church as an influence for good in the world." (4.) The disciples had gradually come to this view of Jesus. While the people thought of him only as a prophet, for they saw nothing kingly in his appearance or works, no crown, no sceptre, no throne, no army, no treasures, no retinue of princes, the disciples had begun to see more deeply into his inner nature. They received his teachings, they saw his mighty works, they felt his spiritual power, and at length recognized him as the Messiah. II. THE BOCK ABTD THE KEYS, vers. 18-20. Although their understanding of the Messiah and his kingdom was very imperfect, yet Jesus showed them how great was the trust committed to them, and how heavy the responsibilities laid upon them. This was a part of their training. It would give them a deep interest in the subject, and lead to a more earnest search after the truth. 18. Thou art Peter. Greek, Petros, a stone, a piece of rock, " as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector (Iliad, VII. 270)." i This name was given to Peter in prophecy long before (John 1 : 42), and now attention is called to its meaning. What was possible rock at first was hardening into actual rock, as sandstone in the isle of Skye, and building stone in some of the Ohio quarries, are soft and flexible and easily. carved when first taken from the earth, but soon harden into rock. Even precious stones like chalcedony have the same quality. Upon this rock. Petra, the feminine of Petros, denoting rock, bed-rock, as distinguished from a stone or piece of rock, of which Peter was a fragment. "In Homer (Odyssey, IX. 243), the rock which Polyphemus places at the door of his cavern is a mass which two and twenty wagons could not remove.1 I will build my church. " The ideal congregation, or assembly of all real Christians," is the great spiritual temple planned and built by God, not by man. Not human or ganizations, but the one great building in which God dwells by his spirit. Jesus Christ is the builder, the architect. Peter, as one of the apos tles, and a representative of all, filled with living experience and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, is a rock, one of the great foundation stones on which Christ is rearing the building, his enduring and glorious church. (Compare Eph. 2 : 20 ; Rev. 21 : 14.) In the lan guage of the Prayer Book, "All true Christians dispersed throughout the world," " all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours." 2 And the gates of heU. Gates of Hades, which is composed of the Greek &, not, and iSelv, to see, and signifies the invisible land, the realm of the dead, Death personified. The gates, being the place where business was often transacted and asseni- 1 Prof. Vincent. 2 See Farrar's Life of Lives, " The Apostolic Commission." 202 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 16 : 19, 20. 19 And I will give unto thee "the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and ''what soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 e Then charged he {£! disciples that they should tell no man that he was Je'SttS the Christ. c Cp. Isai. 22. 22 & Wisd. 16. 13 & Rev. 1. 18 & 3. 7. Cp. ch. 17. 9. See ch. 12. 16. d Cp. ch. 18. 18 & John 20. 23. e Mark 8. 30. Luke 9. 21. blies held, "is an Orientalism for the court, throne, power," as "Sublime Porte," i. e., sub lime gate, designates the Turkish government. The realm, the kingdom, the city of death, con fronts and assaults the church, the kingdom, the city of Christ, but shall not prevail against it. Church forms and organizations may change and be superseded by better ones, but the real church abides forever. It is indestructible.1 19. I will give unto thee. As one of the chiefest of the apostles, the first among equals. The others were included, as Peter had nothing in kind that the rest did not have (Matt. 18 : 18 ; John 20 : 23). In Rev. 21 : 14 the twelve apostles are twelve foundation stones of the heavenly city. (See, also, Eph. 2 : 20.) " The keys, the powers to loose and bind, the power to remit and retain sin, refer neither to individual priests nor to sacerdotal caste, but to the didactic, the legislative, and the prophetic powers of the whole church of God."2 The keys of the kingdom of heaven. The keys are the means by which one enters a house, a city, or a treasury. The kingdom. of heaven, not the abode of the blest but the kingdom of God on earth, is represented under the figure of a city with gates, or of a large house with gates for en trance, and doors to treasure rooms. First. Peter and the other apostles were the instruments through which the world was to be brought into the kingdom. For instance, on the day of Pentecost through Peter's preaching three thousand persons entered the kingdom in one day. And through the testimony of the apostles, their work, and the Scriptures they wrote, all that have become Christians have come into the kingdom. Second. Since the church could not be organ ized or the full Gospel preached till after the death and resurrection of Jesus, he must have some authoritative representatives on earth to whom, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, could be committed the decision of all questions and interpretations that would necessarily arise. To none could this power be so justly committed as to those devoted persons who had been trained under Jesus himself, and specially endowed with the Holy Spirit. Hence, Jesus says, as one use of the power of the keys: Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth. That is, forbid or de clare forbidden, enforce the obligation. Shall be bound in heaven. Their decisions should be ratified and confirmed by Jesus in heaven and by the Holy Spirit. Shalt loose on earth. That is, allow, declare to be permitted, " to remove the yoke of some traditional precept." " This power was a familiar Jewish metaphor of the day." Examples. This power was used by the apos tles and the early church . For instance, the elec tion of an apostle in the place of Judas (Acts 1 : 21-26); the appointment of deacons (Acts 6: 2-5) ; the admission of Gentiles into the church (Acts 10) ; the decision whether the Gentiles must conform to Jewish rites (Acts 15). Third. They received the key to the inter pretation of the Old Testament Scriptures. Fourth. It gave them the key to the treasure house of gospel knowledge. It was through their witness and preaching that we have the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, which are the authoritative rule of the church in all ages. Practical. (1) The gift of the keys is widely bestowed upon man. God has bestowed upon him the keys of nature, as to a house with num berless doors, and bids him open them. Science and civilization are the results of the use of this power of the keys. Not so much knowledge as the power to learn is God's gift to men. " It is an awful responsibility, hut it is a magnificent trust." But the process of learning the use of the keys has been " worth far more than all else which civilization has brought." In the same way and for the same purpose " God gives to each soul personally the keys of his own destiny and bids him unlock life's closed doors ; puts in his hands the rudder and bids him steer his bark ; gives him the tools and bids him model his own character. This is the solemnest fact of all." 8 (2) Every experience is a key to unlock the hearts of others that the truth may enter in. 20. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was . . - the Christ. Omit Jesus, or read, that he, Jesus, was the Christ. Why not proclaim this glorious truth from the housetops ? (1) Because the time had not come. After his death they should proclaim 1 Compare the scene in the Interpreter's house in Pil grim's Progress, where Satan is trying to put out the fire. 2 See Farrar's Life of Lives, " The Apostolic Commis sion." 3 Lyman Abbott. 16 : 21-23. MATTHEW. 203 21 H 'From that time tortl1 began "Je'sus to shew unto his disciples, how that * he must go unto Je-ru'sa-lem, and ' suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be ,aised again J the third day be raised up. 22 "nd1 Pe'ter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, k Be it far from thee, Lord : this shall never be unto thee. 23 But he turned, and said unto Pe'ter, ' Get thee behind me, Sa'tan : thou art "'astmnbitagbiock unto me : for thou "Sf not the things lhatbe of God, but those that he „x „,„_ the things 01 men. / For ver. 21-28, see Mark 8. 31-9. 1 & Luke 9. 22-27. Cp. ch. 17. 12, 22, 23 & 20. 17-19. g See ch. 1. 18 (for mg.). A ch. 20.18. Cp. Luke 13. 33. i ch. 17. 12, 22, 23. Luke 24. 7. j See ch. 27. 63 & John 2. 19. A 1 Mace. 2. 21 (Gk.). I Cp. ch. 4. 10. m See ch. 13. 41. n Rom. 8. 5. Phil. 3. 19. Col. 3. 2. Cp. Phil. 2. 5. it all the rest of their lives, but not at this time, for they themselves did not understand the true nature and work of the Messiah. They would he certain to preach wrong. (2) Because the peo ple would he turned away from their spiritual needs, and the new life which was essential to the coming of the kingdom, to the desire to realize the outward glories of their false conception of the Messiah as king. This danger was entirely removed after the crucifixion. (3) The announce ment that Jesus was the Messiah would be likely to excite tumult and rebellion against the Roman government, the people trying to make Jesus the leader of the revolt. This would interfere with his plan of a spiritual kingdom. Although the apostles accepted Jesus as the Messiah, yet they had much to learn about him and his kingdom. The spiritual nature of the kingdom and the spiritual conditions of admis sion were only dimly within their horizon. In their vision of the promised glories there was no room for other prophecies concerning the Mes siah, which were essential to the realization of the kingdom and the Messiah they expected. III. A NEW BEVELA.TIOW COISTCEBN- IBTG THE MESSIAH, vers. 21-23. 21. From that time. The disciples were now strong enough in their conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, to have their errors concerning his nature and kingdom corrected. Another view must he brought to their minds, which would show them that the kingdom was spiritual and not earthly. How ... he must go unto Jeru salem. The capital of the Jewish nation, the symbol of the Church, the place of the Temple, and its sacrifices which he had come to fulfil. Suffer many things, as described in the last chapters of the Gospel. And be killed, by cruci fixion, thus making the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. This is stated to guard the disciples from being disappointed when this neces sary event took place, and thus losing faith in him as the Messiah. They must see it as an es sential part of the plan of salvation. And be raised again the third day. The resurrection of Jesus was essential to the proof that he was the true Messiah, essential to his work of redemp tion, and reigning ¦ as king at the right hand of God (1 Cor. 15 : 14-18). This is stated in each of the three accounts, and is emphasized for the sake of the faith and hope of the disciples. It was an enigma to them as yet, but its solution would be the corner stone of their future faith. 22. Then Peter took him one side to speak to him privately. And began to rebuke him. Only began, for he was soon interrupted. His was a mingled motive of love and self-assurance that he was right. Saying, Be it far from thee, Lord. The plan of redemption outlined by Jesus was so contrary to all Peter's expectations and hopes, so opposite to his idea of the Messiah king and his reign, that it seemed inconceivable to Peter. It was absurd, ruinous, a deathblow to their own hopes and a triumph to their enemies. 23. But he turned. Turned round to the disciples (Mark 8 : 33). And said unto Peter. Publicly before them all. Get thee behind me, Satan. Satan means "adversary," the great " enemy " of all good, used in the Saviour's time as a proper name. " He did not call his apostle Satan, a devil, but he looked for the moment through Peter, and saw behind him his old enemy, cunningly making use of the prejudices and im pulsive honesty of the undeveloped apostle."1 Thou art an offence. A stumbling-block in stead of a foundation stone ; a hindrance, by placing before him the very temptation which Satan had presented to him in the wilderness. For thou savourest (mindest, "partakest of the quality of ") not the things that be of God. God's wise plan for his kingdom. But those that be of men. The natural, human view of the Messiah, a worldly kingdom, riches, honor, glory, and triumph. There ever has been, and still exists, a tendency to fall into Peter's error, 1 Morison. 204 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 16 : 24-26. 24 H Then said Je'sus unto his disciples, If any u!"""wouid come after me, let him ° deny himself, and p take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For p whosoever w^uid save his Ufe shall lose it : and whosoever shin lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26 For q what Shaii a man he profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his owf5fe°?ul ? or '' what shall a man give in exchange for his sme ? o Cp. 2 Tim. 2. 12, 13. p See ch. 10. 38, 39. q Cp. Luke 12. 20. r Cp. Ps. 49. 7, 8. and seek the growth of the church by temporal power and worldly wealth and greatness, instead of by suffering for the world. Amid all their visions of the splendors of the Messiah's kingdom, and the grandeur of his tri umphs over his enemies, their highest dreams and brightest visions fell as far short of the real ity as modern Jerusalem falls short of the new Jerusalem portrayed in Revelation. The Cross of Christ is the central point of the Gospel, the source of its power. "The cross, stained with the blood drops of our Redeemer is the most sacred symbol of our religion. But it is precious, not because it points downward to death and the grave, hut because it ever points upward to the living Christ." 1 IV. THE GENERAL PBIETCIPLE IN VOLVED, vers. 24-28. Those who belong to the Messiah's kingdom must hear the cross, like the Messiah, with its resurrection to a new and glorious life. 24. If any man will (would, wishes to) come after me. Be his follower, his disciple ; and seek to attain his character and his reward. Let him deny himself. Renounce self as master and ac cept Christ as master. When the heart accepts Jesus and chooses God, then the whole lower nature, all passions, aims, desires, are to be sub jected not only to conscience, but to Jesus. Our mere pains and troubles are not sweet incense to God (2 Tim. 4: 1-3). He desires us to be happy as he is, and he knows that only through true self-denial can this joy be obtained. Self-denial is to deny ourselves everything wrong, no matter how pleasant it may be ; it is to give up what is pleasant and right in itself when we can thereby best aid the cause of Christ and the redemption of our fellow men ; it is to do right, to serve Christ, to promote his kingdom at whatever cost ; it is to make Christ first. Self-denial is the con dition without which no high character can he at tained. It is the process of training and educating the soul. Even he who would have the best health and strength of body must continually deny him self, as every athlete knows. No man can gain the higher without denying self in the lower. " Keep your soul on top." Hence God has made life full of opportunities to deny self for others. Take up his cross. Daily, not merely on special occasions. The cross is the symbol of self-denial even to death. Each one must take up his own cross. He must take it up voluntarily, not merely because it is forced upon him. The cross is a test, like Ithuriel's spear.2 And foUow me. To follow Christ is to take him for our master, our teacher, our example ; to believe his doc trines, to uphold his cause, to obey his precepts, and to do this though it lead us by the way of the cross- It is not merely to do right, but to do right for his sake, under his leadership, and ac cording to his teaching. 25. For whosoever will save his life. Wishes, wills to save it, by doing wrong, by avoiding hard duties and self-denial, by gaining worldly good at the expense of religion and righteousness. Shall lose it. Shall utterly fail, shall lose even the earthly rewards he seeks, and his eternal blessed ness. Life is the same word as soul in the next verse. It is the man himself, and all that in his eyes makes life worth living. And whosoever will lose his life. The lower life, the things that seem to worldly men to make life worth living. But note this is to he for my sake, "and," Mark adds, "for the gospel's." The mere loss of life has no promised blessing. It is only loss for the sake of Christ that has this promise. Multitudes of people lose their lives for gain, for pleasure, for fashion. Each of these has more martyrs than the cross ever required ; bnt the loss was without compensation or hope. But whosoever loses it for the love of Christ, for the sake of preaching and advancing the gospel, shall find it. Shall have a blessedness and glory which will a thousand times compensate for every loss. The loss was temporal, the gain is eternal ; the loss was small, the gain infinite ; the loss was of outward things, the gain is in the nature of the soul itself.8 26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world (which he never does), and lose his own soul? "Soul" here is the same word in the original as " life " in the pre vious verse. All that makes it possible for him 1 Prof. Charles L. Briggs, LL. D. 2 See The Chaviji'il Cross and The Cross-Bearer, a series of pictures on different ways of bearing the cross. 3 The Seven Fears changed into Seven Joys, in Arnold's Light of Asia. 17. MATTHEW. 205 27 5 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with ' his angels • and " then shaii sl?&SAo every man according to his Xd?' 2notVerily * Say Ullt0 you' There be some o'"'em?Sgstand here, which shall in So wise "taste of death, ""till they see the Son of man "coming in his kingdom. * eh. 24. 30 & 25. 31 & 26. 64. Dan. 7. 10, 13. Zech. 14. 5. John 1.51. Acts 1. 11. 1 Thess. 1. 10 & 4. 16 Jude 14. Rev. 1.7. Cp. Deut. 33. 2. t ch. 13. 41. u Rom. 2. 6 & 14. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. 1 Pet. 1 17 Rev 2 23 & 20. 12 & 22. 12. See Acts 10. 42 & 1 Cor. 3. 8. v John 8. 52. Heb. 2. 9. w Cp. ch. 10. 23 & 23. 36 & 24 34. x Luke 23. 42. to use or enjoy the world he has gained. What good do worldly things do to one who is sick, or suffers the stings of conscience, or destroys the character which makes heaven possible to him? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? R. V., "his life." Life physical or spiritual, earthly or heavenly.1 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father. The time is coming when all these days of humiliation and the cross will pass away, and Jesus shall be a triumphant king. He shall conquer death by the resurrection. The kingdom which seemed so feeble then shall rule over the whole earth. With his angels. A glorious retinue of the most glorious beings in the universe, indicating his rank as King of kings. He shall reward every man according to his works. Because the works are the index and proof of the character, as the time the hands keep on the face of the clock are the test of the perfection of the unseen works within. He who was condemned then shall be the judge, honest and true. The "Well done" will be spoken only to those who have done well; and "Enter into the joy of your Lord " only to those who have been faithful to their Lord. 28. There be some standing here, etc. There were some before him who would not taste of death till they saw the beginnings of this triumph, the establishment of the new kingdom. The Son of man coming in his kingdom. This state ment is three times repeated (see Mark 9: 1; Luke 9: 27). The apostles lived to see the mar vellous day of Pentecost, when Christ began to come in his kingdom, and three thousand were converted in a day ; and some of them to see the end of the Jewish dispensation in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the establishment of the Chris tian dispensation with tens of thousands of dis ciples throughout the civilized world. " ' This generation' (Mark) is always used by Jesus to denote the men living at the time." 2 These events were the beginning of the second coming of Christ. Christ is here now in person. And the full coming of the kingdom of God is certain, because it has begun to come. The dawning rays are the assurance of hope and faith. The past is the proof of the future. CHAPTER 1/ Sectiok XVI. -THE TRANSFIGURATION, vers. 1-13. i. The Three Witnesses. 5. The Divine Testimony. 6. Lessons from the Transfiguration. -FINAL INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY (in part). 1. The Lunatic Child, vers. 14-18. 3. The Suffering Messiah (repeated), vers. 2. Lesson on Faith, vers. 19-21. 22, 23. 4. The Tribute Money, vers. 24, 27. 1. The Prayer-meeting on the Mountain. 2. Jesus Transfigured. 3. Conference of Three Glorified Ones. Section XVIT. THE TBANSFIGUBATIOBT, vers. 1-13. Time. Autumn of a. d. 29, six days after the discourse in chap. 16. Place. Probably Mount Hermon, or one of its spurs, in the vicinity of Cesarea Philippi, where Jesus and his disciples were the week before. So 1 There is a Russian legend of one who entered a dia mond mine in search of great riches. He filled his pockets with great gems, and then threw them away to make room for larger ones. At length he became very thirsty, but there was no water. He sought to find the way out, but was hopelessly lost in the intricate mazes. He heard the flow of rivers, but they were rivers of gems ; and he hastened forward at the sound of a waterfall, but it was a cascade of jewels. He was very rich in precious stones, but he was dying of thirst, and his riches were worse than useless. He had lost himself and perished amid his treasures. Douglas Jerrold's Cakes and Ale has a story of a miser who perished by being locked up in his own treasury. Goethe's Faust. 2 Int. Crit. Com. 206 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 17:1. 1 "And after six days Je'sus taketh with mm * Pe'ter, and Jame§, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into aa high mountain apart': y For ver. 1-8, see Mark 9. 2-8 & Luke 9. 28-36. - ch. 26. 37. Mark 5. 37. most modern scholars ; though a tradition dating from before the fourth century places it on Mount Tabor in Galilee. Parallels. Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36. Raphael's Last Picture. The most cele brated and the most beautiful picture of the Transfiguration is Raphael's, now in the Vatican. It is one of the greatest pictures ever painted. Its well-known story is of great interest. It was Raphael's last work, on which he spent years of study, and was not quite finished when he died. " While he was sick he had the picture hung in his sight, that his constant thoughts might be upon his glorified Saviour. When he was dead, the picture was hung above his lifeless body, where for days crowds came to honor his won derful genius, as they looked with reverence at the dead artist and his wonderful picture of the transfiguration of Jesus." 1 I. THE BEAVER-MEETING ON THE MOTXNTAIH'. 1. And after six days. Six complete days. Luke ' counts the parts of days before and after these six. It was a week after the announcement that Jesus must die, but would be raised again. There was a close connection between " those sayings " and the transfiguration. The revelation of the way Jesus must act his part as the Messiah, and that they must share a cross instead of a throne, threw them into the gloom of the dungeon of Giant Despair. It may be, too, that the prospect of death shadowed his own spirit, and that Ruskin is right in attributing to Jesus all natural human feelings, including the fear of death, " since among all the trials of earth none spring from the dust more terrible than fear."'2 Hence this wonder ful revelation of the divine nature of Jesus, — of his real glory, of the fact of a life after death, and of heavenly interest in him and his work, showing how the great prophets understood that Jesus could be King and Messiah only by passing through the gates of death, — was necessary in order to revive the faith of the disciples, and enable them to see how Jesus could die and yet be the Messiah. Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John. It was the same favored three who had gone with Jesus into the room where he raised Jairus' daughter. A few months later they were nearest to him as he prayed in Gethsemane, and still later were recognized as " pillars " of the church (Gal. 2 : 9). There was no favoritism in this selection. He simply advanced to higher studies those who, by faithfulness in the lower, had made it possible for them to understand and use the higher. Only to those who have been faithful in the lesser things comes the call to the wider kingdom. The other nine disciples were left at the base of the moun tain, as we see by the events of the following morning (Mark 9 : 14-29). They did not have faith enough to cure a vexed lunatic, although Jesns had conferred this power upon them (10 : 1). Reasons. (1) Jesus wanted sympathy, and these three could best give it. (2) There was need of witnesses to report this scene in due time. (3) And these three best scholars needed the knowledge and training this event would give. Into an high mountain apart. " Far from the madding crowd." "Scholars are coming to the unanimous conclusion that the mountain was Hermon," whose top is nine thousand feet above the sea. Dr. Wm. Wright says that he has spent twenty nights on its top, sometimes alone, and once twenty-five men and one woman spent the night there with him in " =>. picnic and prayer- meeting." On the top is an irregular angular space, four hundred or five hundred yards from edge to edge, surrounded by a jagged fence of broken rocks. " There is not another spot on earth so fitted for the transfiguration scene as that plateau, the loftiest place on earth known to the men of the Bible ; the land of Israel spread out below, and the vast kingdoms of the world hemming it round." Luke (9 : 28, 29) tells us that Jesus went up into the mountain to pray ; and that the Transfigura tion took place while he prayed. So it was at his baptism ; as he prayed the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove (Luke 3 : 21, 22). Not long before, at the feeding of the 5000, he had spent the night hours in a mountain alone, praying. He prayed when he chose the Twelve, at the institution of his sup per, in Gethsemane, and on the cross. Thus ever at special crises of his minstry. This may have been one of the times when "in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5: 7). In this case there was not merely prayer, but a prayer- meeting. Doubtless the three disciples joined with their teacher in prayer. And to this prayer- meeting of four was the promise fulfilled that " where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (18 : 19). 1 Faith Latimer. 2 Modern Painters, vol. iv. chap. xx. 17 : 2, 3. MATTHEW. 207 2 and he was "transfigured before them: and 6his face did shine as the sun, and "his gafnJStsbecame white as the light. 3 And' behold, there appeared unto them Mo'ses. and E-i"jah talking with him. a Cp. 2 Cor. 3. 18 (Gk.). 6 Rev. 1. 16 & 10. 1. : Dan. 7. 9. Cp. ch. 28. 3 & Ps. 104. 2. II. JESUS TRANSFIGURED. 2. During his praying (Luke) and in answer to his prayer, he was transfigured before them, " perepoptfyuiBn, from jaera, denoting change or trans fer, and papyri, form, regarded as the distinctive nature and character of the object, and is distin guished from a-xvpa, the changeable outward fashion. The word implies not merely a change of outward form, as when Satan took the appear ance of an angel of light, but a real essential change. ' A foreshadowing or prophecy of his true form — his distinctive character — comes out in his transfiguration ; ' 'a revelation of Deity breaking out in that glorified face appealed to something deeper than sense.' " x And his face did shine as the sun. "The fashion (appearance) of his countenance was al tered " (Luke). Nothing less than the brightest and most glorious of all objects within human knowledge — so bright that it destroys the eye to gaze directly upon it — could express the radiant glories of Jesus' face, when his heavenly nature shone through the veil of his flesh, — one of the few hints as to our resurrection bodies. Compare the description of Jesus in Acts 9 : 3 and in Rev. 1 : 16, and the shining of Moses' face when he came down from talking with God (Ex. 34 : 29), and of Stephen's face (Acts 6 : 15). It was his inner spirit shining through the veil of the flesh, with "a light that never was on sea or land." Jesus was a prince in disguise, and for once he threw off his outward guise and appeared in his own royal glory. Dante, describing the angels he met in Paradise, says : — " Another of those splendors Approached me, and its will to pleasure me It signified by brightening outwardly, As one delighted to do good ; Became a thing transplendent in my sight, As a fine ruby smitten by the sun." 2 And his raiment was white as the light, {. e., luminously white, " as no fuller on earth can white them " (Mark) ; i. e., with a supernatural whiteness ; "white and glistering " (Luke). Lit erally, lightening forth, as though from some in ward radiance. " A light within a marble bust produces an effect no light without it can rival.'' A cathedral window, although divinely pictured, yet seen from without, with the light shining upon it, is a mass of dull stained glass. But when the sun shines through it, we see exquisitely beautiful pictures, forms, and colors with a radiance beyond compare.8III. THE CONFERENCE OF THE THREE GLORIFIED ONES. 3. And, behold, there appeared unto them (i. e., the disciples) Moses and Ettas, the Greek form of Elijah. These persons were really pre sent. It was not a vision, as is plain from the accouut of Luke, who says "two men," human beings ; and Peter recognized them. Luke says that they appeared in glory, in their glorified bodies ; something like that of the transfigured Jesus, but with less radiance. Note (1) the peculiarity of the ending of the earthly life of these two, " of whom one had not died (2 Kings 2 : 11), and the other had no sooner tasted of death than his body was withdrawn from under the dominion of death and of him that had the power of death" (Deut. 34: 6; Jude 9) .4 And thus with their resurrection bodies they were peculiarly fitted to appear on this oc casion as examples of the complete redemption of man, for which Jesus came to the earth. Note (2) both, like Christ, " had endured a natural fast of forty days and nights ; both had been on the holy mount in the visions of God." * Moses was the Representative of the Law. Through him the law was given, and the kingdom founded, and the sacrifices instituted which prefigured the sacrifice of Christ. Elijah was the Representative of the Prophets, who foretold the coming of the Mes siah, his sufferings, and his kingly glory, while he was himself the type of the forerunner. The Subject of their Conference. Talk ing with him. Of his decease (Luke), of his departure, exodus (in the Greek), his going out of this evil world, as the Israelites from the bond age of Egypt. ' ' Departure is a most fitting word, for it contains, at the same time, the ideas both of death and ascension. Ascension was as much the natural way for Jesus as death is for us." This Jesus was about to " accomplish at Jerusa lem " (Luke) by being crucified, as he had foretold them just before, and rising again from the dead. (1) This conversation would bring human com- i Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word Studies, pp. 99, 100, where is an excellent exposition of the meaning of transfigura tion. 2 Paradiso, Canto ix. 13-19. * See the transformation of the fisherman's hut in Goethe's Tale of Tales ; interpreted by Carlyle in one of his Essays. Compare Professor Wilkinson's description of Stephen's face in his Epic of Saul. i Cambridge Bible. 6 Alford. 208 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 17 : 4, 5. ¦4 An™ivsierJa5fswereur; and said unto Je'sus, Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, lewlii make here three d tabernacles ; one for thee', and one for Mo'se§, and one for E-n'jih. 5 While he Was ye't sp^kW, behold, e a bright cloud overshadowed them : and be hold, ea voice out of the cloud, wlsaymtid' -'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; g hear ye him. d Cp. Neh. 8. 15. e 2 Pet. 1. 17. Cp. Ex. 24. 15, 16. /Seech. 3. 17. g Acts 3. 22. fort and strength to Jesus, as he stood seemingly alone in his view of a suffering Messiah, against the almost unanimous opinion of scholars and in terpreters of Scripture. The presence of Moses and Elijah, in glorified form, would be a positive assurance to him of his own resurrection. (2) It enabled the disciples to realize that Jesus was divine. It showed them that that which seemed to be destructive of the very existence of the Messiah was, indeed, the central power by which he could become the great king. Their theme was the central theme of the Gospel, — Jesus Christ, and him crucified. It helped them to real ize the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus. It showed them how Jesus was fulfilling the Scrip tures which foretold and typified the Messiah. IV. THE THREE WITNESSES. The three disciples watched this conversation for some time. The late hour, their long vigil, their silent listening made them heavy with sleep, but they had resisted the drowsy influence and kept "fully awake" (R. V. Luke 9: 32). This "is one word in the original, and means having watched through, having remained awake, for they had overcome the force of sleep." 1 Their reward was that they saw his glory. It was no dream, no mere vision, but a waking reality. 4. Then answered Peter. After they had looked on awhile, and the heavenly guests were departing. Peter answered not to any question, but to the feelings and questionings that the scene awakened in his mind. And said unto Jesus. Anxious to continue in such heavenly company, but "not knowing what he said" (Luke). He had not time to think what was best, to see all the effects of his plan, and how little it could do toward accomplishing his desire that they should remain and prepare for the inauguration of the glorious Messiah. What if all the Jews could see how glorious was the man who claimed to be the Messiah ; how worthy to be the king of the Jews ! What if Jesus in his glory should now proclaim his kingdom and begin his Messianic reign I Lord, it is good for us to be here. Peter spoke the truth. The experience was good, and would make him a better and more useful man all the rest of his life. It widened his outlook. It gave him a new idea of the glory that awaited the faithful. It exalted his knowledge of Jesus as a Saviour. It increased his faith. It enabled him to bear more bravely his burdens. If thou wilt. Art willing. Let us. The disciples' ; R. V. says, "I will make." Make . . . three taber nacles, or booths, from the bushes on the moun tain, like those used at the Feast of Tabernacles, the great annual Jewish Thanksgiving Festival. " They proposed to do what any Galilean peasant would do to-day, if arrested by nightfall on a bleak and exposed hillside. He would at once, rather than travel in the night, look out for brushwood and rushes, and quickly weave a few loose, rough hurdles, to form a screen from the wind." 2 Jesus made no answer. The events that fol lowed were the answer. It was not good to re main there. There was need of them all in the world below. Working for Jesus was better than standing and gazing at his glory. All that was gained upon the mountain top must he taken down into the sinful, sorrowing world. There the light must shine, for it was sent in order to shine in the darkness. V. THE DIVINE TESTIMONY TO JESUS, vers. 5-7. 5. While he yet spake, was speaking. A bright cloud. Like the shekinah in the Taber nacle in the wilderness, and in the Temple when it was dedicated by Solomon, a token of the im mediate presence of God ; the cloud symbolizing mystery, and the brightness suggesting glory. Peter (2 Pet. 1 : 17), in a reminiscence of this scene, calls it " the excellent glory." Overshadowed them. Thus Moses and Elijah were hidden from their sight. The cloud was an incarnation of the ineffable light of God, veiling its glory, yet mak ing it visible to man, as the clouds that veil the sun enable us who cannot gaze into his face yet to see his beauty and glory. " Light in its utmost intensity performs the effects of darkness, hides as effectually as the darkness would do." Comp. 1 Tim. 6: 16, and the words of Milton, "dark with excess of light," and of Wordsworth, "a glorious privacy of light." 3 And behold a voice out of the cloud. " The same voice which had been heard once before at 1 Thayer, Gk. Eng. Lex. 2 Canon Tristram. 3 Trench's Studies, pp. 205, 206. 17 : 6-9. MATTHEW. 209 6 And when * the disciples heard ,£; < they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. 7 And Je'sus came and s touched them' and said, Arise, and *be not afraid. 8 And when they had lifted up their QJQ^ ^ ^ nQ man, saye Jg,§us Qnly 9 'And as they were^SSing down from the mountain, Je'sus commanded them, say ing, "' Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. A 2 Pet. 1. 18. i Cp. Gen. 17. 3 & Ezek. 1. 28 & Rev. 1. 17. j Dan. 8. 18 & 9. 21 & 10. 10, 18. * ch. 14. 27. I For vers. 9-13, see Mark 9. 9-13. m See ch. 8. 4 & 12. 16. the baptism (Matt. 3: 17), and which was to he heard again when he stood on the threshold of his passion (John 12 : 28), attesting his divinity and sonship at the beginning, at the middle, and. at the close of his ministry."1 This is my be loved Son. Adding the voice of God to the at testation of the scene itself, and interpreting the scene. This truth must he impressed upon the disciples so that they should never lose their faith even in the dark times that were to follow ; and while others were calling Jesus a criminal and blas phemer the disciples could always see him in his true glory. Hear ye him. For he is the ambas sador of God, bringing the message of love from heaven. " Hear " implies faith and obedience. 6. They fell on their face, and were sore afraid. For God himself was there. The great manifestations of God's power close at hand fill the soul, conscious of weakness and sin, with dread solemnity. 7. They remained with hidden faces till Jesus came and touched them. "Act and words were both expressive of an almost brotherly ten derness." Be not afraid. Only in Jesus can we draw nigh to God without dread. 8. Then suddenly lifting up their eyes (Mark), they saw no man. The two heavenly visitants had passed away in the cloud. Jerome says of this, " I so saw Moses, so I saw the prophets that I knew they were speaking of Christ ... so that I may not remain in the law and the pro phets, but through the law and the prophets I may come to Christ." 9. As they came down. To where the other disciples were waiting. Jesus charged them, saying, TeU the vision, the things seen, the spec tacle, to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. Because (1) they could not fully understand its meaning until then, so as to tell it aright, — as to Jesns' nature, his death, his resurrection, the future life. (2) Those to whom they might tell it could still less comprehend its full meaning, and would misunderstand and per vert it. (3) It would make it harder for many to accept him as a teacher, and thus be led on to the complete acceptance of him as the Saviour of the world. (4) If they should believe in him as such a glorious being they would try still more ear nestly to make him an earthly king, — a tempta tion he had again and again to resist. (5) The greatest value of the vision to most people would be at the time of his resurrection, and thereafter, when the disciples began to preach Jesus as the Saviour and King. VI. LESSONS FBOM THE TBANSFIG- UBATION. 1. Our richest and most heavenly experiences come in and through prayer, and often from united prayer. " Lord, lead us to the mountain height ; to prayer's trans figuring glow ; And may we bring a heavenly light to the dark world below." " Tell me your prayers and I will write the his tory of a soul." " Remember the lamp of Aladdin, which needed only to be rubbed to bring forth unseen powers to do the bidding of the possessor." 2 Note how much the other nine lost by not being present at this prayer-meeting. They had not taken the steps in climbing the moral moun tain, and so missed the scene and its blessing. 2. Only those who have served Christ faith fully in the valleys of daily duty, and have lived near to him, can climb with him the Mount of Transfiguration. Daily faithfulness is the ladder to heaven. " Unless a man has trained himself for his chance, the chance will only make him ridiculous. A great occasion is worth to a man exactly what his antecedents have enabled him to make of it."3 3. There is a glory in the Bible and in Christ beyond our ordinary conception, and often veiled, but always there to those who can see. Those who had seen Christ only in his human form were like those who had seen only the seeds of the rose or the bulb of the lily, but had no vision of the blossoms which could grow out of them. 4. There are heavenly experiences given occa sionally to Christians, as a foretaste of their glory and a glimpse of the spiritual realities ever about them. That experience which was good for Peter 1 Cambridge Bible. 2 Rev. Hugh Black, Prayer. 8 William Matthews. 210 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 17 : 10. 10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes "that Ejl'jah must first come ? n See ch. 11. 14. is good for us. We all need the highest and sweetest experiences of the love of Christ, to see him in his beauty and glory, to glance through the gates ajar, to feel the breath of heaven, and hear the voice of God. (a) It widens the outlook, giv ing earthly things their truer place in life. (6) It gives a clearer view of the end to which we are working, of the state to which God would bring all men. (c) It helps us bear our burdens, over come our temptations, do our Christian work. We are amid sin, but we have seen the glory of the Master able to conquer it ; we dwell amid sor rows, but we know him who has power to trans form them ; we see the work to he done, but here is new inspiration and hope. Light, victory, glory, heaven, shine henceforth on all the dark earth. (d) It gives a permanent uplifting to our character. (e) It helps to change us into the image of Christ. " O Master, it is good to be Entranced, enwrapt, alone with thee ! Till we, too, change from grace to grace, Gazing on that transfigured face." l 5. These higher experiences, times of revival, exaltation, Pentecostal seasons, bless and inspire all the subsequent life, even though they do not continue in the mountain-top experience. A shower is not lost because the raindrops cease to fall and the water sinks out of sight in the ground. Carlyle, speaking of the Reformation, says, "Once risen into this divine white heat of temper, were it only for a season and not again, it (a nation) is henceforth considerable through all its remaining history. Nations are benefited for ages by being thrown once into divine white heat in this manner. And no nation that has not had such divine paroxysms at any time is apt to come to much." 6. As the Gospel, the Law, and the Prophets were all at one on the Transfiguration Mount, and concerned with the cross, so Christians are near est together in doctrine when nearest to Christ in heavenly experience. The best Christians differ least in essentials. The cream of all the churches is very much alike. The churches become one on the Mount of Transfiguration. The differ ences in the light of our little lamps are all ab sorbed in the radiance of the sun. Here, too, most of the difficulties in the doctrines of grace vanish. The obstacles that obstruct our path on the earth are of no account to the eagle soaring above mountain and river. 7. The transfiguration was a promise, a pro phecy, and a vision of our resurrection life. We not only are assured of the reality of the life beyond the grave, but by specimens of what we may become, we catch glimpses of the glory that awaits us. He " shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." " We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." " As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 8. "As the gem is dull and black in the dark ness, but glows and burns and palpitates, restless with living splendor, when it drinks the sunbeam, so our poor souls, dull as they are and base with sin, may be transfigured into glory and loveliness, if, emptied of their lusts and selfishness, they lay themselves wholly bare to receive the effluence of God." 2 9. Sequestered joys, however blessed, lose their virtue, like the manna kept over contrary to di vine command. Christians can retain the bless ings of high religious experience only as they go down from the mount and use their experience in transfiguring their daily burdens and cares, and in attracting men to the cross of Christ. But the blessing was not lost because the experience did not continue. The transfiguration was a power, a comfort, a help all the rest of their lives. A deep experience in a Christian, a true revival in a church, Pentecostal seasons, are not lost because they do not continue in this form. They bless all the remaining time, and one fails of his best use fulness unless he has had the transfiguration ex perience. No one can measure the blessing of a shower by the amount of water that remains on the surface, nor the fruit on a tree by the length of time the blossoms of spring abide on its boughs. " God does not make the mountain tops to he in habited ; they are not for the homes of men. We ascend the height to catch a broader vision of our earthly surroundings, but we do not tarry there. The streams take their rise in these uplands, but quickly descend to gladden the fields and valleys below." 3 10. And his disciples asked, on the way down 1 Dean Stanley. 2 Farrar. 3 Prof. Henry Drummond, Address at Northfield. Compare Longfellow's "Legend Beautiful," in Talesof a Wayside Inn : — " ' Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled ! ' That is what the vision said." See, also, Prof. William James' Psychology, the chap ter on " Habit," and Butler's Analogy, part I., ch. 5, sec. 2. 17 : 11-14. MATTHEW. 211 11 And Jenseus answered and said, unt0 0^^SSS^^^*eam' anA shaii "restore all things': 12 "uf I say unto you, SS'^inlh is come already, and they knew him not, but phave.done untQ Mm wb.atsoever they listed_ q Likewise shall also the gon Qf man ^ suffer of them. 13 ''Then Kffi£$oo*t5?3S38£ that he spake unto them of J5hn the Bap'tlst. 14 IT s And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling dovvn to him, and saying, o Mai. 4. 6. Luke 1. 16, 17. Cp. Acts 1. 14H9, see Mark 9. 14-28 & Luke 9. 37-42. , l 3. 21. p ch. 14. 3, 10. q ch. 16. 21. r ch. 16. 12. s For vers. the mountain (comp. vers. 9 and 14), the next morning (Luke). Why then, in view of what they had seen and heard. They had been ques tioning (Mark) what "the rising again from the dead should mean." Was this appearance of Elijah his resurrection, and was this the fulfil ment of the saying of the scribes that Elias (Elijah) must first come ? (1) They now ac cepted the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but wanted to understand how this could be, since Elijah had not come, hut was in heaven, as they now realized. (2) If this appearance of Elijah was the fulfilment of the prophecy, why should they not proclaim it, so as to prove him to be the Messiah, and why was the coming so secret and so short ? Why had he departed instead of ac companying them ? (3) If this was not his com ing, when would he come, and how ? What are we to answer to the assertion of the scribes, founded on the Scriptures, that Jesus could not he the Christ, because he had not been preceded by Elijah ? Or is their teaching erroneous ? The prophecy is found in Mai. 3 : 1 ; 4 : 4-6. 11. Jesus answered . . . Elias truly shall first come. The scribes are correct, and the Scripture shall not fail of fulfilment. And restore all things. Work a reformation ; bring back the true basis and principles and life of the king dom of God, which the Jews had perverted and turned aside. He began the reform of all things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 12. But I say unto you. I will interpret for you the saying of the scribes. That Elias is come already, and they, the scribes, knew him not, did not recognize him as the forerunner, did not see how he was fulfilling the prophecy, but they rejected and opposed him and his work, and the rulers imprisoned and murdered him ; they did unto him whatsoever they listed, lusted, desired. List and lust are different forms of the same verb. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. That the scribes did not recog nize and accept John the Baptist as Elijah was no proof that Elijah had not come ; neither would it any more be proof that Jesus was not the Mes siah because the scribes set him at naught. 13. Then the disciples understood. What Jesus had taught them a year before, when John, in prison, had sent messengers to Jesus, inquiring whether he was really the Messiah (11 : 10). It was a difficult lesson, and they needed it to be repeated, that John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy, and had come in " the spirit and power of Elijah." Section XVII. -FINAL INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY (in part). I. THE LUNATIC CHILD, vers. 14-18. Time. Immediately after the Transfiguration. Parallels. Mark 9 : 14-27 ; Luke 9 : 37-43. This incident reminds us of Raphael's Trans figuration, where this scene is placed beneath on the earth in contrast with the glorious three, the discords of earth with the harmonies of heaven. It pictures in vivid colors the reasons why Peter and the Christ should not remain on the glorified mountain top, but come down into the world of suffering to minister to its needs. Christ's church is not, at present, the church of "Heavenly Rest," but of " Earthly Activities." 14. And when they were come to the multi tude, who were surrounding the disciples and the scribes discussing with them (Mark). The crowds were greatly amazed and affrighted. Not so much, perhaps, at traces of the glory in his countenance like the shining of Moses' face, for that would have betrayed his secret,1 but at the unexpected appearance of Jesus, who was supposed to be far away. But the word Mark uses "points to an extremity of terror," 2 so that it implies that there was something awe-inspiring in the appear ance of Jesus. As Jesus drew near, the multi tudes came running to him, and among the first came to him a certain man, kneeling, in token of respect and supplication. 1 So the Int. Crit. Com., and Prof. Swete. 2 Cambridge Bible. 212 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 17 : 15-20. 15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is 'epueptlc,' and suffereth grievously: for S't-timess he falleth into the fire, and oft-umes into the water. 16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and " they could not cure him. 17 An? Je'sus answered and said, O "faithless and "perverse generation, "how long shall I be with you ? how long shall I hearth you ? bring him hither to me. 18 And Je'sus -rebuked thhfmT;il; and ttedivTwent out from him: and "the toy was cured from that Tery hour. 19 Then came the disciples to Je'sus apart, and said, Why could not we cast 20 And Jhes^ithid unto them, " Because of your lSfielattii: for "verily I say unto you, 6If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, °ye shall say unto this t ch. 4. 24. u Cp. ch. 10. 1 & Mark 6. 7 & Luke 10. 17. v Phil. 2. 15. Cp. John 20. 27. w Cp. John 14. 9. zch. 8. 26. Zech. 3. 2. Mark 1. 25. Luke 4. 35, 39. Jude 9. y See ch. 9. 22. z Cp. John 11. 40. See ch. 6. 30. a ch. 21. 21, 22. Mark 11. 23. 6 Luke 17. 6. Cp. ch. 13. 31. c ver. 9. Cp. 1 Cor. 13. 2. 15. Have mercy on my son : for he is luna- tick. R. V., epileptic, in connection with which disease he was possessed with a demon (ver. 18). He was sore vexed. R. V., " suffereth griev ously." He was dumb, " he foameth andgrindeth his teeth, and pineth away " (Mark). " A spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out ; and it teareth him " (Luke). For ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and . . . into the water. It was a very sad and dangerous case. 16. And I brought him to thy disciples, in the absence of Jesus, and they could not cure him, although the authority and power to cast out devils had been given to them (10 : 1). But this was an unusually desperate case, and his cries and foaming and gnashing his teeth affected them as the stormy waves affected Peter when he undertook to walk on the water. 17. O faithless, unbelieving, without faith, or with weak faith ; and perverse generation, per verted, turned aside from the right way, in error as to God, and his Son, and their loving power. This was said to all, — disciples, people, scribes, the father, the nation. It was the characteris tic of that generation. How long shall I be with you V As your teacher, exemplifying my power, before you will understand what I am, and your own power through me. How long shall I suffer you, bear with you, such dull scholars. Bring him hither to me. He was brought to Jesus, and the demon wrought his worst upon the boy in the presence of Jesus. Jesus asked his father about him, and learned that he had been thus afflicted since he was a little child. Then Jesus said to the father that he would heal his boy, if he could believe, in spite of past failures of the disciples to cure him ; for " all things are possible to him that believeth." The father replied in those touching words which each of us often adopts as his own, Lord, I believe ; help thou my unbelief. 18. And Jesus rebuked the devil the demon, commanding him to come out of the boy. And the child was cured from that very hour. At first he seemed like one dead, but Jesus " took him by the hand and raised him up." II. A LESSON ON FAITH, vers. 19-21. 19. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart in the house (Mark), away from all that were curious and fault-finding. Teachers and minis ters, " who are to deal for Christ in public, have need to keep up a private communion with him, that they may in secret inquire into the cause of their weakness and straitness in their public per formances." 1 Why could not we cast him out ? They were puzzled, and did not realize that Jesus was speaking to them as well as to others, when he expressed his disappointment at their want of faith. 20. And Jesus said, . . . Because of your unbelief. R. V., " your little faith." Faith is not merely belief, hut such a trust in God, such confidence in him, as brings the soul into communion with him, as leads to obedience, to the use of the means he provides, and makes the whole spiritual world real. If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, " the smallest of garden seeds ; " even a very little faith, but real and living, not like a grain of sand, but with life in it, and a power of growing. Ye shall say unto this mountain, the great Mount Hermon which was towering above them. Remove hence to yonder place, wherever it is needed, even into the sea (21 : 21). It shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto 1 Matthew Henry. 17 : 21. MATTHEW. 213 mountain, Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove ; and d nothing shall be impossible unto you. 01 I'lowbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. d Mark 9. 23. you. However great this promise was it was none too large for the needs of the apostles, or for ours. If God answers some prayers and not others, we cannot know when to trust him. In Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn he de scribes the Theologian as one u Who studied still with deep research To build the Universal Church, — Lofty as the love of God, And ample as the wants of man." Any promise that God would give must be " Lofty as the love of God," and any promise that is sufficient for man must he " Ample as the wants of man," including the whole range of his needs, at all times, in all places, under all circumstances.1 The Faith that removes Mountains. (1.) What did the disciples understand by this promise ? The removing of a literal mountain or obstacles as great as a mountain ? Their actions and the actual results show that they understood "mountain" asasymbol. If I were to say to a man under great temptation, — for instance, a drinking man struggling with an appetite for strong drink, — " Christ will help you to conquer this dragon, and with the same weapons with which Christian overcame Apollyon and his fiery darts," would any one dream that a real dragon was meant, like the one with multitudinous coils described in Spenser's Faerie Queene, or seen in the pictures of St. George and the Dragon, or a literal monster breathing literal fire ? Not even a child would so interpret it. No apostle, relying on this promise, attempted to remove literal mountains. (2.) But the apostles did remove real, though not literal, material mountains. Great mountains, apparently insurmountable, stood in their path. A little band of twelve unlearned men, without money, without armies, without rank, without everything that would seem able to do the work, had to conquer the Roman Empire, when " to he a Roman was greater than a king," — Rome, the mistress of the world ; Rome, that had subdued the whole known world ; Rome, the embodiment of wealth and power, that could have swept these few men out of existence as easily as one would brush away so many insects. What was removing Mount Hermon to this ? But it was done. The apostles were to graft a new kingdom on the old Jewish stock, and everything stood in their way : pride, prejudice, custom, learning, sacrifices, the temple, the formal religion, office, wealth, — mountains higher than Lebanon. But these mountains were removed. They had to conquer the human heart, intrenched in sins, luxury, fashion, habit, social customs interwoven with the whole daily life. What were Tabor or Her mon to this hopeless task ? Yet they did these things. The promise was literally and really ful filled. Moral changes were wrought that to all human power were impossible. The whole history of the church and the present condition of Chris tendom are the fulfilment of this promise. (3.) The faith that has removed mountains is a faith that takes hold of the power of God, that sees the invisible victories afar off, and waits patiently, obediently, in active work for the promised results ; that so trusts its leader and master as never to be discouraged by defeat or disaster, nor by hope long delayed. God says to a man, Do the work of a thousand men. But that is harder than to remove mountains. Yet Chris tian civilization has invented machinery by which any man can do it. The faith on this low plane, that has worked patiently, steadily, with God's physical powers, and wrought seeming impossi bilities, is a perpetual illustration of the power of spiritual faith taking hold of God. 21. Howbeit, hut, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. This verse is omitted by the revisers, and placed in the margin, as not having the best authority, being omitted in the two oldest manuscripts. Yet it has a good deal of authority. This kind. " This species of demons . . . must be intended to specify a kind of demons which it is peculiarly difficult to exorcise."2 Prayer and fasting, prayer so earnest, so intense that it is willing to go without things right and good, in order to accomplish the end desired. Every great reformer does this. The apostles did it, missionaries do it, many ministers do it. Going without food for a time is but a small part, if any, in this fasting. That were easy. But they must work while others arc at ease. They must give time and strength where others gain wealth, and live beautiful, useful, and pleasant lives. Such lives are lives of fasting. The work of the Church is still to east out devils, the unclean spirits of worldliness, selfishness, greed, infidelity, lust, intemperance, Sabbath- breaking. These defy the ordinary efforts and faith of God's people. We have faith enough for ordinary duties, for no little giving, for prayer- 1 See Tennyson's Idylls of the King, " More things are wrought by prayer." a Meyer. 214 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 17 : 22-25. 22 IT e And while they abode in Gal'l-lee, Je'sus said unto them, The Son of man shall be deiTverelup into the hands of men; 23 and they shall kill him, and 'the third day he shall be raised aupin' And they were exceeding sorry. 24 1 And ° when they were come to CS-per'na-um, they that received * the "haft Shekel came to Pe'ter, and said, Doth not your master pay theSifShekei? 25 He saith, S And when he *ST into the house, Je'sus spStofto him, e For vers. 22, 23, see Mark 9. 30-32 & Luke 9. 43-45. 9. 33. h Ex. 30. 13 & 38. 26. Cp. ch. 16. 21-28 & 20. 17-19. / See Mark 8. 31. g Mark meetings, for building churches ; hut there is a work which ordinary faith cannot do. How shall we get that higher faith ? By prayer and such fasting, and never without them both. III. CHBIST AGAIN FOBETELLS HIS DEATH AND BESUBBECTION, vers. 22, 23.Parallels. Mark 9 : 30-32; Luke 9: 43-45. 22. And while they abode in Galilee. Jesus and his disciples went down from Cesarea Phi lippi through Galilee to Capernaum. They went with as little recognition as possible, because Jesus wished to instruct his disciples privately, and large crowds, and days full of public instruc tion and miracles, would have seriously interfered with this instrnction. The expression abode, " or more literally ' while they were going about,' im plies that some time was spent there." During .this time Jesus repeated again with emphasis what he had said to them a short time before (16 : 21-23), that he must suffer death, but that he would rise again to life. It was very hard to make them understand the fact ; still harder for them to see how he then could be the Messiah and bring in the kingdom of heaven. 23. And they were exceeding sorry, as they naturally would he, when they were to lose not only their friend and teacher, hut their hopes of the new kingdom and their Messiah King. Their thoughts rested so much on the cross that they did not see the open grave and the risen life be yond it. It was on this journey, too, that the dispute arose as to who should be greatest (18 : 1). IV. THE TRIBUTE MONEY, vers. 24-27. Time. Autumn, A. d. 29. Some days or weeks after the Transfiguration. Place. Capernaum. Recorded only by Matthew. 24. They that received tribute money (to. SiSpaxpa), the didrachmas, Greek coins equiva lent each to a, half shekel, worth about Is. 4id. English currency,1 or about thirty-three cents. It is in the plural because it was paid an nually. This tribute was not a Roman tax, hut the Jewish temple tax ; a, religious and not a political tribute. " Every male Israelite of age, including proselytes and manumitted Jews, was expected to pay annually for the temple ser vice a half shekel or didrachm, about thirty- three cents. This must be paid in the ancient money of Israel, the regular half shekel of the treasury; and the money-changers, therefore, were in demand to change the current into the temple coin, which they did at a rate of discount fixed by law, between four and five cents on every half shekel. The annual revenue to the money-changers from this source has been esti mated at nearly forty-five thousand dollars ; a very large sum in a country where a laborer re ceived less than twenty cents for a day's work, and where the good Samaritan left about thirty- three cents at the inn for the keeping of the wounded man. Jesus attacked a very powerful interest when he overthrew the tables of the money-changers." 2 Came to Peter, as one of the leading disciples, or very probably Jesus was living at Peter's house. They may have hesitated to ask the Great Teacher himself, knowing he had set at naught many of their customs and teachings. It may have been another of their plans to entrap Jesus. Doth not your master pay tribute, the half shekel ? If he did not he would seem to be opposed to the Temple and its services, and so be discredited before the people. 25. He saith, Yes. That was the custom of Jesus. Jesus prevented him, anticipated him. " Prevent," when our authorized translation was made, had its natural meaning of " coming he- fore," " anticipating." And as one " getting he- fore " another is in a position to "hinder " him, and he often " goes before " on purpose to " hin der," the word has come in our day to have that meaning. But here it means that Jesus spoke to Peter about the tribute money before Peter had time to report what the temple collectors had said to him. Of whom do the kings of the earth take 1 Hastings' Bib. Dictionary. 2 Prof. Vincent, Word Studies. 17 : 26, 27. MATTHEW. 215 saying, 'What thinkest thou, Si'mon? °fwhoma° the kings of the earth, from whonfdVSSy0 receive 'ton or > tribute ? from their ownsonsf en' or fl°0fm strangers ? 26 W^&28a%& strangers; Je'sus ¦gS' unto him, %g££ffif2$£S2i> free. 27 ^withstanding, legt we t shoul^oftend them, ^ ^^ gQ thQU ^ ^ ^ and cagt aan hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up ; and when thdu hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a pieOTBgekei0"e'y : that take, and give unto them for me and thee. i ch. 18. 12 & 21. 28. j ch. 22. 17, 19. Mark 12. 14. Rom. 13. 7. k See ch. 5. 29. custom, (re^n), "a duty on goods," or tribute (ktjwov, of which our census, from the Latin, is a transcription, because a census was originally a register or valuation of property with a view to taxation), "the tax or tribute levied on individuals and to be paid yearly." 1 Of, from, their own children, sons, members of the royal family, or of, from, strangers (aMarpiav), belonging to another family ; not foreigners, but other men, subjects, citizens of the kingdom, who are not of the royal family. 26. Peter saith unto him, Of, from, strangers, as above. The subjects of the kingdom pay taxes, but the children, the royal family, are free, ex empt from taxation. Therefore Jesus, as the Son of God, to whom the Temple belongs, and as the Messiah King, would with his disciples be free from taxation. 27. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them. Cause them to stumble, give them need less offence, because they would not understand his claims, for they did not recognize him as the Messiah. For Jesus to refuse would prejudice them and the people against him, as opposed to religion and the Temple with its divinely ap pointed services. " Jesus here illustrates a fixed principle of all reforms, viz., the avoidance of actions which are Silver Stater of Augustus. A Tetradrachma of Antioch. The " piece of money " Peter found in the fish'6 mouth. not absolutely essential for the success of the re form, and which, because easily misunderstood, and so arousing prejudice, would make it more difficult for others to join in the good move ment." 2 But that his action might not be mis understood by his disciples as a relinquishment of his claims, he obtains the money for the tax in a right royal way. Cast an hook. This is the only mention in the New Testament of fishing with Silver Shekel of Simon Maccabeus. The coin in which the temple tax was paid. Of the same value ae the stater. a hook. Thou shalt find a piece of money. A definite coin is designated by the original word, " a stater," a four-drachma coin, of the same value as a shekel, which was double the temple tax, and therefore enough for both Jesus and Peter. The stater, according to Hastings' Bible Dictionary, was worth about sixty-six cents. Note. (1.) Jesus, who was firmer than a rock where principle was involved, took care not to give needless offence. He would do everything possible to take away stumbling-blocks in the way of accepting the Gospel. (2.) This was especially wise and good in the giving up of rights and just claims for this pur pose. His disciples often have occasion to follow his example in this, as in the ease Paul refers to concerning food offered to idols. We have a right to give up our rights, but not to compel others to do the same. (3.) This ease involved some difficult questions of conscience. The temple tax helped to support some priests who were very far from good, and temple services which were often far from the truest religious life, and connected with such evils as those of the money-changers and sellers of cattle. We often have to support services and causes which we regard as imperfect, because they are the best we have. It is better to stand by and help improve them, than to keep away and have no leavening power. 1 Thayer's Lexicon. 2 Prof. Shailer Matthews. 216 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 18:1. CHAPTER 18. Section XVII. — FINAL INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GALILEAN MINISTRY (continued). 5. Some Great Truths a Little Child can teach us, vers. 1-10. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven. Concerning offences. Despising the little ones. 6. Saving the Lost, vers. 11-14. Illustrated by the Parable of The Lost Sheep. 7. The Treatment of those who injure US, vers. 15-18. 8. The Power op United Prater, vers. 19, 20. 9. Forgiving Others Seventy Times Seven Times, vers. 21-35. Enforced by the Parable of The Two Debtors. Time. Autumn, A. d. 29. Place. Capernaum, close of Galilean ministry. Beginning of the last six months of Jesus' pub lic ministry. 1 'ATiNhthSZurme came the disciples unto Je'sus, saying, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? I ch. 17. 24. For vers. 1-5, see Mark 9. 33-37 & Luke 9. 46-48. Cp. ch. 20. 20-28. V. SOME GBEAT TRUTHS TAUGHT BY A LITTLE CHILD, vers. 1-10. Time. Immediately after the return of Peter with the tribute money. Place. A house in Capernaum, probably Peter's. Parallels. Mark 9: 33-40; Luke 9: 46-50. The Discussion by the Way, on Great ness in the Kingdom of Heaven. We learn from Mark (9: 33, 34) that on the way home from the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples had a sharp discussion among themselves as to who was the greatest. It may have arisen (1) from the fact that three of their number had been selected by Jesus for his companions on the mount ; (2) the keys had been given to Peter by name, and to the others in a more general way, and he was to be a foundation stone of the king dom (16 : 18, 19); (3) Judas, as the treasurer, may have had special ambitions, as he thought of being chief of the treasury of the Messiah King ; (4) those who had received special favors may, possibly, have usurped some authority, assumed a dictatorial spirit, which would naturally be resented by the others ; we know that some time after this the mother of James and John came to Jesus, asking for her sons the place nearest the king (Matt. 20: 20, 21); (5) all this would be in tensified by their expectation that the kingdom was soon to be set up. The Appeal to Jesus. 1. At the same time, with the incident of the tribute money, came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? Putting the three accounts together, the conversation would be something like this : — Jesus says, As I was walking before you (as in Mark 10 : 33) on our way from the mountain, I overheard you earnestly discussing among your selves (for in their earnestness they raised their voices). What were you arguing about ? The disciples are silent (for they had been dis puting as to who was the greatest ; and they were ashamed of it, in the presence of Jesus). Jesus knew the reasoning of their heart. They could not hide from him what the question was, and that they were very much interested in it (Luke). The disciples, or some of them, then ask Jesus, " Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? " Will you settle the question for us ? " Their question was not, What elements of character make true greatness ? Who of us is greatest ? but, Who of us shall occupy the highest place in your coming kingdom?"1 "What se ductive dreams of greatness and glory rose before these Galilean fishermen as the nearest followers of the great king ! " And yet these dreams were but the dim starlight compared with the noonday glory they actually received in Christ's way of attaining greatness. Jesus replies that they have mistaken the very 1 Lyman Abbott. 18 : 2-4. MATTHEW. 217 2 And Jeh8eus called to mm a little child, unt°him' and set him in the midst of them, 3 Andd said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye - becotS?nTted' and "become as little children, ye "shall m nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 p Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the " greatest in the kingdom of heaven. m See Luke 22. 32. n ch. 19. 14. Mark 10. 15. Luke 18. 17. Cp. Ps. 131. 2 & 1 Cor. 14. 20 i ch. 5. 19, 20. p ch. 20. 27 & 23. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 2. 2. oCp. nature of greatness in the kingdom of heaven, of which they are a part. Seeking r,o be great is a proof of littleness. It is service for others that proves greatness there, so that the very desire to he first makes him last by the very nature of things. The Object Lesson : A Little Child. 2. Jesus called a little child unto him (one of the household, or one playing near), and set him in the midst of them, and then took him in his arms in loving embrace, to make the lesson more impressive, and to show his sympathy with child hood and his love for children. How many who have children in heaven have been comforted by this loving act of Jesus, remembering that he is the same now in heaven as he was on earth eighteen hundred years ago ! " Not in entire forgetf ulness, . . . But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home : Heaven lies about us in our infancy." J 3. Except ye be converted. The word here rendered be converted means "turn about so as to face in the other direction." It always signi fies a radical and complete change in method, spirit, or course. Here it is: Unless you turn entirely away from this habit of self-seeking, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, much less he greatest in it. The aorist tense expresses a past act that still continues. Note the difference between " converted " and " turn." Some men have waited for God to eon- vert them, when it was their duty to turn " right about face." And become as little children. Not sinless, for no children are sinless. They all need to be saved from being lost, as we see a little further on (vers. 11, 14). And if none but the sinless could enter the kingdom of heaven, that kingdom, on earth, would he empty. The meaning is, you must have those qualities which are characteristic of childhood, which make the ideal childhood. As Dr. Robinson puts it, " What you would have your child be to you, that be yourself to God." The ideal childhood is exemplified by the child hood of Jesus himself. These qualities are : (1) humility ; (2) freedom from ambition, rivalry, or jealousy ; (3) tender and gracious affection ; (4) perfect trust ; (5) obedience ; (6) a teachable spirit; (7) unworldliness ; (8) indifference to the distinctions of rank and wealth. Shall not enter. Not only could not be first, as they were seeking to he, but could not even enter the king dom, and have any part in it. Why ? (1) Be cause the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual king dom, and the self-seeking spirit is diametrically opposed to its spirit. The childlike spirit is the only gate to that kingdom, just as a musical taste is necessary to entering into the kingdom of music, and a love of hterature into the kingdom of learning. Sitting in a music hall or in a library does not give entrance into those kingdoms. (2) Because without this spirit one will not even seek to enter by the only door. He will be self- confident in his own wrong way. 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble him self (so as to be) as this little child is in this company, his natural, unassuming self. To hum ble one's self is not to think meanly of one's self, not to disparage one's self, not to be unconscious of our powers or knowledge, but not to think highly of ourselves on this account, not to seek honor or greatness for ourselves, but simply to use whatever we have or are in the humblest service, with no thought of ourselves. Contrast the false humility of Uriah Heep, one of Dickens' characters. The same is greatest in the king dom of heaven, for he has most of the heavenly spirit. Only disinterested love can be great. Selfishness dims the crown and diminishes the realm of those who would otherwise he great. The Self-seeking Spirit leads to Satan's kingdom, not to Christ's. It is the spirit of hell, not of heaven. It begets evils innumerable and sorrows unspeakable. "Fling away ambition; by that sin fell the angels." Aut Ccesaraut nullus, " To he first or nothing " leads to crimes and wars. It was Milton's Satan who said, "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." " How like a mounting devil in the heart rules the un reined ambition ! " Whoever would be greatest in any kingdom must be greatest in the things which form the essential nature of that kingdom. Whoever would be greatest in the kingdom of literature must be greatest in literature, not in prize-fighting. So he that would be greatest in i Wordsworth. See, also, Charles M. Dickinson's poem, The Children. 218 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 18 : 5, 6. 5 And q whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me': 6 §1? r whoso shall S one of these little ones which beheve \\ me' to stumble, it uprontawe for him that a great millstone shouidhe hanged about his neck, and that he sroruidrb0ewsueni hi the depth of the sea. q Cp. ch. 10. 40, 42. r Mark 9. 42. Luke 17. 2. Cp. 1 Cor. 8. 12. the kingdom of heaven must be greatest in love, in self-denial, in faith, in service, in purity, and in all the other virtues which make heaven what it is. Distinguish between the strong desire to im prove, to have large usefulness, to grow in holi ness and love, and the desire to have more honor and power, or even to be better, than others. To do the very best we can in everything is our duty. The song, " 0, to be nothing ! " is right if it means that we are willing to take any place, and give all the honor to Jesus, hut wrong if it means that we are willing to be ciphers in God's work. Note that this greatness is possible to all, even to the weakest, the youngest, the poorest. 5. Whoso shall receive. Shall recognize and welcome, shall see in him the beauty of his char acter, and admire the qualities which belong to the ideal child character. One such little child. The representative of childhood. In my name. For my sake, because he sees in the child the characteristics " which Christ himself approved and exhibited." Beceiveth me. Recognizes, loves, admires, appreciates me. The Christ spirit is in him. Practical. (1) This truth is both a test and a means. What a man loves declares what he is. Cultivating love for any person of noble character is one means of obtaining that character. (2) The effect of children in the church is most blessed upon the church itself. It is beneficial to the spirit of the church. It brings youthful enthusiasm and hope. It influences the preaching and the form in which the doctrines are expressed, so as to be best for the older ones because adapted to the young. Thus the church that most heartily re ceives and welcomes the children has the most of Christ. Stumbling-Blocks. According to Mark (9: 38-41), John relates an incident which raises a question about receiving Christ, which led to a warning concerning putting stumbling-blocks in the way of (ver> (j) these little ones which be lieve in (on)- me. Not only children, but the young and inexperienced in the Christian life, those who are weak and lowly. Offend. Cause to stumble into sin, block their way to life. The verb is derived from a noun attiveaXov, (skandalon, allied to scandal, slander), "the stick in a trap on which the bait is placed, and which springs up . and shuts the trap at the touch of any animal." Hence the word refers to causing children to fall into sin, by temptations through which they are caught in the snares of sin and Satan. It were better for him that a millstone. A great mill stone. " Two kinds of millstones were in use : the ene turned by hand ; the other, and larger, by an ass. It was this latter of which Jesus speaks." (The smaller, in Luke 17 : 35.) Were hanged about his neck, to make escape impossible. And that he were drowned in the depth of the sea, which was within sight. It is better to die a thousand deaths than to lead another into sin, and thus to murder his soul. The offender gains a millstone, but loses his life. It is Satan that says, " All that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job 2: 4), To every true man there are many things worth more than life. u For sadder sight than eye can know, Than proud hark lost, or seamen's woe, Than battle fire, or tempest cloud, Or prey bird's shriek, or ocean shroud, — The shipwreck of the soul." But there is one sadder sight, and that is the shipwrecking of others' souls, holding out the false light that ruins others as well as ourselves. Putting Stumbling-Blocks in the Way of Children. (1) By teaching that children can not become Christians while young ; (2) by neglect of their religious training ; (3) by the example of parents who are more interested in worldly things than in religion, who neglect family prayer, and the church, and Sabbath-school; (4) by "all conduct on the part of the church, the teacher, or the parent which tends to repress, chill, or check the enthusiasm of childhood for Christ, and darken its simple faith in him ; " (5) by fault finding with the church and good people in their presence, thus lessening their respect and rever ence for them. (6) Children are hindered from coming to Christ by building the audience rooms, conducting the worship, forming the choir, almost solely for the benefit of the adults, and doing very little for the convenience and instruction of the children. Compare the disciples hindering little children from going to Jesus (Mark 10 : 13, 14). Stumbling-Blocks in the Way of the Weak. The true church always takes special care of the weak, the innocent, the neglected, the poor, all who have something of childlike de pendence. Stumbling-blocks are put in their way by neglect, by coldness of welcome, by permitting temptations, by pride, by false distinctions, by 18 : 7-10. MATTHEW. 219 7 H Woe unto the world because of %ccasioraol?'stumt>iing! 'for it must needs be ihe°o™acSons come ; " but woe to that man through whom the 0°So1i cometh ! 8 •wl2SOTe if thy hand or thy foot "SSS, thee' t0 stumble, cut "T off, and cast "ft"' from thee : it is \f0"i for thee to enter into life mi'.med or mhiaite, them for whom it hatiibeen z prepared of my Father. w Cp. u Cp. Luke 9. 33 & 23. 34. v ch. 26. 29, 42. Mark 14. 36. Luke 22. '. Rom. 8. 17 & Phil. 3. 10. x Acts 12. 2. Rev. 1. 9. y Cp. ch. 19. 11. John 18. 11. Cp. Isai. 51. 22. z ch. 25. 34. the disciples that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, while he sat on his own throne of glory (Matt. 19: 28), and they felt sure that the time must now be close at hand. They must secure their places soon, or some one else would he before them.1 Motives fok their Request. These two disciples were good men, but still imperfect, and their motives were of mingled good and evil. Close beside each wrong motive was a better one, which largely concealed from their eyes the par tial selfishness of their aims. (1) One motive was selfish ambition. They wanted great things for themselves. (2) But without doubt there lay close to this the hope of greater usefulness, and wider influence. (3) They had some reason for thinking that Jesus regarded them as especially fitted for these places. They had been named Sons of Thunder (Mark 3 : 17). They had been chosen with Peter more than once to accompany Jesus where the others were left out. (4) There were better motives intermingled. What they desired would keep them very near the Master they loved. It would give them a more intimate acquaint ance with Jesus, and higher knowledge of his truths. It would give them more employment in the kingdom they hoped was coming. It showed faith in Jesus and his promises. It showed cour age ; that they would go with Jesus to the cross in order to wear the crown with him. 22. Ye know not what ye ask. They knew not the greatness of the favor they asked, — how blessed beyond their highest dreams it was to sit on the right hand of the Son of God, how radiant the glories of that kingdom were to be. They knew not how hard the way, nor how difficult the conditions on which alone they could have their desire. They knew not what they were specially fitted for. No one knows enough to wisely choose his own lot. There are hidden cares and burdens and trials in the riches and honors we seek, — " the loudest laugh of hell, the pride of dying rich; " there are glories and joys and powers in the future as yet concealed from us. They only are wise who desire that God's wisdom and love should choose their lot for them. " I know not the way I am going, But well do I know my guide." There are few things we need to be more thank ful for than that some of our prayers are not an swered in the way we desired.2 Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of ? Have you counted the cost ? Can you pay the price ? The cup is an Old Testament image of a man's lot or portion, as holding what ever God puts into his life. Be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. Bap tism was the ordinance, the necessary condition, by which one could enjoy the privileges of the visible church. Could these disciples endure the conditions — the agony, the humiliation, the cross — through which alone Christ could enter his glory, and become the king of the world ? " Are ye able and fit to be dipped or drenched in those deep waters of affliction, pains, and miseries, in which I must shortly be drenched ? " 8 " The dis tinction between the two figures seems to be two fold : (1) the cup signifies inward, the baptism outward suffering, drinking and baptizing being respectively an inward and outward appHcation of water ; (2) the cup signifies suffering volun tarily taken, or ' drunk,' and the baptism what is endured at the hands of others."4 They say unto him, We are able. The language of assur ance somewhat overweening, for it was the assur ance not wholly of faith, hut partly of ignorance of themselves and of the future. They fled with the other disciples, in the night of the arrest. But they were not wholly mistaken in their judgment of themselves. They were among the very brav est of the apostles, and many a time did they drink of Jesus' cup, as Jesus said they would in ver. 23, ye shall drink indeed, etc. James was the first of the apostles to suffer martyrdom (Acts 12: 1, 2), and John had a long life of labors and persecutions. These trials and tests they might be sure of. But to sit on my right hand, etc. Omit, in 141 That venomous worm of goodness, vainglory." — Leighton. " Adam and Eve were happy in the garden of Eden until they desired to be as gods." — Tyng. t: Pride is the inmost coat, which we put off last, and which we put on first." — Bishop Hall. 2 On trying to manage Providence for ourselves, see Rev. Dr. E. E. Hale's capital story of " Hands Off " in his Christmas in a Palace. s Petter. 4 Eugene Stock. 20 : 24-26. MATTHEW. 241 24 And when the ten heard If; they were moved with indignation coSniiig the two brethren. 25 But Je'sus called them Shin"; and said, "Ye know that the *&"£? of the G6n'tlleS exercise dominion ^^ ^^ ^ they^aregreat exercise authority ove? them. 26 " ""io'tlo^iai?'^0 among you: but whosoever woJStJSm. great among you' ^iiaii* be your d minister ; a For vers. 25-28, cp. ch. 18. 1-4 i 13 (mg.). Luke 22. 25-27. b 1 Pet. 5. 3. c ch. 23. 11. Cp. Luke 9. 48. d ch. 22. the rest of this verse, the added words printed in italics, and the sense is plain. Is not mine to give, but, except (to those), for whom it is pre pared of my Father. "Our Lord means that such dignities as his disciples desired would not, and could not, be conferred in a capricious way by a mere act of the sovereign's pleasure. There could be no scope, in such high matters, for personal favoritism. It was in vain, there fore, for any to attempt to steal a march on their feUow-servants. What they asked has been di vinely prepared for those who are most worthy, those who have done most, and in heart and will sacrificed most, and suffered most. In the king dom of heaven there is no chance of the highest posts and dignities being conferred on incompe tent or inferior servants. The highest in excel lence will be the highest in honor. It is for such, whether they be apostles, or ordinary preachers, or humble Sabbath-school teachers, whether they be crowned monarchs, or the lowliest of menials, that the highest places have been prepared by the Father in his all-embracing purpose and plan." 1 Prepared of my Father. The greatest and best things done for God's kingdom have not been done by those whom men would have se lected beforehand, but those in some way selected by the Father himself, because he knew they could be best trained and fitted for the work. This is the ideal we are seeking after in our city and national governments, as well as in the church. Our Lord, it will be observed, does not deny the petition of James and John, or say they shall not occupy the place in his kingdom which they now improperly sought. For aught we know, that may be their true place. All we are sure of is, that seeking it did not obtain it, but would rather hinder than help, because it revealed a spirit ex actly opposite to that which must prevail in the places sought.2 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation. This shows that they had the same feelings as the two brothers. There was ground for indignation, if it were perfectly unselfish. But apparently they were guilty of the very common act of showing in our complaints of others the very faults in ourselves which we condemn in them. The selfish think others are selfish ; the fretful think others are in bad tem per. They were all in one boat. They all alike needed the instruction which Jesus proceeds to give. 25. But Jesus called them unto him. Their controversy in the last verse had been carried on aside and apart from Jesus. Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles, i. e., this is the plan in the worldly kingdoms, in distinction from his spiritual kingdom. Exercise dominion over them. Lord it over them, exercise tyrannical and arbitrary power. Not for the good of the governed, but for the advantage of the rulers themselves, as the French king said, voicing the old idea of kingship, "I am the state." They that are great. Even the subordinate officials, governors and magistrates, exercise the same au thority, seeking to get all they can from the peo ple, and not to do them all the good they can. They are considered great in proportion to the numbers who serve them. 26. But it shall not be so among you. The whole principle of Christ's kingdom is the exact opposite of the usual worldly plan. Nearly all the evils that have come to the church have come through a disregard of this command, — a desire to be honored and to rule, rather than to serve and help. This is almost equally true of civil governments. To have all the rays of joy centre in us as a focus, — that is fire, the heart of sin ; to be the centre from which rays emanate to all, — that is the sun, the heart of heaven. But who soever will be great among you. Jesus does not forbid the desire to be great, but only the de sire for selfish greatness. The wish to be greater than others is always a wrong ambition. The wish to be as great, as good, as useful as possible, to grow and improve, is right, hut has its dangers. But the desire to serve others can never he too strong. Let him be your minister (8ii»koi/os), our word deacon is almost a transcript of the Greek. 1 Morison. 2 " Fling away ambition : by that sin fell the angels. How can man, then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it ? " — - Shakespeare. 242 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 20 : 27-29. 27 and whosoever would be '!!*' among you' 'fhaif be your e servant : 28. as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but-'' to minister, and ,J to give his hfe a ransom ''for many. 29 '' And as they wmumt from Jer'i-cho, a great multitude followed him. e 2 Cor. 4. 5 (& mg. for mg.). / John 13. 4, 13-15. Phil. 2. 7. Cp. 2 Cor. 8. 9. g Isai. 53. 10. Dan. 9. 26. John 10. 15 & 11. 51, 52. Rom. 4. 25. Gal. 1. 4 & 2. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. h ch. 26. 28. Isai. 53. 11, 12. Heb. 2. 10 & 9. 28. Cp. Rom. 5. 15 & Rev. 5. 9. i For vers. 29-34, see Mark 10. 46-52 & Luke 18. 35-43. Cp. ch. 9. 27-31. It means one who executes the commands of an other. It represents the servant in his activity for his work ; an attendant, one who is serving another.1 27. Be chief . . . let liim be your servant, (SouAos, from Sew, to bind), a bondman, one who gives himself whoUy up to another's wiU ; any servant or attendant. It denotes the permanent relation of servitude. He is the greatest who does the greatest service to his fellow-men. In all he does he is seeking not to exalt himself, not to receive honor, not to be thought greatest, hut to do the most good, to be the most helpful, to confer the largest benefits. This is true of the Church as a whole, as well as of each individual in it. It has power and true success, only so far as it seeks to help all people, and does not seek authority or honor for itself. The Church that arrogates authority, that seeks only its own culture, that labors to attract the rich and the honored that it may be financially strong, is on the highway to its own destruction. That church will have the most success which does the most to convert and ele vate the people. Ruskin's last words, in his Modern Painters, are a noble commentary on these verses; "So far as you desire to possess rather than to give : so far as you look for power to command instead of to bless ; ... so long as the hope before you is for supremacy instead of love ; and your desire is to be greatest instead of least, — first instead of last, — so long you are serving the Lord of all that is last, and least ; the last eneiny that shall be destroyed — Death ; and you shall have Death's crown, with the worm coiled within it ; and death's wages, with the worn feeding on them." 28. Jesus now cites his own example, the ex ample of him who is the greatest that ever lived on earth. The Son of man, the representative of the human race, the Messiah King, came from heaven, not to be ministered unto, not to gain honor or glory, or to have the world devote itself to his interests, but to minister, to help, to teach, to cure of disease, to save from sin. His whole life was given to the service of others. He asks of us only what he did himself. He shows us by example the only road to true great ness. It is the common suffrage of the race that no one can he truly great without this disinter ested love, and that, however great a man may seem, selfishness always diminishes or removes his crown and his throne. Give his life a ran som. A ransom is a price of deliverance. He looked upon men as captives, and he by his life paid the price for their salvation. This was the highest possible example of serving others. He served them even to dying for them. For many, for the many, the whole human race. The whole life of Christ, — his original glory, his coming to earth, his birth, his childhood, his mission of teaching, his marvellous works, his death on the cross, — all this sets before us a per fect example of greatness by serving others. The central figure of the world, the greatest man, the king of kings, achieved his headship by serving men more widely, more self-sacrificingly, than any other being in the universe. VIII. BABTIMEUS ABTD ABTOTHEB BLIND MAKT BECEIVE SIGHT, vers. 29-34.Time. The last of March, A. d. 30, just before the Passover. Place. Jericho. Parallels. Mark 10 : 46-52 ; Luke 18 : 35-43. Other Mikacles fok the Blind, Two blind men at Capernaum (Matt. 9 : 27-31) ; a man born blind (John 9: 1, etc.) ; one blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8 : 22-26) ; one at Capernaum (Matt. 12 : 22, 23). (See, also. Matt. 11 : 5.) 29. Jesus was journeying towards Jerusalem from Perea, and Jericho was on his way. Jericho was situated about fifteen or twenty miles north east of Jerusalem, five miles west of the Jordan, and six or seven north of the Dead Sea. In the days of our Lord, Jericho was an important city, having been embellished by Herod the Great, and being a considerable centre of traffic. And as they departed. Luke says "as he came nigh unto Jericho." That is, simply, " while he was in the vicinity of Jericho." As to the seeming discrepancy, it is said that fourteen methods of reconciHng the two accounts have 1 Thayer, New Test. Lex. 20 : 30-32. MATTHEW. 243 30 1 And' behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Je'sus wafting by, cried out, saying, LorajSUe mercy on us, ° L?ho'u"°" J 'son of Da'vid. 31 And the multitude * rebuked them, betS8e they should hold their peace : but they cried out the more, saying, Lordfhlve mercy on us, 0Lthd'u"°M son of Da'vid. 32 And Je'sus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I should do unto you ? j ch. 21. 9 & 22. 42. Seech. 1.1. k ch. 19. 13. been suggested. There is not the least need of seeing a contradiction, for no one can know enough about the circumstances to be at all sure that there is one. There are simply two stories told by different persons from different standpoints, and both entirely truthful from those standpoints. Indeed, these differences are confirmations of the reHabiHty of the historians. It shows that there was no collusion, no mere copying of the story from one another. It is useless indeed to try to harmonize what cannot he harmonized, but it is still more useless to refuse to see how two ac counts by reHable historians can be both true. For instance, there was a real battle of Waterloo, and two armies witnessed it, although there is no agreement as to the exact time when it began. " At ten o'clock, said the Duke of Wellington. At half past eleven, said General Alava, who rode beside him. At twelve, according to Napoleon and Drouet ; and at one, according to Ney." It would be non-critical to refuse to see that the great armies were widely extended, that the bat tle may have begun at different times in different places, and that different movements might be regarded as the beginning of the battle ; as, when the order was given, when the armies began to approach one another, when they actually met. It is simply common sense to treat historians thus, and the same fair judgment should be used in reference to the writers of the Gospels. There may have been two Jerichos, as Dr. Broadus suggests, and this cure may have been between the old and the new cities, as Jesus went out of one and into the other. Or Jesus may have met them as they entered, and stopped to cure them as he departed. A great multitude fol lowed him, from those who were going up from all over the country to Jerusalem to keep the Passover. 30. Two blind men sitting by the way side. Mark and Luke speak of but one, the most promi nent, the one best known. A similar case occurs in the account of the demoniac of Gadara. The mentioning of one does not preclude the presence of another. " A familiar example will illustrate the principle. In the year 1824, Lafayette visited the United States, and was everywhere welcomed with honors and pageants. Historians will de scribe these as a noble incident in his life. Other writers will relate the same visit as made, and the same honors as enjoyed, by two persons, viz., Lafayette and his son. Will there be any contra diction between these two classes of writers ? Will not both record the truth ?"i "A well- known commentator in mentioning this diffi culty refers to fourteen or fifteen proposed ways of harmonizing the discrepancies. What non sense ! why, whenever you enter any city or any village in the East yon are Hkely to find one bHnd man on one side of the way, and two blind men on the other side of the way, and all three of them are sure to call on you for help." 2 When they heard that, " that " in the Greek construction is " equivalent to quotation marks." They heard the crowd saying, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by ! " Have mercy on us. They had heard of Jesus before, and of his wonderful power to cure, and readiness to help. Thou son of David. That is, the Messiah who was to come, and one of his works was to be the opening of the eyes of the blind (see Isai. 29: 18 ; 42 : 7). 31 . The multitude rebuked them, found fault with them, told them to stop their cries, and get out of the way of the great teacher. Why should blind beggars interfere with the progress of the Messiah, and his teaching? They probably so misunderstood the mission of Jesus as to imagine that they were conferring a favor on him by ward ing off interference. But they cried the more. It was the one opportunity of their lives ; it was now or never with them ; it was sight now or lifelong darkness ; it was a case almost of life or death. Therefore they must push on in spite of every obstacle and -all opposers. The very opposition increased their efforts. 32. And Jesus stood still. Whatever others might do, Jesus never refused to listen to a call for help. The movement of the procession must also stop. And called them, by sending, word 1 Robinson's Harmony of the Gospels. 2 H. C. Trumbull, Studies in Oriental Social Life. 244 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 20 : 33, 34. 33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34ASn°d Je'sus, being moved with compassion, onlhem'mA touched their eyes: and •"TSaStSMT" received &* sight, and thejr followed him. through the bystanders (Mark). He sets those to calling the man who had just been hindering him. He gives them an opportunity to undo the evil they have done. " Christ could have called him directly, but he always gives men as much work in saving and blessing others as he can. He wishes men to be helpers of each other's joy." What will ye that I shall do unto you ? He knew what they wanted, but it was best for the men to voice their desire. It would give them a clearer faith, and bring them into closer relations with their helper, and thus increase the spiritual benefit of their cure. 33. Lord, that our eyes may be opened. It is hard to find a greater physical blessing to the blind than to be enabled to see. It creates new worlds for them ; it opens up new avenues of in struction, usefulness, and delight ; it furnishes them with opportunities of earning their own liv ing. It is equally blessed to have the spiritual eyes opened to the great realities of the kingdom of heaven, to divine truths, to true holiness, to pure motives, to eternal life.1 34. So Jesus . . . touched their eyes. As a means of communicating the power, and causing them to realize whence the healing came, and manifesting his kindly sympathy and love. This was accompanied by — "Go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee whole " (Mark). And imme diately their eyes received sight, through faith, shown by their seeking Jesus, their prayer, and their perseverance ; and proved by their fol lowing him.2 " The cure of a man depended upon no uncertain or arbitrary movement of the feelings of Jesus. He was always ready to Ileal. No one was ever refused who asked him. It rested with the man : the healing could not have its way and enter in, save the man would open his door. Hence the question, and the praise of the patient's faith." s And they followed him, joining the throngs who were accompanying Jesus to Jerusalem, and glorifying God for his goodness ; with all the people, who when they saw it gave praise to God. For various practical suggestions in connection with the cure of blindness, see on 9: 27-31. ."In the Arabian Nights' tales there is a story of a re markable ointment which, if rubbed on the eye, makes one see all the riches in the world ; the gold hidden in the mines, the diamonds treasured in secret places. Ma- caulay, the great English writer, said that education is like that ointment, opening the eyes to see so much more." — President Seth Low. 2 See Longfellow's Poems, " Blind Bartimeus ; " Words worth's poem on " Milton's Blindness ; " Miss Elizabeth Lloyd's poem on the same. 3 George Macdonald. Section XIX. -THE LAST DAYS OF THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF JESUS. CHAPTERS 21-23. THE LAST 'WEEK OP JESUS' LIFE. The importance of this brief period is shown by the large space this week occupies in the Gospel records, almost exactly one third of the entire history. The last chapters average considerably longer than the eariier ones. The records of this week occupy in Matthew, 7 chs. of the 28 ; or 369 of his 1071 verses, — one third of his Gospel. Mabk, 5 chs. of the 16 ; or 233 of his 678 verses, — one third of his Gospel. Luke, 5 chs. of the 24, or 260 of his 1051 verses, — one fourth of his Gospel. j John, 8 chs. of the 21, or 287 of his 879 verses, — one third of his Gospel- So that 25 of the 89 chs. in the Gospels, or 1149 of the 3679 verses in the four Gospels, that is, one third of the whole, are devoted to the events of this week. 21 : 1, 2. MATTHEW. 245 CHAPTER 21. Recording the Events of Sunday, Monday, and Parts of Tuesday. Section XIX.— THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS' PUBLIC LIFE. Friday, March 31. The Arrival at Bethany from Jericho, John 12 : 1. Saturday, April 1. The Supper at Bethany, and Anointing by Mary, Matt. 26 : 6-13. Sunday, April 2. 1. The Triumphal Entry, vers. 1-11. 2. Return to Bethany. Monday, April 3. 1. Cursing the Barren Fig-Tree, on the Way to the City, vers. 18, 19. 2. The Second Cleansing of the Temple, vers. 12, 13. 3. Healing the Sick, ver. 14. 4. Educating the People in Religion. 5. The Children's Hosannas, vers. 15-17. Tuesday, April 4. The Last Day of the Public Teaching of Jesus, vers. 20-46. 1. Lesson from the Barren Fig-Tree, on the Way to the City, vers. 20-22. 2. The Authority of Jesus questioned, vers. 23-27. 3. Parable of the Two Sons, vers. 28-32. 4. Parable of the Vineyard, vers. 33^1. 5. The Rejected Stone, vers. 42-46. 1 And ' when they drew nigh unto JS-m'sa-lSm, and wSme°uStoto B6th'pha-g6, unto '" the mount of OTiveg, then " f^susselit two disciples, 2 Ky&g unto them, Go into the village that is over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her : loose them, and bring them unto me. I For vers. 1-9, see Mark 11. 1-10 & Luke 19. 29-38 & John 12. 12-15. m ch. 24. 3 & 26. 30. Zech. 14. 4. [John 8. 1.] Cp. Acts 1. 12. n Cp. Mark 14. 13. Stttllap, 3tprtl 2. leaving Bethany on their way to Jerusalem Sun day morning, the day after their Sabbath. And - THE TBITJMIPHAL EETTBY, vers. 1-11. were come to Bethphage (house of figs, ovfig- Palm Sunday. town), a village not far from Bethany (house of Place. Bethany, the slopes of Olivet, Jeru- dates), toward Jerusalem on the northern road over salem the Temple. the mount of Olives, " a hill just east of Jeru- Parallels. Mark 11 : 1-11 ; Luke 19 : 29-44 ; salem, so called from the ohve-trees upon it. It John 12 : 12-19. was about a mile from the city. It was their For three days now Jesus made his final en- open ground — for pleasure, for worship ; the deavors to persuade the Jewish nation to accept ' Park ' of Jerusalem ; the thoroughfare of any him as their Messiah, and thus save themselves going or coming in the direction of the great Jor- from destruction, and become a great power for dan valley." l bringing in the kingdom of heaven among men. 1, 2. Then sent Jesus two disciples, Say- He used every possible means, in a great variety ing, ... Go into the village (Bethphage) over of ways, for accomplishing this purpose. He pre- against you, and probably then in sight. "Com- sented himself to them as a king. He showed his ing from Bethany by the Jericho road (toward royal authority by cleansing the Temple, his Jerusalem), in about a quarter of an hour we Father's house. He performed royal deeds of come to a gorge, across which — down steep, power and of mercy in healing the sick. He across, and steep up again — there is, and always argued, he discoursed, he pleaded, he taught, he must have been, a footpath for those who wish answered objections, he threatened, he warned. to make a short cut. But the main road curves 1 . And when they drew nigh unto Jerusa- around the end of the gorge, making a circuit, or lem. This phrase includes the journey from way round, meeting the short cut just mentioned, Jericho to Bethany (John 12 : 1), where he ar- very near the traditional site of Bethphage, rived Friday evening ; the supper on Saturday where ruins have recently been found. The evening at the close of their Sabbath ; and the two disciples would cross the gorge by the foot- 1 Dean Stanley. 246 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 3-5. 3 And if any "ne say SSgllt unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them ; and straightway he will send them. 4 now tiiS1!! come to pass, ° that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the pro phet, saying, 5 p Tell ye the daughter of li-gg; Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, « Seek,' and ridinf upon an ass, AnSnpon a colt the foal of an ass. o See ch. 1. 22. p Cited from Zech. 9. 9. Cp. Isai. 62. 11. q ch. 11. 29. path, while the main company kept the regular road."1 Ye shall find an ass tied, by a door without, i. e., in the open street, in a place where two ways meet, which means, according to Pro fessor Hall, the "way round" (Mark 11: 4). And a colt with her. The other Evangelists mention the colt only, as being the one on which the Lord rode, the mother probably accompany ing it.2 Mark and Luke add " whereon never man sat," in accordance with the rule " that animals used for sacred purposes must never have borne the yoke," or more probably as showing that Jesus " was not filling a place which others had filled before him." . 3. If any man say ought unto you, make any objection, or ask you why you loose the ass and colt. Thus, according to Mark, " certain of those that stood there," and according to Luke, "the owners thereof," did question them when they were loosing the colt. Ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them. Probably the owner was a disciple or friend of Jesus, and glad to have him use anything he had, or if not a disciple, yet Jesus and his disciples had passed along this road so many times that doubtless the owner knew them well and could trust them, so that straight way he will send them. 4. All this was done, that it might be ful filled. Jesus did this, not for the purpose of ful- fiUing the prophecy, but for the same reason that the prophecy was uttered, because it was the right and wise thing for the Messiah to do ; and the result was that he fulfilled the prophecies uttered centuries before. The words quoted here are a combination of two prophecies, Isai. 62 : 11 and Zech. 9 : 9. They were familiar to the Jews, who therefore expected that their Mes siah would enter Jerusalem riding on an ass. Jesus by fulfiUing this prophecy presented him self as the Messiah. 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, that part of Jerusalem where David, and the kings after him, dwelt. Zion represented Jerusalem ; the daugh ter of Zion, the people of Jerusalem, who were themselves the representatives of the people of God. Behold, thy King cometh. Jesus was the Messiah, the true king of the kingdom of God, which was now about to he established. His riding in this triumphal procession was an object lesson, a Hving parable, setting forth the fact that he was a king ; that his kingdom was at hand ; and also " the spiritual peculiarities and dignities and glory of the reign of Christ. It is a reign of peace, humility, and meekness, because of love." Meek, not warlike nor re vengeful, hut peaceful, doing good to his enemies, and bearing their persecutions with a gentle and forgiving spirit. And sitting upon an ass. Riding on an ass instead of a horse presented him as the Prince of Peace, not as a hero of war. The horse was used especially for war, for dignity, and for display ; the ass for the common uses of peace. His king dom will be one of peace through righteousness, — peace with God, peace with the laws of the universe, peace with one another, peace of eon- science, peace among all the faculties of the soul, — peace that passeth understanding, unspeakable and full of glory. There was nothing degrading in riding an ass. Indeed, " the rich man's ass is a lordly beast. In size he is far ahead of anything of this kind we see here at home. His coat is as smooth and glossy as a horse's. His livery is shiny black, satiny white, or sleek mouse color."3 But "the ass is the common beast for everybody to ride, and has been so from the days of the patriarchs and prophets." "It marked the Prince as not above the people in his manner and ordering of earthly state." l He had the true kingly spirit, — pure, noble, holy ; a spirit, not of pride, but of lowliness ; not of exultation, but of daily service and helpfulness ; sanctifying and exalting com mon things ; not afar off in seclusion, but near the people ; not receiving from the people, but giving to them, full of compassion, " the King of Love." All this was in accordance with Jesus' plan of a spiritual kingdom. There was no herald, no standard of revolt, nothing to excite the antago nism of the Romans. There was no worldly pomp. It was a visible presentation of his spiritual Kingship, illustrating what he said to Pilate : that he was indeed a King, hut that his 1 Prof. Isaac H. Hall, Sunday-School Times. 1 Zincke's Egypt. 21 : 6-9. MATTHEW. 247 andthehesesatWm 6 And the disciples went, and did even as Je'sus ^f„ntedd them, 7 ani1 brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their garment. thereon. 8 And themo1tparteofthe multitude r spread their garments in the way; and others cut down branches from the trees, and %Sddti.Aem in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before' him, and that followed, cried, saying, * Hosanna to ' the son of Da'vid : " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna " in the highest. r 2 Kin. 9. 13. * Cp. Rev. 7. 10. See Ps. 118. 25 (Heb.). v Luke 2. 14. Cp. Ps. 148. 1. t ch. 20. 30. u ch. 23. 39. Cited from Ps. 118. 26, kingdom was not of this world. It was a king dom of truth, of peace, of brotherhood, of love. 6. The disciples . . . did (even) as Jesus commanded them. As a King he had the lov ing obedience of his subjects. 7. The ass, and the colt. The untrained colt could he led and ridden more easily when accom panied by the mother. Jesus left Bethphage and rode toward Jerusalem, the royal city, the city of the Great King. Here his ancestor David reigned. 8. And a very great multitude. Rather, "the most part of the multitude," for there were some cold and scowling critics (Luke 19 : 39, 40). There were crowds of pilgrims from all parts of the country coming up to the Passover festival. By a census taken in the time of Nero, it was ascertained that there were 2,700,000 Jews present at the Passover. Spread their garments in the way. ' ' This was a recognized act of homage to a king. So Jehu, when the officers of the army of Israel chose him as their ruler, walked upon the garments which they spread beneath his feet (2 Kings 9 : 13). So Agamemnon, tempted to an act of barbaric pomp, after the manner of Eastern kings, entered his palace at Mycenae, walking upon costly carpets (^Eschylus, Agam. 891)." 1 So, in later history, the young Sir Walter Raleigh, when Queen Elizabeth came to a miry part of the road, took off his new and costly plush mantle and spread it on the ground for the queen to walk over. Others out down branches. The imperfect tense denotes con tinued action. " As Jesus advanced, they kept cutting" branches and spreading them, and the multitude kept crying." " Matthew, Mark, and John use each a different word for branches. Matthew, a word meaning a young slip, or shoot ; a twig as related to a branch. Mark, a word meaning a litter of branches and leaves cut from the fields near by ; a mass of straw, rushes, or leaves beaten together, or strewed loose, so as to form a bed, or a carpeted way. John, strictly palm branches, the feathery fronds forming the tufted crown of the tree."2 These leaves are often ten feet long. And strawed, spread, them in the way fi 9. The multitudes that went before, and that followed. " Two vast streams of people met on that day. The one poured out from the city; and, as they came through the gardens whose clusters of palm rose on the southeastern corner of Olivet, they cut down the long branches, and moved upward toward Bethany with shouts of welcome. From Bethany streamed forth the crowds who had assembled there the previous night. The two streams met midway. Half of the vast mass, turning round, preceded ; the other half followed."4 Cried, saying, Hosanna. "Hosanna" is a rendering into Greek letters of the Hebrew words, "Save, we pray!" (Ps. 118: 25); not save us, but save the King. It is like a shout of " Salva tion ! Salvation ! " It is used as an expression of praise, like "Hallelujah," or "Hail." "It was a kind of holy hurrah. Had the event occurred in Rome, the shout would probably have been lo triumphe ! Had it occurred in modern France, the people would have caUed out Vive ! ( Vive le roi .') It is thus remarkably like the aspiration or petition that is breathed in the national an them, ' God save the Queen ! ' And as salvation, in its fulness, is just life, or eternal life, the peti tion breathed is equivalent to Live ! or, Live for ever! and is thus tantamount, in the original import, to the French Vive ! and the Italian Viva ! " 5 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of i Kllicott. 2 Prof. M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 3 " Herodotus records that when Xerxes was passing over the bridge of the Hellespont, the way before him was strewed with branches of myrtle, while burning per fumes filled the air. Quintius Curtius tells of the scat tering of flowers in the way before Alexander the Great when he entered Babylon. Monier, in our own day, saw the way of a Persian ruler strewn with roses for three miles ; while glass vessels filled with sugar were broken under his horse's feet, — the sugar being symbolical of prosperity." — Prof. Isaac H. Hall in Sunday-School Times. 4 Dean Stanley, Sinai and Palestine. 5 Morison. 248 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 10, 11. 10 And w when he was come into Jg-ru'sS-lgm, all the city was stirred; saying, Who is this ? 11 And the 5S8JS& said, This is *uJ'!X££»S5ffi?&n» Naz'a-rSth of GaTl-lee. w Mark 11. 11. x ver. 46. Luke 7. 16 & 13. 33 & 24. 19. John 4. 19 & 6. 14 & 7. 40 & 9. 17. Cp. Mark 6. 15 & Luke 9. 8, 19 & John 1. 21. y See ch. 2. 23. the Lord. Sent and approved and foretold by the Lord, his Messiah. Hosanna in the highest. In the highest degree ; in the highest strains ; in the highest heavens. Putting together all the records, we see how manifold were the shouts of triumph. " Hosanna," " Hosanna to the son of David." " Blessed is he . . . Blessed is the King . . . Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." "Blessed be the king dom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord." " Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." "Hosanna in the highest." Theywere nostly taken from the 118th Psalm, that Messi anic psalm which Chad wick calls " that great song of triumph, which told how the nations, swarm ing like bees, were quenched like the light fire of thorns, how the right hand of the Lord did valiantly, how the gates of righteousness should be thrown open for the righteous, and, more sig nificant still, how the stone which the builders rejected should become the headstone of the corner." 1 A Note of Sadness. One touching incident, by the way, is related by Luke only (19 : 41-44). At one point in the descent, when the procession was amid wheat fields, flowers, and olive-trees, at a turn of the road, the great city of Jerusalem suddenly hurst upon their vision. " In the clear atmosphere, it seemed as if a few steps would take one to the walls of the city." 2 " It rose ter> race upon terrace, a city of palaces." " If," says Canon Tristram, "the prospect be impressive now, what must it have been when the grand col onnade of Herod, gleaming with white marble, ran along the southern face of that platform for a thousand yards, and reached a height of two hun dred feet ? Then, too, the golden gate showed its gorgeous facade ; but the dazzling marble and gilding of Herod's temple dominated over all else." Here Jesus paused, and lamented over the city which might have been saved had its people been wining to accept of him ; but which was doomed to destruction because it refused to repent and to accept the kingdom of God. " He was crossing the ground on which, a generation later, the Tenth Roman legion would he en camped, as part of the besieging force destined to lay all the splendors before him in ashes." 8 In vision he saw the most terrible siege on record, in which the besieged "fought for miserable scraps," chewed belts and shoes, and tore off the leather from their shields, and ate wisps of hay, and evert then died by thousands from the horrors of fam ine ; 97,000 were taken prisoners and 1,100,000 perished. The ground around the city was planted thick with crosses on which Jews were crucified, till there was room for no more. Did he not also look beyond this to the more awful destiny of those whom even the infinite love of God could not lead to repentance ? Even in the midst of our rejoicing over the triumphs of Christianity, we should weep over those who will not come and be saved. " Of all sad wordB of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, It might have been."4 10. Come into Jerusalem. The royal city of the Jews. All the city was moved (io-elafrn), stirred, shaken as by an earthquake or a storm. Used by Matthew (8 : 24) to express the effect of a violent tempest upon the waters of the sea of Galilee. See description in Rev. 6 : 12-14. Waves of excited feeling swept over the multitude. They did not know what was coming next. The pro mised redemption, deliverance from Rome, the "good time coming" might he at hand. Who is this ? Is this the Messiah who comes pro claiming himself a king ? 11. This is Jesus the prophet of (from) Naz areth. The answer was true, but only a part of 1 See any good Roman History for the story of Pompey's triumph, 90 years before this, when he was declared con queror of the whole world. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine has a beautiful descrip tion of a triumphal procession. Robert Browning's Poems, "The Patriot," with whom at first " It was roses, roses all the way. The houBe roofs seemed to heave and sway, The church spires flamed, such flags they had." But in one year all this was changed for binding ropes, and stones, and a scaffold. Gen. Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur gives a vivid description of the scenes and circumstances of this period of Christ' life. See RobinBon's Researches, i. 473, for modern illus tration of spreading garments in the way for those the people would honor. Land and Book, new ed., vol. i. pp. 408-414. Tissot's Life of Our Lord Jesus has a number of bril liant and realistic pictures of these scenes, reproduced in colors from his series of paintings. 2 Frederick Bliss. 3 Edersheim. 4 Whittier. 21 : 10, 11. MATTHEW. 249 the truth. Jesus is revealed in a new light to most of them. This prophet from Nazareth now stood forth before the nation as the Mes siah. Practical Suggestions. (1) As these people cast their garments before Jesus as he rode in tri umph, so we should cast our talents, our money, our time, all that we have, before him, and do all that we can to aid his cause, and hasten his suc cess. It is a great privilege to have part in his triumph. (2) Enthusiasm is a good thing for every one; for any cause that is worthy of enthusiasm. A noble enthusiasm uplifts the soul. Christianity is not dull, lifeless, insipid. There never has been anything on God's earth so adapted to kin dle all the enthusiasm of the soul and to make it an enduring flame. Blessed are they who have felt, and continue to feel, a deep, abiding, glowing enthusiasm for Christ and his Gospel. (3) We are accustomed to say that this same multitude, who on Sunday shouted "Hosanna,'7 cried " Crucify him ! " on the following Friday ; that "the whole enthusiasm of the multitude at the end is nothing more than the last upstreaming brilliancy of an evening sun before it vanishes be neath the horizon." But when we say that a city votes "no license" one year, and "license" the next, we do not mean that the same persons to any extent voted on opposite sides. Richard Glover is doubtless near the truth when he says, "The whole of that enthusiasm was not excitement. If most of the gladsome voices were silenced by the cross, very few, if any of them, took up the other cry, ' Crucify him ! ' Doubtless many of those who sang hosannas that day asked at Pen tecost, ' What must I do to be saved ? ' and were among the first believers." (4) The Choir Invisible. In all triumphal processions there is a 'choir invisible," accom panying the visible throng. Sometimes they are chanting dirges over the wrecks, the distress and poverty and bloodshed, ravaged fields, ruined vil lages, widows and orphans, crimes and cruelties, which the victories left in their path. Sometimes they are singing hymns of joy over the good ac complished, the progress of all that is good for man, intermingled with many a minor chord of sorrow. If Christ had opened the eyes of those looking upon this scene as the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened, so that they might see the invisible and hear the inaudible, no pen could picture the real triumphal procession. They would have seen the vast multitude of those whom he had healed and comforted and saved from sin, — Laz arus and Bartimeus, the ten lepers, the widow of Nain's son, the ruler's daughter, Peter's mother- in-law, a host of those whom he had raised from the dead, those from whom he had cast out devils, the bHnd he had made to see, and the lame that now walked, the lepers he had cleansed, those who had been delivered from the bondage of their sins and brought into the light of the Gospel. There would join them the angels who sang at his birth, Moses and Elijah, who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the twelve legions of angels he once said were ready at his call. Heaven would swiftly have emptied itself, and all its choirs would joyfully have come down to do him honor, and sing their songs of joy over many sinners brought to repentance. The triumphs of Caesar and Pompey were but child's play to this. Not all of earth's nionarchs together could have summoned such a procession. Imagination fails to paint the picture of Christ's real triumphal procession. What a picture this would make for an artist who would fill the air around and above the actual procession with these persons, as the space around Raphael's picture of the infant Jesus is filled with a cloud of angel faces. (5) A Type of Christ's Triumphal March down the Ages. Jesus riding in this triumphal procession was an object lesson, a living parable, setting forth his triumphal march down the ages. " All the ideas that were incarnated in his career and emblazoned in his final sufferings and death and resurrection are destined to be triumphant." 1 " Palm Sunday also prefigured the entire history of the church here below. The history of the church is the march of the glorified Lord Jesus across continents and centuries. He marches to wards the final domination of the whole world." 2 Commerce, railroads, printing presses, inventions, wealth, civilization, are aiding his triumph, paving his way, and advancing his glory. All are cast down before him in his onward march. And all the redeemed, ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, are singing his ho sannas, and joining in the song, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever "(Rev. 5: 12,13). " The gospel banner wide unfurled Shall wave in triumph o'er the world ; And every creature, bond and free, Shall hail the glorious jubilee." 3 1 Morison. 2 Prof. Frederic Godet. 1 Rev. Theron Brown's hymn, The Banner of Tinman- 250 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 12, 13. 12 *And Je'sus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the "ESSey-'enXiiSS, and the seats of them that sold b the doves'; 13 Mdnhestiith unto them, It is written, " My house shall be called 'ae house of prayer j but " ye 1»EK,le it a den of 8BEK. s For vers. 12-16, see Mark 11. 15-18 & Luke 19. 45-47. Cp. John 2. 14-16. a Cp. Ex. 30. 13. o Lev. 1. 14 & 5. 7 & 12. 8. Luke 2. 24. c Cited from Isai. 56. 7. d Jer. 7. 11. JHonuap, &pril 3, vers. 12-19. All that Jesus did on this day was in close con nection with the Triumphal Entry. ; His acts were kingly deeds, worthy of the Messiah and enforcing his claims. I. CUBBING THE BABBEN FIG-TBEE. After the Triumphal Entry, Jesus returned from the city to Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, as he did every night (Luke 21 : 37, 38). On his way back to the city Monday morn ing, Jesus saw the barren fig-tree, and laid a curse upon it. Mark says it was on this morning. Matthew does not contradict Mark, as Professor Gould says, but simply states the fact of the cursing in connection with the lessons from it taught the next morning when the disciples saw that the tree was withered. Mark states the facts chronologically, Matthew logically. These are familiar historical methods. And no one in ordinary history would charge with contradiction two historians, one of whom used one method, and the other the other method. We wiU treat this act in connection with the Tuesday morning II. SECOND CLEANSING OP THE TEM PLE, vers. 12, 13. Parallels. Mark 11 : 15-18 ; Luke 19 : 45, 46. Compare a former cleansing early in his min istry (John 2 : 13-17). 12. Jesus went into the temple of God to worship, and to teach religion, for which the Temple was built. It was his Father's house, and he was about his Father's business. Cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple. In the court of the Gentiles was the temple market, where animals, oil, wine, and other things necessary for sacrifices and temple worship were sold for the convenience of pilgrims who came from aU parts of the world to offer sacri fices at the Passover season, and who could not bring their offerings with them. Tables of the moneychangers, who were necessary because the pilgrims came from all over the civilized world, and the temple tax must be paid in Jewish money. " The pilgrims brought with them the coinage of their own country, — Syrian, Egyptian, Greek, as the case might be, — and their money was either not current in Palestine, or, as being stamped with the symbols of heathen worship, could not be received into the eorban, or treasury of the Temple." l " There are scores of money changers now in Jerusalem," according to Hon. Selah Merrill. " If you make a purchase, it is not one time in twenty that the person with whom you trade will have any change." Sold doves, for sacrifices. The Excuse for these things being allowed in the temple courts was that it was very conven ient for the worshippers, and the traffic was con nected with sacred things and with true worship. Moreover, the traffic was only in that part of the Temple into which any heathen might enter, and not in the more sacred portions. Reasons why it was Wrong. Turning the temple courts intoaplace of merchandise destroyed the very purpose for which the Temple was built, and changed its results into the very opposite. (1) For the dealers, the spirit of worship was lost. Instead of praying, they were bargaining. In stead of worshipping, they were making money. (2) The opportunities for fraud were very great. The dealers had a monopoly and could charge such prices as they pleased. They were trading with strangers who often did not know the true values of the merchandise. The great crowds made the overcharging much easier. The result was that the temple court became " a den of thieves." Dishonesty in connection with religion does much more harm than elsewhere. It cre ates unbelievers. It undermines the power of religion. It turns men away from the truth. (3) The court of the Gentiles was the place of prayer and worship for Gentiles. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11 : 17). It was the only place where they could worship in the Temple. It was missionary ground. It was the place for reaching the masses. All this was destroyed by the noise of the traffic, the disputing at the tables of the money-changers, the shouting and wrangling in bargaining for cattle, the tramping of oxen and sheep, and all the noise and confusion of the market-place. Worship was out of the question ; prayer was interrupted. And the very object of the Temple was sacrificed to the greed of gain. 13. It is written. Isai. 56: 7 ; Jer. 7: 11. In 1 Bllicott, 21 : 14-17. MATTHEW. 251 14 "And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. 15 /b!i? when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children thai were crying hi the temple' and saying, " Hosanna to the son of Da'vid; they were movS^SMi with indignation, 16 and1 said unto him, Hearest thou what these are saying? And Je'sus saith unto them, Yea; "'Sd8 ye never read, ''Out of the mouth of 'babes and suck lings thou hast perfected praise? 17 And ¦>' he left them, and * went forth out of the city '"00 ' Bethany; and he lodged there. e ch. 11. 5 & 15. 31. /Cp. Luke 19. 39,40. s ver. 9. Cp. Rev. 7. 10. See Ps. 118. 25 (Heb.). g ver. 42. ch. 12. 3, 5 & 19. 4 & 22. 31. h Cited from Ps. 8. 2 (Gk.). i ch. 11. 25. j ch. 16. 4. * Mark 11. 19. Cp. Luke 21. 37. I Mark 11. 1. Luke 19. 29 & 24. 50. John 11. 18. their seeming worship they were destroying the very soul of worship, and robbing God's house of its usefulness. Hence they made it a den of thieves. They not only robbed God, but were dishonest in their business transactions. Practical. This was a type of the work of Christ in the temple of the heart, in the church, and in the world, cleansing them from all sinful habits, customs, feelings, and acts. " He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap : and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver " (Mai. 3 : 2, 3). Again he exerted his kingly power by destroying the works of the great enemy, the devil. III. MIBACLES OP HEALING, ver. 14. 14. The blind and the lame came to him, in the house of God, the place where all the troubled should come, and he healed them. A work of mercy more pleasing to him than the stern act of justice he had just performed. This, too, was a type of his kingly work among men, comforting, healing, blessing, redeeming his people from every outward and inward evil. These two kinds of work, purifying and saving from evil, are ever going on as the kingdom of Christ moves on to its final triumph. IV. EDUCATING THE PEOPLE IN BE- LIGION. From Luke 19 : 47, we learn that Jesus taught daily in the Temple. The rest of this chapter and chapters 22 and 23 furnish examples of this royal work of the Messiah King. V. THE CHILDBEN'S vers. 15-17. HOSANNAS, 15. The children, hoys, . . . saying, Hosanna to the son of David. They caught the enthu siasm from their elders, and entered with great zest into the praises of the Messiah. They, the chief priests, were sore displeased. Perhaps they dreaded lest the Roman garrison in the ad joining castle of Antonia should hear them and make trouble ; but they were opposed to any approbation of Jesus that would make it danger ous for them to work their will upon him. They asked Jesus to put a stop to these loud praises (Luke 19 : 39, 40). His reply was that the very stones would cry out if these held their peace. No power could repress the fact that here was the true Messiah. No hearts, less hard than stones, could repress their enthusiasm. Mark Antony says : — " Put a tongue In every wound of Csesar, that should move The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." The stones of Jerusalem, when not one was left upon another, did cry out. "The superscription at Salzburg, in the rocks, Te saxa loquntur, ' The stones talk of thee,' is now history." Stones of Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt, tombs and temples, stiH cry out the truth of God's Word. 16. Have ye never read. In Ps. 8 : 2 (Sep- tuagint), How is it that you are not familiar with your own Scriptures ? Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ? The children and those who have child like qualities give forth the most unalloyed praise. Application. The church should take the best care that the children should join in the ser vices of praise. They should arrange their ser vices, and build their edifices, so that the children can thus have part. The older people will find that thus praise is perfected. The Gospel preached in so direct and simple a manner, the doctrines stated in so clear and simple a form that children can understand them, the services so devotional and helpful that children can be uplifted by them, will most help the largest number of people. 17. And he left them. He had finished Mon day's work. Into Bethany, two miles out of the city. 252 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 18-23. 18 "'Now in the morning as he returned "t0° the city, "he hungered. 19 ° And when he saw a fig tree Ly the wayside, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only; and health unto it, Let there be no fruit Bf?0mon thee hence forward for ever. And immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw [{; they marvelled, saying, How sodidis the fig tree immediately wither away? 21 And Je'sus answered and said unto them, " Verily I say unto you, q If ye have faith, and r doubt not, ye shall not only do th what $ done0"6 to the flg tree, but eien if ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Be thou SffiSp" and bethou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 And ' all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, " believing, ye shall receive. 23 H " And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders m For vers. 18-22, see Mark 11. 12-14, 20-24. r Acts 10. 20. Rom. 4. 20 & 14. 23. James 1. 6. vers. 23-27, see Mark 11. 27-33 & Luke 20. 1-8. n ch. 4. 2. o Cp. Luke 13. 6-9. p ch. 17. 20. q Cp. John 14. 12. s Cp. Ps. 46. 2 & 1 Cor. 13. 2 & Rev. 8. 8. I See ch. 7. 7. u For CucaUap, Sptil 4. THE LAST DAY OP THE PUBLIC TEACHING OP JESUS, vers. 20-46. I. THE BABBEN PIG-TBEE AND ITS LESSONS, vers. 18-22. Place. On the slope of Olivet. Time. Early in the morning, on the way from Bethany to Jerusalem. Parallel. Mark 11 : 12-26. Compare Matt. 17 : 20, 21. 18. Now in the morning, one morning, Mon day, he hungered. This is given as the reason why Jesus took notice of the fig-tree. QuesneU suggests that he had spent the night after his triumph in fasting and prayer. 19. Saw a fig tree . . . and found nothing thereon, but leaves only. Jesus had reason to expect fruit on the tree, because of " the osten tatious show of leaves. The fig often comes with or even before the leaves, and especially on the early kind. If there was no fruit on this leafy tree, it might justly be condemned as bar ren." 1 It was before the regular season of figs, and the fig-trees were generally bare. But some varieties are earlier than others, and sometimes in warm sunny nooks the trees develop weeks earlier than in other situations. " In walking along this same Bethany road we came upon just such a precocious fig-tree. It was, in all like lihood, the very road on which otr Lord had traveUed ; it was the same week in the year, for it was the Passover week when we were on Olivet ; and while in general the few fig-trees that we saw were showing little more than the first signs of life, there was one more favorably placed, which was several weeks in advance of all the others, all green with foliage, and with ripe fruit under neath it. We plucked a branch and brought it home with us. The large leaves had shrivelled, but the fruit was still sweet two months after ward." 2 Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever. This was the sentence of a judge, rather than a curse. The tree was an ob ject lesson of hypocrisy, and it stood there by the roadside a marked tree, for it soon withered away, its dead leaves and barren branches teach ing the natural and necessary punishment of hypocrisy. It was a picture of the Jewish nation as represented by its leaders, "whose prime and patent fault was hypocrisy or false pretence, and here he finds a tree guilty of the same thing." 8 The sentence Jesus pronounced on the tree was a symbol of what was certain to come on the Jewish nation unless they repented. Their opportunity to bear the good fruit they were made to hear, in becoming the kingdom of God in righteousness, was gone forever. 20. When the disciples saw it, as they went by it the next morning. They marveUed at the power of Jesus' simple word. 21. If ye have faith, and doubt not, etc. See on 17 : 20, 21, concerning the faith that re moves mountains. 22. Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer. See on 7 : 7-11. II. THE PHABISEES CHALLENGE JESUS' AUTHOBITY, vers. 23-27. Place. In the Temple at Jerusalem. Parallels. Mark 11 : 27-33 ; Luke 20 : 1-8. 23. The chief priests and the elders, the leaders of the Jews, came unto him as he was teaching, and teaching many things contrary to 1 Wm. M. Thomson, Land and Book. 2 Rev. A. Thomson, D. D. » Int. Crit. Com. 21 : 24-28. MATTHEW. 253 of the people came unto him " as he was teaching, and said, '" By what author ity doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority ? 24 And Je'sus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one ,!,""&, which if ye tell me, I "likewise36 will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of JShn, x whence was it? "from heaven' or from men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven ; he will say unto us, * Why then did ye not then believe him ? 26 But if we shall say, F?lm men; "we fear the multitude; for all hold J5hn6 as a prophet. 27 And they answered Je'sus, and said, We ckSSwnolV Heliso said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 28 If c But what thhik ye ? A '"'""* man had two sons ; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in d "$. vineyard. v See ch. 26. 55. w Cp. Ex. 2. 14 & John 1. 25 & Acts 4. 7. a; Cp. ch. 13. 54. z ver. 32. Luke 7. 30. a ver. 46. ch. 14. 5. 6 Cp. John 5. 35. See eh. 11. 9. 33. ch. 20. 1. y Luke 15. 18, 21. John 3. 27. c ch. 17. 25 & 18. 12. d ver. their doctrine, and thus undermining their au thority. And said, By what authority doest thou these things, such as cleansing the Temple of cattle and money-changers, teaching his doc trines, presenting himself as the Messiah. They were elected. They based their position on their Scriptures ; they were leaders of a divinely ap pointed ritual, of a divinely authorized religion. But who chose Jesus ? What right had he to assume so much authority? They could easily have found out had they wished. But they would not see. And they would have questioned or de nied his authority had he stated it. 24. Jesus therefore refused to answer, but said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, one word, one question, not to puzzle them, but to lead them to answer their own question in answering his. Therefore, he continues, which if ye tell me, answer me truly, I in Mke wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25. The baptism of John, whence was it ? from heaven, or of men ? Tell me what was John's authority for his teaching, represented by baptism, and I will tell you what mine is, for both are from the same source. They reasoned with themselves, consulted together, so as to agree upon an answer ; not as to what was true, but what it was policy to say. If we shall say, From heaven, that is, that he had divine author ity. He will say, . . . Why did ye not then be lieve him ? It would he too violently inconsistent, and would destroy their authority, if they acknow ledged John to he a prophet, and then did not believe him and receive him as such. But if John had divine authority, so much more had Jesus. John himself declared Jesus to be the Messiah. Could the Pharisees acknowledge John's words to he divine, and then reject his teaching that Jesus was the Messiah ? 26. But if we shall say, Of men, i. e., that John was an impostor, we fear the people, lest they should rise up and stone them (Luke). 27. They answered . . . We cannot teU. We do not know. Their reply was given in the hearing of the people, and was a sad confession of incompetency and ignorance for them to make, hut less destructive than any answer would have been. He said unto them, Neither tell I you. " Why should he answer it, if they had made up their minds that they would not be guided in their conduct by the evidence of the truth, hut only by passion, prepossession, pelf, and the pinch of popular pressure ? Why cast pearls of know ledge before such swinish natures as will only trample them in the mire, and then turn aside to rend you? "1 III. THE PAEABLE OP THE TWO SONS, vers. 28-32. 28. But what think ye? He would not answer their question, but he would give them a parable to think of, a mirror in which they could see their own characters, and be led to repentance. Acer- tain man, representing God, our Father in hea ven, had two sons. " Here, as at Luke 15 : 11, are described, under the image of two sons of one father, two great moral divisions of men, under one or other of which might be ranged almost all with whom our blessed Lord in his teaching and preaching came in contact." 2 Son, go work to day in my vineyard, representing the world where there was work to do for God, and his kingdom, and for God's children. 2 Trench. 254 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 29-32. 29 Andbe answered and said, I will not : but afterward he " repented' wmseif, and went. 30 And he came to the second, and 'said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir : and went not. 31 Whether of 'K1 twain did the will of m's father? They say, untohim' The first. Je'sus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ¦''the publicans and 9 the harlots go into the ''kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came unto you ' in the way of righteousness, and j ye believed him not : but * the publicans and the harlots believed him : and ye, when ye 5awit,dfddn^CCTeb™?eepnent1yo0urseives afterward, that ye might believe him. ever. 32. ch. 27. 3. Heb. 7. 21. /Luke 7. 29. i Prov. 8. 20 & 2 Pet. 2. 21. j ver. 25. ch. 11. 18. g Luke 7. 37-50. k Luke 3. 12, 13. h See ch. 12. 28. i Cp. ch. 3. 8-12, 15 29. I will not. This son represents those who make no pretension to the service of God, but stand opposed to it in doctrine, in character, and in life, such as the publicans and harlots of ver. 31, who openly and boldly transgress the laws of God. But afterward he repented, and went. Many of the worst and most flagrant sin ners, when they heard John the Baptist, repented, and turned from their sins with loathing, and en tered upon a new life. The Greek word here for repent (perapeK-riOe'vi) is a different word from that ordinarily used for repentance GaeTai/oew).1 " It may be simply what our fathers were wont to call hadiwist (had-I-wist, or known better, I should have acted otherwise)." 2 30. And he came to the second . . And he answered and said, I go, sir. This son repre sents those who profess to be religious and to serve God, who are particular about ritual and form and outward observances, and have been kept from crime and disreputable, loathsome, unpopular sins ; of which class a large part of the Pharisees, the scribes, the religious leaders, were representatives. And went not. They were hypocrites, whited sepulchres, " which indeed ap pear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness " (23 : 27). They lacked true piety, faith, and love to God and man, and all real virtue. They were selfish, and proud, and hard hearted. Chapter 23 gives a full description of their character. 31. Whether of them twain did the will of his father ? They, entirely unconscious of the application, say, . . . The first. Jesus saith unto them. He now makes the personal appli cation. Publicans and . . . harlots go into the kingdom of God before you, they repent and he- come real members of the kingdom of heaven, by accepting its principles, living its life, and seeking after its character. 32. For John came, etc. For proof of his statement he points them to the facts, to what had actually taken place before their eyes. There was no escape from the indictment. Note. (1) The refusal of the first son, and the conduct he represents, are not approved, hut only his change of life and character. (2) It is not an uncommon experience, that public flagrant sins despised by the whole com munity, when seen in the light of the Gospel or of prophetic denunciation, open the eyes of the sin ner to the vileness of his character and life, and the danger of his course. Especially is this true of an unexpected outbreak into sin by one who has hitherto been fairly good outwardly, and did not know the evil that was within him. (3) The difficulty with the Pharisees, and all whom they represent, lies in the fact that they are self-satisfied, and partly blind to their real condition. Their sins are those of character, of motive, of selfishness, restrained in some degree by exterior influences, so as not to appear as bad outwardly, as the conduct of those who, with less evil, have fewer restraints. A few full-grown weeds in a garden appear greater evils than the soil full of seeds of bad plants that have not yet sprung up above the surface. " If the righteousness of the law is satisfied with itself ; if, cold and loveless and proud, it imagines that it wants nothing, and so refuses to submit it self to the righteousness of faith, then far better that the sinner should have had his eyes opened to perceive his misery and guilt, even though it had been by means of manifest and grievous transgressions, than that he should remain in this ignorance of his true state, of that which is lack ing to him still ; just as it would be better that disease, if in the frame, should take a decided shape, so that it might be felt and acknowledged to be disease, and then met and overcome, — than that it should be secretly lurking in, and per vading, the whole system, and because secretly. 1 For a full and interesting discussion, see Prof. M. R. Vincent's Word Studies. 21 : 33. MATTHEW. 255 a manuStwasa householder, which 33 H ' Hear another parable : There was planted a "' vineyard, and " 'leSrataeTboutT'' and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and "let it out to husbandmen, and p went into another country; l For vers. 33-46, see Mark 12. 1-12 & Luke 20. 9-19. 8. 11, 12. p ch. 25. 14, 15. Cp. Mark 13. 34. m ver. 28. Ps. 80. 8. Isai. 5. 1. its very existence denied by him whose life it was threatening." * IV. PAEABLE OP THE VINETABD, vers. 33-41. Place. The Temple Courts. Paballels. Mark 12 : 1-9 ; Luke 20 : 9-16. 33. Hear another parable. Jesus again sets before the rulers a picture of their real attitude toward the kingdom of God and its consequences, so that seeing themselves in this mirror they might he led to repentance. Severe as his charges were, they were spoken in love, and, in the deepest sense, in behalf of the rulers, in order that they might repent and save themselves and their nation, as William of Orange carried on the war against the Emperor Philip in the name and in behalf of him against whom he fought. The Ownek op the Vineyard. There was a certain householder, a landed proprietor, owner of an estate. This householder represents God, who is the creator and owner of all things. He owns this world. He owns the church. He owned the Jewish nation ; they were his pecuHar people. He owns the kingdom of heaven. The Vineyard. Planted a vineyard. Pales tine was a country of vineyards, and Jesus took his illustration from a most famiHar occurrence. Isaiah uses a similar illustration. " The image of the kingdom of God as a vine-stock or as a vine yard runs through the whole Old Testament (Deut. 32: 32 ; Ps. 80: 8-16; Isai. 5:1-7; 27: 1-7 ; Jer. 2 : 21 ; Ezek. 15 : 1-6 ; 19 : 10) ; and has this especial fitness, that no property was considered to yield so large a return (Cant. 8 : 11, 12). None was therefore of such price and esteem. It no doubt belongs to the fitness of the image, that a vineyard does, if it is to bring forth richly, require the most difigent and never-ceasing care ; that there is no season in the year in which much has not to be done in it. Virgil presses this very strongly in words not unworthy to be kept in mind by all to whom a spiritual vineyard has been committed. (See Georg., 2 : 397-419)." 1 The vineyard represented the kingdom of God, which was entrusted to the Jews, planted by God with the rich and fruitful vines of the knowledge of God, his commandments, the in stitutions of religion, and his revealed word. This vineyard was fertile in every good, infinite in possibilities of blessing for themselves and for the world. It represents (1) the Christian church. Its origin and Hfe are from God. He has committed to it his truth, his holy Spirit, the Sabbath, in telligence, piety, property, influence, Sunday- schools, missions, organization, every means and opportunity for bringing forth every good fruit of the Spirit. (2) It represents our individual lives, and all the good God has entrusted to us, — our souls, our minds, our bodies, our time, — all to be cared for, and to be cultured, and made to bring forth every good word and work . (3) It repre sents the nation. To each people God has en trusted a vineyard, marvellously fruitful, for the cultivation of which they are responsible. Patriot ism, real, true patriotism, is a religious duty. The Protecting Hedge. And hedged it round about, " possibly of the thorny wild aloe, common in the East." 2 " The word hedge here denotes a fence, of whatever material made. And no doubt the great majority of fences that surrounded the Judean vineyards, if not the whole of them, would consist of walls or ' dikes,' composed either exclusively of stones, or of stones and baked mud combined. Sometimes, however, for the sake of further protection from wild beasts, thorny shrubs were added or inter mingled." 8 The hedge representad all that God did to pro tect and defend the nation. The land of Pales tine itself is hedged about by the sea, the moun tains, and the desert, as England by the sea, as Greece and Rome by sea and mountains. The law, the divine Word, the institutions of the Jews, separated them from the evil moral influences of other nations. God's promises and watchful care were their perpetual defence. The Winepress. And digged a winepress. Lit., " hewed out," from the solid rock. " For the winepress of to-day a hollow place, usually a rock, is scooped out, considerably deeper at one end than the other. The grapes are put into this trough, and two or more persons, with naked feet and legs, descend into it, where they jump up and down, crushing the fruit as they trample' on it, while to enliven their labor they often sing at the same time. The juice flows into the lower part of the excavation." 4 The winepress represented all the institutions 1 Trench. 2 Prof. Vincent. ' Prof. Hackett, I/lustrations of Scripture. 256 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 34. 34 And when the Sea?oen of the &» drew near, he sent his servants to the hus- 1 ln -.-» A ™ ™-. that they might receive the fruits of it. uailUlIieil, to receive his fruits. and means of grace conferred upon the Jewish people, for their prosperity and usefulness ; and now, all the influences God confers on us to make us fruitful, — the Bible, the Sabbath, Christian homes, the influences of the Spirit. Isaiah shows how much in every way God had done for his people to make them a holy and worthy nation (5: 1-7). The Tower. And built a tower. To be used for the watchmen who guarded the vine yard, and during the vintage as an abode for the workers and a place of recreation, and per haps for storing the fruit and the grape juice. These towers were sometimes forty or fifty feet high. The Husbandmen. " There were three modes of dealing with land. According to one of these, the laborers employed received a certain portion of the fruits, say a third or a, fourth of the pro duce. The other two modes were, either that the tenant paid a money rent to the proprietor, or else that he agreed to give the owner a definite amount of the produce, whether the harvest had been good or bad. Such leases were given by the year or for life ; sometimes the lease was even hereditary, passing from father to son. There can scarcely be a doubt that it is the latter kind of lease which is referred to in the parable : the lessees being bound to give the owner a certain amount of fruits in their season."1 "For corn land the tenant pays two thirds of the produce. In the case of vineyards and other permanent crops, he retains but one fourth, but the owner provides aU fences and fixtures." 2 The husbandmen represented first the rulers of the Jews, and then the nation as a whole. All church members are the husbandmen. So are all the people of our nation. In his lesser sphere each individual is a husbandman. The Absence of the Lord. And went into a far country, rather, as in the R. V., " an other country." He went abroad. He left his tenants in charge with everything needful for their work, and thus by his absence tested their faithfulness, and gave them opportunity to de velop their characters and fulfil their duties. This was for a long time (Luke). The absence of the lord represents the fa«t that for a long period the guidance of the nation was entrusted to rulers and prophets, and the na tion had the guarding of the precious truths and institutions entrusted to them, without direct in terference from God. Christ did not come till fifteen hundred years after the planting of the nation, and four hundred after the last prophet, Malachi. And still God entrusts to nation, to church, and to individual the things he has committed to their charge, without direct interference. For so only can they he trained and proved. The Bent. We have always to pay rent for every privilege. " For their land the Jews must pay the rent of national purity, justice, patriot ism ; for their spiritual privileges, the rent of faith and obedience ; for office, the rent of ser vice to God and man." 8 For every vineyard en trusted to us, every privilege and blessing, God has a right to expect from us the fruits in the season thereof. These fruits, toward God, are gratitude, love, obedience, worship, consecration of time, talents, and property ; and toward men, all the fruits of the Spirit, — intelligence, gen erosity, character, growth. Note, that as the cultivator of the vineyard was to enjoy the fruits it bore, and the more fruitful it was, and the more industriously he cultivated it for the owner the more abundant and delight ful was his own reward, so it is with those to whom God has entrusted his spiritual vineyard ; every fruit God requires is best for themselves. He wants them to use and enjoy. He never " muzzles the ox that treadeth out the corn." All that pleases him blesses us. The Season op Ingathering. 34. And when the time (or season) of the fruit drew near. He sent not before, hut at the time when fruits were naturally expected. The season of fruits was not any definite time, but every occasion when God had reason to ex pect the results. Sometimes it was courage and faith ; sometimes patience ; sometimes efforts to benefit the other nations ; at all times obedience, and the gradual development of nobility of char acter, beautiful daily Hfe, care for the poor, depth and purity of worship, larger intelligence, liberty, and insight, closer communion with God, — each in the degree that God's people had had time to acquire, just as we expect different fruits from an older child than from a younger one. The season of fruits with us is the time when God has a right to expect us to beUeve in Jesus ; when good works are rightfully required, more and larger and more perfect as we go on in the Christian life ; when there are special opportuni ties for serving God and man, special trials, spe cial calls, seasons of revival. The Servants. He sent his servants to the husbandmen. The prophets and all faith- 1 Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus. 2 Tristram. 3 R. Glover. 21 : 35-38. MATTHEW. 257 35 " And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and '' stoned another. 36 * Again, he sent other servants more than the first : and they did unto -rliom likewise. Lllolll in like manner. 37 But afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38 But wh™ the husbandmen, when they saw the son, they said among themselves, ' This is the heir ; come, " let us kill him, and let u?ake e on his inheritance. q ch. 5. 12 & 22. 6 & 23. 34, 37. Cp. 2 Chr. 24. 19 & 36. 15, 16 & Neh. 9. 26 & Jer. 37. 15 & 38. 6 & Acts 7. 52 & 2 Cor. 11. 24-26 & 1 Thess. 2. 15 & Heb. 11. 36, 37. r Cp. 2 Chr. 24. 21 & John 10. 31-33 & Acts 7. 59. s ch. 22. 4. t Heb. 1. 2. Cp. John 1. 11 & Eom. 8. 17. u Cp. 1 Kin. 21. 19. ful priests and teachers. So with us the servants are teachers, preachers, parents, every special call to love and serve God, all influences of the Spirit, every open door, every opportunity that invites us to a higher and better service of God and man. That they might receive the fruits of it. The householder's share, his stipu lated rent in fruits. Maltreatment op the Servants. 35. Took his servants, and beat one. The gradual growth of the outrage is more clearly traced in Mark. (1) The first servant they "caught, heat, and sent away empty;" (2) at the second they "cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled ; " (3) they killed others in various ways. Killed another, and stoned another. Some of the prophets were not merely maltreated, but actually put to death. " Thus, if we may trust Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was stoned by the exiles in Egypt, Isaiah sawn asunder by King Manasseh ; and, for an ample historical nistification of this description, see Jer., chaps. 37, 38; 1 Kings 18: 13; 22: 24-27; 2 Kings 6: 31 ; 21 : 16 ; 2 Chron. 24 : 19-22 ; 36 : 16 ; and also Acts 7 : 52 ; and the whole passage finds a paral lel in the words of the apostle (Heb. 11 : 36)." 1 36. Again, he sent other servants. He did all that was possible. It is quite remarkable how many of the prophets were, at one time or another, ill treated by the Jews, — Moses, EHjah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Zechariah. And not long before this John the Baptist had per ished, a martyr to his faithfulness. Luke adds that they " sent him away empty." The reforms, the virtues, the religious life which the Lord had a right to expect were not given. The nation as a whole was disappointing. The picture of what the people might have been, placed beside the picture of what they were, presents a contrast Hke that of a summer garden and a winter pas ture land. The behavior of these husbandmen is only a picture of the way impenitent men still treat God's messengers of mercy. He sends his Only Son. 37. But last of all he sent unto them his son. It is only by pla cing together the three accounts that we can un derstand the fuU beauty and power of this pas sage : "Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do ? Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he said, I will send my beloved son. He sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son." "This was the last and crowning effort of divine mercy ; after which, on the one side, aU the resources even of heavenly love are exhausted ; on the other, the measure of sins is perfectly filled up." They will reverence my son. He was so great, so good, so powerful, so like his father, and his closest representative, that the father had a right to expect that he would be treated better than the servants he had sent. Consider the infinite greatness and preciousness of this expression of God's desire that all men should he saved. (1) The highest possible ex pression of God's love for man is the Almighty Creator sending his beloved Son from the highest heaven to this smallest corner of his universe to save sinful men. (2) In Jesus, his Son, are the highest possible powers that can work together for the salvation pf man, — the forgiveness of sin, the light of truth about God and immortality, the strongest motives, hope, fear, love, duty, — the influences of the life-giving spirit, a perfect example. There is no conceivable influence or power by which men can be drawn to God which is not found in Jesus Christ. 38. Said among themselves, This is the heir. Christ is the heir of all things (Heb. 1 : 2). The whole world is his inheritance, and will become his in reality when all the kingdoms of earth be come his kingdom, and aH hearts accept him as king. Did the Jews know that they were put ting to death the heir, the Son of God ? Jesns says, " Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do." They did not realize it, hut they knew they were doing wrong. They had fears lest he 1 Trench. 258 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 21 : 39-41. 39 And they "gff him, and "cast wrX-th out of the vineyard, and kffflh™;. 40 '"When SfiSMSfES of the Vineyard aSSKSfee, what will he do unto those husbandmen ? 41 They say unto him, "He will miserably destroy those mTseSe men, and » will let out {fie vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. v Heb. 13. 12. 11, 12. w Cp. ch. 24. 50 & 25. 19. x Luke 19. 27. y ver. 43. Acts 13. 46 & 18. 6 & 28. 28. Cp. ch. 8. might be the Messiah. They shut their eyes lest they should see. They sinned against evidence. Let us kill him, and let us seize on his inherit ance, that it may he ours (Luke). This alludes to the Eastern custom that, if an owner was not to be found, and the occupier pays the taxes for six years, he can claim the property. The owner, in this case, was in a far country, and had sent servant after servant, hut had not enforced his rights. When the legal heir appeared they were alarmed for their tenure, and hoped that by kill ing him, unless his father came in person, the estate would become absolutely their own." 1 If Jesus was the Messiah, and he was intro ducing the kingdom of God, the whole spirit of which was so different from theirs, then they would lose their places as rulers, as teachers, as men of influence, their authority over the people, and their chief business. They were so connected with a system, and with wrong ideas, principles, and customs, which must pass away with Christ's reign, that if Christ prevailed they must fall. But they imagined that if they could destroy Christ they could continue in possession of the inheritance, be rulers over Israel, teachers and leaders of the people, the possessors of the nation, living on the fat of the land, still renting the temple courts to money-changers. 39. Oast him out of the vineyard. They re jected Jesus and refused to let him have his place as the Messiah, with perhaps an allusion to the fact that he was crucified outside of the walls of the Holy City (Heb. 13: 11-13). And slew him, as the Jews were intent on doing to Jesus. They killed that they might possess ; but it was the shortest road to entire loss. Those who reject Christ in order that they may keep possession of themselves, their pleasures and hopes, have taken the shortest and surest way to lose them. The Result of their Conduct. 40. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh. When the time comes for God to take open notice of this rejection, and to make a settlement with the nation. And it came very soon. What will he do unto those husbandmen ? Every possi ble method of leading them to right conduct had been exhausted. God does all that it is possible for love to do to save us, and then nothing is left but perdition. If the love of God, shown in send ing his Son Christ Jesus to save us, if all that was done for us on the cross, will not touch our hearts and make us choose God, then nothing will. The last hope is gone when we reject Christ. 41. They say unto him. That is, some of the chief priests and elders (ver. 23), who did not quite comprehend the application of the para ble to themselves. He will miserably destroy those wicked (miserable) men, etc. In the Greek, miserable and wicked are allied words. There was nothing else to do. There was no other way in which the vineyard could be pre served. It was a simple matter of justice. And yet the justice was so terrible that the people, who seem first to have caught a glimpse of Jesus' meaning, cried out God forbid, when they saw their rulers thus condemning themselves (Luke).2 And will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen. The Jews were destroyed as a nation, and the kingdom of God was transferred to the Gentiles, as stated by the apostle when he said, " Lo, we turn to the Gentiles " (Acts 13 : 46). The others are the Christian church, which is grafted upon the old tree from which the branches were cut off. Every one who believes in Jesus becomes a child of Abraham, and an inheritor of the promises (Gal. 3 : 7, 9, 29). In the Christian kingdom of God are fulfilled the promises made of old. In the summer of A. D. 70, forty years after this parable was spoken, Jerusalem was de stroyed, and the Temple was burned and laid in ruins by the Roman army under Titus, after the most terrible siege on record. And the Jews have been dispersed over the earth ever since. Yet, if they had been faithful, they might have been the leading nation in the world, walking as kings and princes among men, the joy of the whole earth, shedding the light of God's truth and righteousness over the nations. But they would not ; they rejected the Messiah and per ished. 1 Canon Tristram. 2 See the descriptions of the destruction of Jerusa lem in Josephus, and in Charlotte Elizabeth's Judea Capta. 21 : 42-46. MATTHEW. 259 42 Je'sus saith unto them, z Did ye never read in the scriptures, a The stone which the builders rejected, S same waSSe the head of the corner : m™ fro?n'o.edLord', And it is marvellous in our eyes ? 43 Therefore say I unto you, x The kingdom of God b shall be taken away from you, and Shaii be given to a nation c bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44 And d wl hlThTaetrfaife"han on this stone shall be broken : to pieces: but e on whomso ever it shall fall, / it will St him '^dusT 45 And when the chief priests and the PMr'I-sees. had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46 Sd 'when they sought to lay h& on him, "they feared the S'ffi because they took him ; for a prophet. z ver. 16. a Acts 4. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 7. Cited from Ps. 118. 22, 23, which see. b Cp. Luke 14. 24. c Cp. ch. 3. 10 & Isai. 5. 4, 7. d Isai. 8. 14, 15. Rom. 9. 32, 33. 1 Pet. 2. 8. e Dan. 2. 34, 35, 44, 45. /Amos 9. 9. Wisd. 11. 20. g Mark 11. 18. Luke 19. 47, 48. John 7. 25, 30, 44. Cp. ch. 26. 4. h ver. 26. i Cp. ver. 11. V. THE EEJECTED STONE, vers. 42-46. 42. Jesus saith unto them, looking at them with an intense, earnest gaze (Luke), as if see ing into their very souls, or pityingly beholding them in a vision of the days to come: Did ye never read in the scriptures, referring them to Psalms 118 : 22, 23, — a Psalm which the Jews applied to the Messiah. Peter twice applied it to him (Acts 4 : 11 ; 1 Pet. 2 : 7). The stone which the brulders rejected, the same is be come the head of the corner. The corner stone on which the superstructure rests. The most important stone in the building. " In the primary meaning of the Psalm the illustration seems to have been drawn from one of the stones, quarried, hewn, and marked, away from the site of the Temple, which the builders, ignorant of the head architect's plans, or finding on it no mark (such as recent explorations in Jerusalem have shown to have been placed on the stones of Solo mon's Temple in the place where they were quarried, to indicate their position in the future structure of the fabric), had put on one side as having no place in the building, but which was found afterwards to be that on which the com pleteness of the structure depended, — on which, as the chief corner-stone, the two walls met and were bonded together."1 This is the Lord's doing. He has charge of aU things. All things are under his control, and in a wonderful way, marvellous in our eyes, strange and unex pected, he will see to it that nothing shall hinder the coming of his kingdom. 43. Therefore say I unto you. Here Jesus applies the parable directly to them, and foreteUs what actually took place a few years later. 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone, etc. " They fall on the stone who are offended at Christ in his low estate (Isai. 8: 14;53: 2; Luke 2: 34 ; 4 : 29 ; John 4 : 44) ; of this sin his hearers were already guilty. They on whom the stone falls are those who set themselves in self-conscious opposi tion against the Lord ; who, knowing what he is, do yet to the end oppose themselves to him and to his kingdom. These shall not merely faU and be broken ; for one might recover himself, though with some present harm, from such a fall as this ; but on them the stone shall fall as from heaven, and shall grind them to powder." 2 " The former clause of the verse describes the penal consequences of unbelief during the day of probation (to those who stumble ever certain difficulties about Christ), the latter, the punishment of the finally impenitent."3 45. Perceived that he spake of them. They at last saw the application of the parable, and immediately went out unconsciously to fulfil it. 46. They feared the multitude, who had come from other parts of Palestine, and from other countries, and who were more free from prejudice, and had little at stake. He was an especial friend of many of the Galileans, whom he had taught and healed. i E. H. Ptumptre, D. D. stone told in many places. See the legend of the rejected 2 Trench. 3 Morison. 260 THE TEACHEKS' COMMENTARY. 22 : 1, 2. CHAPTER 22. Section XIX. — THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS' PUBLIC LIFE (continued). Tuesday, Apkil 4. The Last Day of the Public Teaching of Jesus (continued). 6. Parable of the Marriage of the King's Son, vers. 1-14. Then foHows a series of entangling questions through which it was sought to entrap Jesus into saying something on account of which they could bring charges against him. 7. Question by the Herodians concerning Paying Tribute to Caesar, vers. 15-22. 8. Question by the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection, vers. 23-33. 9. Question by a Scribe of the Pharisees concerning the Greatest Commandment, vers. 34-40. 10. Jesus, having answered wisely, finally silences them by a Question in Return concerning the Expected Messiah, vers. 41-46. 1 AND Je'SUS answered and ' Spake again in parables UntO them, again by parables, and said, 2 * The kingdom of heaven is nkeneed unto a certain king, which made l a mar riage feast for his son, j ch. 13. 34. k Por vers. 2-14, cp. Luke 14. 16-24. I See Eev. 19. 7. VI. PARABLE OF THE MABBIAGE OP THE KING'S SOW, vers. 1-14. Compare the Parable of the Great Feast in Luke 14 : 15-24. 1. And Jesus answered. To the feelings awakened by his former discourse, to the needs and circumstances. Spake unto them, the leaders (21 : 45), ... by parables. By the para bolic form of discourse. For the reason why he used this method, see on 13 : 13-15. By this pic turesque method he could best compel attention to unwelcome truths, and make the truth most clear. 2. The kingdom of heaven. The new order of things which Jesus had come to establish upon the earth, in which, as king, ruling over the hearts of men, he would direct their lives according to those principles of love and righteousness which govern the saints and angels in heaven, and which, if universaHy obeyed, would make a hea ven of earth.1 The King. Is like unto a certain king. Representing God the Father, the King of saints, who forms the kingdom, makes its laws, governs it, defends it, all for the good of the subjects, in whose prosperity and happiness and noble living is found the king's glory. He is the source of all the blessings offered to men in the Gospel. He was the king the Jewish leaders professed to serve, and of whose kingdom they felt themselves to be members. The Marriage Feast. "Which made a marriage, i. e., marriage feast. The word in Greek is in the plural, to express " the several parts or stages " of the festival. " Compare our word nuptials."2 For the wedding festivities in the East are often protracted for several days, sometimes for an entire week or more. "Only two regular meals are ordinarily partaken of in Eastern lands. A lighter repast, consisting gen erally of bread, olives, milk, and fruits, forms the breakfast. But all entertainments, whether public or private, on a larger or smaller scale, were and are confined to the second meal, shortly before or after sunset, called, indifferently, din ner or supper." 3 This feast represents all the blessings which God has provided in his Gospel, enjoyed in large measure here, and perfected in heaven (see Isai. 25: 6; 55: 1-3). ' (1) The emphasis is on the marriage, the union between Christ and his people. It is the highest ideal of love and friendship. It expresses intimate fellowship with God, the mutual love and delight in one another, the protecting care on the one hand and perfect trust on the other, the unity of purpose, of character, of hope, the abiding forever in one perfect home, all of which belong to the union of Christ with believers (Isai. 61 : 10 ; 62 : 5 ; Hos. 2 : 19 ; Matt. 9 : 15 ; John 3 : 29 ; Eph. 5 : 31, 32). (2) The kingdom of heaven is like a feast 1 See The Kingdom by Geo. D. Boardman, D. D. The kingdom of heaven is " the fellowship of souls, divine and human, of which the law and life are love, wherein the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, as both are embodied in Jesus the Christ, are recog nized and realized." Stead, The Kingdom of God, p. 60. See Prof. Shailer Mathews, Social Teaching of Jesus, p. 54. 2 Dr. Broadus. 3 Canon Tristram. 22 : 3, 4. MATTHEW. 261 3 annd msent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the manfagelast: and they would not come. 4 " Again' he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them '?„"* are bidden, Behold, I have .SSJiy my ° dinner : p my oxen and ,"',£ fatlings are killed, and all things are ready : come To0 the marriage' least. m Cp. Esth. 6. 14 & Prov. 9. 3, 5. n ch. 21. 36. o Luke 11. 38. John 21. 12, 15 (Gk.). p Prov. 9. 2. because it provides for the satisfaction of overy want, without cloying.1 (3) In great abundance : — "Enough for each, enough for all, enough for ever more." (4) Joyous. An infinite variety of deHghts. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor. 2: 9). "Joy unspeakable and full of glory." It shows that the true life is not all "a grinding at the mill," a time of toil and sacrifice, but also of spiritual refreshments, of joys un speakable, of exquisite satisfaction and rest. (5) Social. The feast shall he enjoyed with saints and angels, in the presence of God and his Son. " They eat and drink, and in communion sweet quaff immortality and joy." " The feast of reason and the flow of soul." (6) Its blessings are for all. No one suffers hunger in the kingdom of God. Every cup is full to the brim and overflowing. " He bade many." (7) It is eternal. (8) It strengthens each guest for his work, for whatever God has for him to do. (9) Some of the things provided for the guests at this feast are forgiveness of sin, new hearts and right spirits, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the abiding presence of Jesus, the care and love and promises of God, new revelations of truth, great opportunities of usefulness, eternal Hfe. The Bridegroom and the Bride. Eor his son. Jesus the Christ who loves the bride, his church, woos her, makes her his own, takes her to his home to abide in unspeakable love and joy forever. He is our soul's ideal, and never disap points us. He has in the highest spiritual sense all that can be desired, — rank, wealth, home, resources, character, love, usefulness, attractive ness. " The church as an ideal whole is the bride ; the individual believers are the true guests." 2 We have in Rev. 21 and 22 a most delight ful picture of the " Lamb's wife," — "a bride adorned for her husband," inconceivably beauti ful, like "gold, as it were transparent glass," shining with the light of God, pure as crystal, with twelve manner of fruits, and useful for the healing of the nations. " This conception is essentially the same which we have in the Song of Solomon, and which appears in various forms throughout the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writers — the church washed from her sins, clothed in white, her loving heart given in virgin simplicity and purity to her glori ous Husband, her Jesus — at once Lover, Lord, and King."8 The Invitation. 3. And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden. Lit erally, " to call the called," to summon those who had previously been invited. It is still customary in the East not only to give an invitation some time beforehand, but to send round servants at the proper time to inform the invited guests that all things are ready.4 This notification was easy because "the guests were close together in an Eastern city," and necessary, because " they were not generally supplied with timepieces." 5 " The notification is not customary among common peo ple ; but in Lebanon it still prevails. If a Sheik, Beg, or Emir invites, he always sends a servant to call you at the proper time."6 And they would not come. They could, hut they did not wish to come, as is clearly expressed in the Greek. They did not like the king or his son. They were traitors at heart. 4. Again, he sent forth other servants, who were " not merely to invite to, but to commend the feast, with a view to create a desire." 7 Be hold, I have prepared my dinner (apurrov), at first used for breakfast, but later for " dinner to which people are invited." 8 My oxen (beeves) and my fatlings. Smaller animals, as lambs, calves, specially fed for the occasion. All things are ready : come. There was no threatening, but only a loving, earnest invitation, as if they might have misunderstood the first invitation, or not realized its value. The Servants who first invited represented all God's inspired messengers, Moses, and the pro phets, and John the Baptist. The "other ser vants " were Christ himself as a prophet, and his apostles. 1 See Trench's Poems, " The Monk and the Bird." 2 Prof. Riddle. 3 Prof. Cowles. * Kitto. 5 Dr. Broadus. » Wm. M. Thomson. » Prof. A. B. Bruce. s Prof. Thayer, N. T. Lexicon. 262 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 22 : 5-8. , farm, another 5 But they q made light of I{; and went their ways, one to his , to his merchandise : 6 anf the r^TuTL'fcfon his servants, and ''entreated tfiSffSSSruuy. and * «&. 7 But when the king ****""*«*,** was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and ' destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they wuSth were bidden were not "worthy. q Cp. Heb. 2. 3. r Luke 18. 32. Acts 14. 5. 1 Thess. 2. 2. u ch. 10. 11. Ac;s 13. 46. Rev. 3. 4. Cp. Luke 20. 35. s See ch. 21. 35. «ch. 21.41. Luke 19. 27. The Wedding Feast was Ready. The ful ness of the time had come. The preparations were complete. Everything was prepared for the redemption of man, — heaven, love, the atone ment, the strongest motives, the power of the Holy Spirit. The world was in the best condi tion for the coming of Christ. Never before or since has there been so fitting a time, — one gov ernment, one language, peace, roads, synagogues of the Jews everywhere. The slaying of the animals is an allusion to sacrifice. Only when the Lamb was slain on Calvary were all things ready for the marriage. The long preparations for the Gospel were completed ; the forerunner had done his work ; Jesus himself had come from heaven, and had taught the Jews the divine mes sage, and even now he was uttering his last words. Within three days he would consummate his atonement on the cross. The time had come when the Jews must decide whether they would accept the Messiah or not. The Invitation refused, in two ways, (1) by neglect, and (2) by active opposition. 5. But they made light of it (ipe^avreg) . The word does not express jeering, or derision, but indifference. They took no notice of it. All was as nothing compared with their farm and merchandise, — to enjoy what they had and to acquire more. Such indifference to a feast given by an earthly king is almost unknown, but it was a true picture of the Jews in Christ's day. The leading Jews had very much at stake, — their country, their holy city, their temple, their syna gogues, their rank and wealth, their leadership of the people. They were so busy with these, they were so afraid they would lose them if they ac cepted the humble Nazarene as their teacher and obeyed his precepts, that they were unwilHng even to consider his claims. It is also a true picture of the indifference of many modern people to religion, to the spiritual blessings which God offers them in the Gospel.1 Bunyan tells how Christian in his journey saw a man busily employed raking together bits of hay, wood, and stubble, while over him stood a shin ing angel, holding above his head a, crown of light. " A finger's breadth at hand may mar A world of light in heaven afar ; A mote eclipse a glorious star." 6. And the remnant, the rest, took (seized) his servants, and entreated them spitefully. Insulted them, persecuted them. And slew them. As the Jewish nation had done to many a prophet in their past history, and as they were soon to do again to the preachers of the Gospel. Active opposition to the Gospel has often arisen when it has come in conflict with the evils of the world. Persecution, hatred, reviling, have often been the portion of God's people, even from those who have professed to be his servants. The Result of the Refusal. 7. The king . . . was wroth. Not in a passion, hut with an abiding indignation against wrong, against those who not only despised every effort to make them better, but prevented others from coming into the kingdom. It is the feeling that demands punishment. He sent forth his armies. Better, troops, soldiers. Those persons and those forces, whether consciously or unconsciously, whether animate or- inanimate, which accomplish God's purposes of judgment. They may he angels, or earthquakes, or remorse of conscience, or the literal armies of the nations. Without doubt, here he refers to the Roman armies under Titus, which destroyed Jerusalem. " The angels which ruined the Jews were War, Famine, and Pesti lence." We may add the selfish passions which prevented them from uniting against Titus. And destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. This took place Hterally forty years later, when Jerusalem was destroyed, the people were slain by milHons, and the nation destroyed. There has been no Jewish nation since. All this might have been avoided if the nation had ac cepted Jesus as the Messiah. This is a type of the destruction of the incor rigibly wicked, who refuse all God's invitations to repent and come into the kingdom of heaven. The Transferred Invitation. 8. They 1 Compare people who are color-blind, or deaf to certain sounds. 22 : 9-11. MATTHEW. 263 9 Go ye therefore umo the "partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage' (east. 10 And those servants went out into the highways, and "gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good : and the wedding was £Tiieaed with guests. 11 IT i?ut when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there x a man which had not on a wSgriS; v Ezek. 21. 21. Obad. 14. w See ch. 13. 47. x Cp. Rev. 19. 8 & 22. 14. which were bidden were not worthy. As they proved themselves by rejecting the invita tion. The Jews had been trained and guided by God for the very purpose of bringing in the king dom of God through the Messiah, and when the time came, they refused him. A similar result often follows from those who are organized to do .sorue special work. 9. Go ye therefore into the highways. Or, "the partings of the highways," the cross-roads, the places where great numbers meet, " the broad, well-trodden ways of the world." 10. Gathered together all . . . both bad and good. There is no condition of coming to Christ, but just to come. The bad are invited that they may be made good (1 Cor. 6 : 9-11) ; the good that they may be made better, enjoy higher privileges, and enter into wider useful ness. "He loved her foul that he might make her fair."1 It is still the business of all Chris tians to go out into the highways and hedges and invite all, both good and had, to come to the Gos pel feast. The worse men are, the more de graded and sinful, the fewer their opportunities, the more they are opposed to good, so much the more do they need the invitations of the Gospel. The wedding was furnished with guests. Christ's purposes and plans shaU not fail. Here we have the assurance of the success of the Gos pel. Practical. (1) The kingdom of God was trans ferred from the Jewish nation to the Gentiles. The Messianic kingdom is to-day the mightiest power on earth. And the Jews, who might have been kings and princes in this spiritual kingdom, shut themselves out. But the invitation returns to them, and now they are again invited to come. (2) This is but one example of what must al ways take place. If those who are appointed to do a work refuse to do it, or neglect it, their op portunity and place must be taken away from them and given to others. (3) Great hope is let down from heaven to the poorest, to those in the hardest and most un- " fortunate circumstances. ' Nothing outward can prevent you from being saints and heroes, and few hindrances can prevent fair worldly success. History is as full as the sky is of stars, of saints, heroes, authors, business men, presidents, leaders in every department, who came up from circum stances and families from which nothing could naturally be expected. Many a man is a harp with many a broken string, imperfect, defective ; but if he will yield to the influences of the Holy Spirit, God can bring forth heavenly music from his soul. From an outcast of the highways, he can become a guest at the marriage feast of the Lamb. The Wedding Garment. 11. The king . . . saw there a man which had not 2 on a wed ding garment. Either (1) a dress of his own suitable for the royal wedding occasion, just as now on dress occasions, and especially in royal receptions, a special dress is required, and those who do not come thus dressed are excluded ; or (2) more probably a garment to be put over the usual dress, furnished by the king himself to all the guests on their arrival at the palace, before they entered the halls of the feast. Chardin mentions the case of a vizier who put on a royal robe of a former king instead of the one sent by the officer of the reigning king, and it cost him his life. "At the royal marriage of Sultan Mahmoud, a few years ago, every guest invited to the wedding had made expressly for him, at the expense of the Sultan, a wedding garment. No one, however dignified his station, was per mitted to enter into the presence chamber of that sovereign without a change of raiment. This was formerly the universal custom in the East. But inasmuch as these garments were very costly, and some of the guests might plead poverty, and thus appear unclad in the guest chamber of the king, the cost was defrayed at the Sultan Mah moud 's expense. To each guest was presented a suit of wedding garments. Had any, therefore, appeared before this absolute sovereign with out the wedding garment, the Sultan would have deemed his dignity insulted, and his mu nificent gifts despised. It would be an avowal 1 Augustine ' ji.ugumme. uegativf 2 See an interesting note on the use here of the Greek Studies, negative py instead of qvk, in Prof, Vincent's Word 264 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 22 : 12-15. 12 and he saith unto him, y Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a w^nf-IaSt? And he was speechless. 13 Then t^nl'sail to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away' and z cast wm out into the outer darkness ; 'there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are "called, but few are "chosen. 15 H 6Then went the Phar'i-see§, and took counsel how they 'might him in his talk. entangle ensnare y ch. 20. 13 & 26. 50. z See ch. 8. c Cp. Ecclus. 27. 23 & Luke 11. 54. a Rev. 17. 14. b For vers. 15-32, see Mark 12. 13-27 & Luke 20. 20-38. that he denied his authority and despised his power." 1 12. How earnest thou, what excuse have you ? And he was speechless, tyipiiBn, he was muzzled, from $tp6i, a muzzle, or gag. The same word is used in Mark (4: 39), where Jesus says to the stormy sea, "Peace, be still." The guest's con sciousness of wrong stopped every flow of excuse. He had no good reason, and he knew it. 13. The servants. Attendants. Bind him hand and foot. This points to the impos sibility of escaping the purposed punishment.2 Outer darkness. The darkness outside the royal banqueting house, which was brilfiantly illuminated. His chagrin, shame, and anguish are expressed by the outward signs of weeping and gnashing of teeth. This was the actual result to the Jews who refused the holiness which Christ brought to them. 14. Many are called. Invited with offers of the freest grace, most earnestly, most lovingly, most persuasively. But few are chosen. Few accept and come into the chosen number who par take of the feast. Only a few of the Jews be came Christians. It is said that not one of the Christians perished at the destruction of Jeru salem. Jesus does not say that this will always be so. It was then ; it has been so since. Practical. (1) The wedding garment repre sents the new spiritual nature, the Christian graces, and all which the Holy Spirit imparts to those who believe in Christ, — the gifts and the fruits of the spirit. " The garment must, surely,, from the very nature of the image, have been intended to signify something public and visible. I would say, then, that by this remarkable symbol our Lord did not intend merely the inward principle of faith ; for apparel is, of all things, the most manifest and visible, and the wedding apparel is especially the apparel of joy . This festal garment of heaven, then, seems to be no other than that celestial tem per which manifests itself by the infallible indica tions of a holy joy ; holy happiness, public and expressed, inward, spiritual happiness, developed by the presence of God, and the consciousness of heaven, into visible manifestation, — this is the wedding garment which Christ beholds and ap proves in the saved." 3 More than this : It consists in all the virtues of a, renewed heart, shining through every act, manifested in all' holy liv ing. " Graces are thus a beautiful ornament to the soul, as garments are to the body." 4 (2) The wedding garment is offered to all, so that aU who will can have it freely. (3) The wedding garment is of such a nature that it is absolutely necessary to the partaking of the feast of good things offered by the Gospel. (4) There is no good reason for refusing this divine gift. (5) If we refuse to accept it, we thereby shut ourselves away from the feast into outer dark ness. VII. A QUESTION BY THE HERODIANS CONCEBNING TAXES, vers. 15-22. Parallels. Mark 12 : 13-17 ; Luke 20 : 20- 26. 15. Jesus had held up three mirrors before the rulers in the three foregoing parables, and they resented the image they presented of their souls. But there was nothing they could say in reply. The Hkenesses were too correct. Now they try another plan. The Pharisees consulted together how they might entangle him in his talk . They would compel him to say something that would form a charge against him, and enable them to try and to condemn him to death. But in every case the question was the means of bringing some truth into a clearer light. Opposition, the most hitter and malicious, was used by Jesus like the thin filament in the electric lamp by which the hitherto unseen current is made to give forth a dazzling light. So it has ever been with the great attacks upon the Bible and the doctrines of the Gospel. Every attack has been the occasion of purer truth and stronger light. 1 See Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, and Rosen- niuller's Alle und Neue Morgenl.. vol. v. p. 70, 2 Prof. Riddle. 3 W. Archer Butler. 4 gee Carlyle's Sartor Resarlus, 22 : 16-21. MATTHEW. 265 16 And they ^hdtont0 him d their disciples, with 'the Hg-ro'di-ans, saying, Master, /we know that thou art true, and teachest the " way of God in truth, nander carest *££" for any "Si for * thou regardest not the person of men. 17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give ' tribute unto 3 Cse'sar, or not '? 18 But Je'sus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why * tempt ye me, yt hypocrites ? 19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he saith unto them, Whose L> this image and superscription ? 21 They say unto him, Qatar's. Then saith he unto them, ' Render therefore unto Cse'sar the things Yiiat1 are Cse'sar's ; and unto God the things that are God's. d Mark 2. 18. e Mark 3. 6. Cp. Mark . . 15. / Cp. John 3. 2. g Acts 18. 26. Cp. Acts 13. 10. h See Acts 10. 34. ich. 17. 25. j Luke 2. 1 & 3. 1. k See [John 8. 6] . I Rom. 13. 7. 16. And they sent out unto him their dis ciples, some of their shrewdest men, with the Herodians. "Adherents of the Herods, who owed what power they possessed to the Roman government." 1 " They vied with the Sadducees in skepticism, and with the Greeks in licentious ness, pandered to the vice and cruelty of the Herods, and truckled to the Romans." 2 These emissaries were chosen because they occupied dif ferent sides of the question proposed. They would he sharp to see the vulnerable points in Jesus' answer, each for his own view. Master, we know thou art true, so that you will speak the truth without fear or favor. Por thou teachest the way of God in truth, you can give a divine answer to our question, one of absolute truth. Thus " they feigned themselves to be righteous " (Luke), to be sincere inquirers after the path of duty. Begardest not the person of men. You speak the truth whether rulers, governors, or em perors are pleased with it or not ; you are brave and true. 17. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not ? Give us a plain answer, yes, or no. " The word rendered tribute (/crjwros) is properly the Roman word census, which we too have adopted into our own language, though with a dif ferent application from what it bore among the Jews. It denoted, as used by the Jews, the annual poll tax which was levied on the people for the trea sury of the Roman emperor. The publicans col lected it, and were obliged to transmit to the Roman treasury as much as accorded with the official census of the population. Hence the desig nation of the tax. It was of the value of a day's wages," 3 that is, a denarius, or silver penny. The Dilemma. They expected an answer of yes or no. No matter which side Jesus took, it seemed impossible for him not to seriously damage his cause. If he decided for either party, the other would be his enemy. He was sailing be tween Scylla and Charybdis. If he said it was A silver penny, or Denarius of Tiberius. not right to pay taxes, he would be in collision with the whole Roman power, which would re gard and treat him as a criminal. His career would be ended. If he said it was lawful for the Jews, the great mass of the people would be against him, and he would lose his hold upon them ; for they hated the Roman government, and one of the first and greatest things they expected of the Messiah was deliverance from this subjec tion to a foreign power.4 18. Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites, mak ing your base designs under the guise of seekers after truth. 19. Show me the tribute money. Lit., the coin of the censns, the coin in which the poll tax is paid. And they brought unto him a penny, a denarius, a silver coin worth 15 to 17 cents. 20. "Whose is this image. The emperor issuing the coin usually had his image stamped upon it ; as is common in modern times. And superscription, the inscription upon the coin, the name and titles of the emperor. 21. They say unto him. Caesar's (pronounced by Romans and Greeks, Kaizar, same as the German Kaiser and Russian Czar). Bender » Prof. Gould, Int. Crit. Com. 2 Oxford Bible Helps, p. 232. 4 " The taxes were a constant cause of revolt.' Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. 1 : 1-6 : xx. 5 : 2. 266 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 22 : 22, 23. 22 And when they had heard tl^^ds- they marvelled, and '"left him, and went their way. 23 IT ToStaante day there came to him the " S&d'du-cee§, ° which say that there is no resurrection': and they asked him, m Mark 12. 12. n ver. 34. ch. 3. 7 & 16. 1. Acts 4. 1 & 5. 17 & 23. 6. o Acts 23. 8. Cp. Acts 4. 2. therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's ; and unto God the things that are God's. "The image and superscription on the coin implied the sovereignty of Cassar. The Jews, Tiberius Caesar. by using the coins, in so far were served by the Roman government. They therefore owed it some service in return. This service was the payment of taxes."1 They received very much more than this from the Roman government, in protection, in roads, etc. And even if they re ceived them under protest, yet so long as they used these advantages, they should pay their part of the expense. The payment did not endorse the right of the government, but only the honesty of those who took benefits from it. " The things that are Caesar's ' ' included ' ' not only the taxes, but everything to which Csesar was entitled as a legitimate ruler." Christ's word meant, Fulfil your obligations to the state, since your very coins show that you have such obligations ; do your duty in this sphere. But God's image is stamped on your souls. You belong to God. Yon have duties of love and trust and obedience to him. Fulfil those duties as faithfully as you should those to an earthly ruler. Bring your whole life under the sway of conscience and righteousness. Note 1. Edersheim well says that this answer was not an evasion of the question, but the laying down of the great principle underlying the ques tion. " It was an answer not only most truthful, hut of marvellous beauty and depth. It elevated the controversy into quite another sphere, where there was no conflict between what was due to God and to man, — indeed, no conflict at all, hut divine harmony and peace." Note 2. " At the same time Christ affords both the ground and the limitation of this obedi ence. The powers that he are ordained of God, but when Cassar requires what God forbids we are to disobey. For illustration of the duty of obedience to human law, see Rom. 13: 1-7; 1 Cor. 7: 21-24; Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3: 22-25; 1 Pet. 2 : 13-17. For illustration of the duty of disobedience, under the higher law of allegiance to God, see Dan. 3: 18; 6 : 10; Acts 4: 19 ; 5: 29." 2 " Man is the coinage and bears the image of God (Gen. 1 : 27) ; and this image is not lost by the fall (Gen. 9: 6; Acts 17: 29; James 3: 9). We owe, then, ourselves to God ; and this solemn duty is implied,, of giving ourselves to him, with all that we have and are." 8 VTII. A QUESTION BY THE SADDTJCEES CONCEBNING THE BESUBBECTION, vers. 23-33. Parallels. Mark 12: 18-27; Luke 20: 27- 39. 23. The same day came to him the Sad- ducees, a smaller sect than the Pharisees, but including many of the highest and wealthiest of the people. They were the opposite of the Phari sees in many respects. They say that there is no resurrection of the dead, no angel or spirit, or future life. (Mark 12: 18; Acts 23: 8.) It was natural that these should ask puzzling questions concerning the future life, because they were natural puzzles in connection with their real be lief. It was an attack on the belief of the Phari sees, and still more was it an attack upon Jesus himself, by placing his teachings in an absurd and ridiculous light, and thus discrediting him in ' * Prof. Shailer Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus, pp. 118-120. 2 Abbott. 3 Dean Alford. 22 : 24-32. MATTHEW. 267 24 faying,' Master, Mo'ses said, p If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brethren : and the first' when he had married "alS6' deceased, and' having no 3' left his wife unto his brother ; 26 mitk^mimier the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27 And aftefthL all the woman died. als°' 28 Tr^taielvirrecuonaerefore whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29 But Je'sus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, anot knowing the scriptures, nor rthe power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither s marry, nor s are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, ' have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 u I am the God of A'br&-ham, and the God of I'gaac, and the God of Ja'cob ? God is not at • ch. 24. Luke 17. 27. I See ch. 21. 16. the eyes of the people. It is one of the common est modes of infidel attack in the present day. If there was no resurrection, then Jesus' teachings were false. His promise that he should rise again must fail, and with it his claim to he the Messiah and the Son of God, his promised king dom, aU the rewards he had promised to his dis ciples. His whole mission would be a failure. 24. Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, etc. The case comes under the law of Levirate marriage given in Deut. 25 : 5- 10. The object of the law was to prevent the extinction of » family. " (1) It was limited to the case where the deceased left no male issue ; (2) even then it was only put in force when the two brothers were dwelling on the same family estate."1 This institution prevailed in many other nations besides the Hebrews. 25-27. There were with us seven brethren, and the wife of the first, according to this law, became the wife of each one in succession. 28. Based on this occurrence, stated as a fact, came the question, In the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? "Crude as the question may seem, it must have offered serious difficulties to the Pharisees, who held materialistic views as to the future state."2 " The law provides for these successive marriages . . . which the resurrection would make simulta neous "3 and therefore contrary to the divine law. 29. Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, as shown in vers. 31, 32. They fail to see how the " doctrine of the resurrection and a future life underlies many a scriptural utterance . " Nor the power of God, who is able to raise the dead, and who transforms the material body into a glorious spiritual body, in which earthly marriage has no possibility or place. As soon as they get above the material into the spiritual their diffi culty vanishes. 30. In that state human beings shall be as the angels of God in heaven. There will be no less love, no less intimate union of soul with soul, no less delight in one another, but it will not take the form of marriage. The spiritual is the immortal. 31. As touching the resurrection of the dead, as bearing upon the fact of the resurrection and therefore of the future life. Have ye not read (in Ex. 3 : 6) that which was spoken unto you by God. These were the direct words of God to Moses at the burning bush. " The ex pression ' spoken unto you by God ' is noticeable, as implying that whatever God is saying in the Scriptures he is saying unto all and each. His voice reaches down through all ages, and carries its message of mercy to all who have ears to hear and minds to apprehend."4 "The Saddueees based their denial of the resurrection on the al leged silence of Scripture, and on the incredibility of existence after the death of the body (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii. : 8 : 14). Christ demoUshes their premises by showing that the Scripture is not silent, but teaches the reality of existence after death." 6 32. I am the God of Abraham, etc. This is the quotation. Then Jesus proceeds to state the necessary inference, — God is not the God of the 1 Prof. Driver, Int. Crit. Com. on Deut. 2 Prof, H. B. Swete on Mark. 3 Prof. Gould, Int. Crit. Com. on Mark. 4 Morison. c Prof. A. Plummer, Int. Crit. Com. on Luke. 268 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 22 : 33-37. 33 And when the %Sm& heard '?£• " they were astonished at his feacwni: it, had 34 IT '" But w"en the Phar'i-see§, when they heard that he had put x the Sad'du-gees. to silence, they were gathered themselves together. 35 "^ one of them, »""*«"» *a lawyer, asked S^uStioni "tempting him, 36 Master, which g the great commandment in the law ? 37 Inl he said unto him, b Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. * See ch, 7. 28. w For vers. 34-40, see Mark 12. 28-; a ver. 18. 6 Luke 10. 27. Cited from Deut. 6. 5. x ver. 23. y Cp. Luke 10. 25-28. z See Luke 7. 30. dead, but of the living. Those who are non existent cannot have a God, or sustain any rela tion to God. Therefore if God could say that he was still the God of the patriarchs, centuries after they had died from the earth, those patriarchs must be Hving in his sight. This proves existence in a future Hfe, and consequently of the resurrec tion as the means to immortal life. The resurrec tion means the continued existence beyond death, the bringing into conscious living those who have died on earth. 33. The multitude . . . were astonished (efeirArjo-owTo), a very strong word, meaning to strike out of one's senses, as by a blow, or sudden shock. So we say " struck dumb with astonish ment."IX. A QUESTION BY A SCRIBE OP THE PHABISEES CONCEBNING THE GEEATEST COMMANDMENT, vers. 34- 40.Parallel. Mark 12 : 28-34. 34. When the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence (eipno Bp. Ellicott. * Dean Alford. 280 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 23 : 30-34. 30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be ^iSto™40 yourselves, that ye are *the Egf"" of them wgg slew" the prophets. 32 9 FiU ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 ft serpents, '"tfSSSSffi? of vipers, how ffl ye escape the ftSSK££S of "hell? 34 IT ' "rheietSil' behold, "I send unto you " prophets, and wise men, and w scribes : and xsonTe of them JZi^Jl kill and crucify ; and C™ of them shall ye "scourge in your synagogues, and z persecute them from city to city: p Acts 7. 51, 52. q Gen. 15. 16. Dan. 8. 23. 1 Thess. 2. 15, 16. r ch. 3. 7 & 12. 34. s ver. 15. t For vers. 34-36, cp. Luke 11. 49-51. u ch. 10. 16. v See Acts 13. 1 & 1 Cor. 12. 28. w ch. 13. 52. x See ch. 21. 35. y ch. 10. 17. Mark 13. 9. Luke 21. 12. Acts 22. 19 & 26. 11. Cp. Luke 12. 11. s ch. 10. 23. were the tombs which the scribes and Pharisees were engaged in constructing at the time that our Saviour addressed them, and that the other two were the sepulchres which they were " gar nishing" or beautifying, viz., in their entrances. " Nothing can seem more natural than that our Lord should have pointed to them, and thus have increased the force of his words by adducing the very monuments on which his hearers were gaz ing, as proofs of the hypocrisy he was upbraid ing." ! Garnish, adorn. Sepulchres of the righteous, those considered especially saintly, implying that they admired and approved of their characters. Even the cruel Herod rebuilt the tomb of David. 30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, etc. " Our fathers, worthy men ! were quite wrong in shedding the blood of the prophets. Had we been they, we should have acted quite differently ! Was there anything wrong in saying this ? Not in the least, if what they said was true." 2 This was their profession; the next verse shows their practice. 31. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto your selves, etc. By your plotting to kill me, a pro phet, you show that while you profess to differ from your fathers, by building their tombs, in reality you are doing just what they did. For that very afternoon they had been plotting against Jesus (ch. 21 : 45, 46 ; 22 : 15). So Calvin says of the corrupt church in his day : "Let them, then, adorn the images of the saints as they please, with incense, candles, flowers, and every kind of pomp. If Peter were now alive, they would tear him in pieces ; Paul they would bury with stones ; and if Christ himself were yet in the world, they would burn him with a slow fire." 32. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. The language both of prophecy and of terrible irony and invective. Fill up the measure of guilt. The past generations had been adding iniquity to iniquity, till they had almost come to that state when there was no hope of their being better, and nothing was left but to destroy them. The present generation were filling up the mea sure ; and with the killing of Jesus the measure became full, and the end of their nation was at hand. 33. Ye serpents. "Representing their cun ning, insidious, deceitful, and depraved charac ter, their hurtful and poisonous influence." " For ever hissing at the heels of the holy." Genera tion of vipers, offspring, brood of vipers. They were the brood of viperous parentage, and all of the old serpent, the devil (Gen. 3:1; John 8 : 44 ; Rev. 12: 9). How can ye escape the damna tion (condemnation) of hell ? i. e., the judgment which condemns to punishment in hell. 34. Wherefore. Because of your character, when I send prophets to you, you will slay them. Prophets . . . wise men, referring to John the Baptist, and the apostles and preachers of the New Kingdom. They were sent, as the Bible everywhere represents, to warn and save the na- tion. God would do everything possible for their salvation. And some ... ye shall kill and crucify. ' ' Kill directly, as Stephen (Acts 7 : 59) ; indirectly, as James (Acts 12 : 2) ; and crucify by means of the Roman power, as Symeon, second Bishop of Jerusalem (Eus., H. E., iii. 32)." 3 Per- 1 " It may be fairly suspected that the one circumstance respecting him which they secretly dwell on with the most satisfaction, though they do not mention it, is that he is dead ; according to the concluding couplet in the verses on the ' Death of Dean Swift : ' — u ' And since you dread no further lashes, Methinks you may forgive his ashes.' " Whately's Annotations, pp. 18, 19. Lowell in his Essay on Dante says, " In 1396 Florence voted a monument, and begged in vain for the meta phorical ashes of the man of whom she had threatened to make literal cinders if she could catch him alive." Es says, p. 141. 2 Morison. 3 Cambridge Bible. 23 : 35-37. MATTHEW. 281 35 Smat upon you may come all the " righteous blood shed uonn the earth, from the blood of »ASfg2ML unto the blood of "l^htS^ son of §S3S£Bi "whom ye slew between the 'sanctuary and f the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, « All these things shall come upon this generation. 37 "O Je-ru's3-lem, J6-ru'sS-lSm, ' "S&SriiSKn* the prophets, and Sett them wthaf are sent unto Sell' J' how often Would I have * gathered 'thy children to gether, m even as a hen gathereth her chickens " under her wings, and ° ye would not! a ch. 27. 4 (mg.). Rev. 18. 24. 6 Gen. 4. 4, 8. Heb. 11. 4. 1 John 3. 12. c Cp. Zech. 1.1. d 2 Chr. 24. 21 (?). e ver. 16 (mg.). See Luke 1. 9. /Ex. 40. 6. 2 Kin. 16. 14. Ezek. 40. 47. g Cp. ch. 10. 23 & 16. 28 & 24. 34. h For ver. 37-39, see Luke 13. 34, 35. Cp. Luke 19. 41-44. i See ch. 21. 35. j Cp."ch. 26. 55 & Luke 4. 44 (mg.). k Cp. Ps. 147. 2 & Prov. 1. 24. I Luke 23. 28. m 2 Esd. 1. 30. Cp. Deut. 32. 11, 12. n Ruth 2. 12. o John 5. 40. seoute them from city to city, as Paul pursued Christians to Damascus ; as he was himself driven from Antioch in Pisidia, from Iconium, from Phuippi, and from Thessalonica. 35. That upon you may come. Denoting the intent of God, not merely the result. It was in God's plans to bring the final punishment upon this generation. All the righteous blood. The blood of holy men who had been martyred for righteousness' sake, i. e., the punishment for shedding it. From the blood of righteous Abel (Gen. 4: 8-12; Heb. 12: 24) unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias. (1) "A very memorable martyrdom is recorded in 2 Chron. 24 : 20-22, in which a prophet, named Zachariah, was stoned ' in the court of the house of the Lord, at the commandment of the king.' That Zachariah was, however, the son of Jehoiada. Still, Jehoiada may have had two names, or he may have been the grandfather of Zacharias, and Barachias have been his father ; or, as many think, ' the son of Barachias ' is a copyist's error, for it is not given in Luke's account. The Books of Chronicles, in which this murder is recorded, are the last in order in the Hebrew canon ; and the expression ' from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias ' may naturally be understood as meaning from the first murder recorded in Scripture to the last." 1 (2) " The only ' Zechariah the son of Barachias, ' in the Old Testament, is the minor prophet whose writings occupy the last place hut one among the pro phetic books of the Old Testament (Zech. 1 : 1). Of his death we know nothing."2 Whom ye slew, you, the Jewish nation. Between the temple, the sanctuary, the temple proper. And the altar, the altar of burnt offerings in the court of the priests. 36. All these things shall come upon this generation. Referring to the fearful calamities to come upon the Jewish people, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, about forty years afterwards. No individual received more pun ishment than was his just due. But the nation as a nation accumulated guilt. When we sin against the laws of nature in our bodies there seems to be no immediate evil result ; but the evil accumulates by repeated acts, till at last, by one act, the cup of iniquity is fuU, and the body succumbs to disease, and perhaps death. The same process goes on in the individual soul, and also in the life of a nation. 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. " How ineffably grand and melting is this apostrophe ! It is the very heart of God pouring itself forth through human flesh and speech. It is this incarnation of the innermost Hfe and love of Deity, plead ing with men, bleeding for them, and ascending, only to open his arms to them, and win them hack by the power of this story of matchless love, that has conquered the world, that wiU yet ' draw aU men unto him,' and beautify and ennoble human ity itself." 3 How often would I have gathered thy children together. All through their his tory ; but especially now, when by receiving their Messiah they might have been under the protec tion and care of the Almighty and reigned as Queen, dispensing blessings to all the world. As a hen. The Greek is generic, as a bird. Gather eth her chickens under her wings, for rest, warmth, affection, defence against all enemies, shelter from all storms. The whole scheme of salvation, the very existence of the Bible itself, the coming of Jesus Christ, are positive proofs that God wants men to he saved, by repenting and believing (see John 3: 14-17 ; Isai. 55 : 1, 7 ; Ezek. 18 : 32 ; Mark 16 : 15 ; Luke 19 : 10 ; John 1:7). And ye would not. The only reason they were not saved was their own choice of evil. This is the bitterest ingredient in the cup of the lost, that they have no one to blame but them selves. i Canon Cook. 3 David Brown, D. D. 282 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 24:1. 38 Behold, " your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shaU not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, 5 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. p Cp. Isai. 64. 11 & Jer. 12. 7 & 22. 5. q ch. 21. 9. Cited from Ps. 118. 26. In Retsch's illustrations of Goethe's Faust there is one plate where angels are dropping roses upon the demons who are contending for Faust's soul, and every rose is like molten metal, burning and blistering wherever it touches. So fell the tears of Christ upon the hearts of the rulers of the Jews. 38. Behold, your house, the Temple ; the home of their religion, of their hopes, of their exist ence as a people of God. Is left unto you deso late. Your house is left to you : I leave it ; and therefore it is desolate. The Saviour's reference is to his own leaving or departure, — a leaving that involved the penal departure of his Father as the Head of the theocracy. The Jewish theo cracy was to be a theocracy no longer. "Icha- bod " was to be its name. The Jews henceforth, instead of being the people and kingdom of God, would be a mere Semitic nationality, under the dynasty of the Herods, or under no dynasty at all. Their temple would be an empty edifice, dedicated to the empty celebration of an empty ritual.1 39. Ye shall not see me henceforth. He now closed his public ministry among them. They saw him no more in his Messianic ministra tion and work. After his resurrection he ap peared, not to all the people, hut to chosen wit nesses (Acts 10 : 41).2 TiU ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. That is, till you shall recognize me as your Mes siah, as the multitudes did on his triumphal entry, quoting from Ps. 118 : 26 (see Matt. 21 : 9). Some time the Jews will be converted, and hail Jesus as their King, and will be restored in some way to be a people of the Hving God. They were not left without a star of hope, even in the dense darkness of this hour. After this Jesus taught a lesson from the widow's gift of two mites (Mark 12: 41-44). Then some Greeks came to see Jesus, starting from which fact Jesus discoursed concerning the necessity of his death, and a voice of approval came from heaven (John 12 : 20-36). The Jews still rejected Jesus as their Messiah, though even of the rulers many secretly heHeved on him, but were afraid to confess the truth (John 12 : 37-50). Thus ended the public ministry of Jesus. i Morison. 2 G. W. Clark, D. D. CHAPTER 24. Private Discourses op Jesus with his Disciples immediately after the Close op his Public Ministry. SCttesuap afternoon, 3turil 4. Section XX. — DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND THE END OF THE WORLD. Place. On the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem. Parallels. Mark 13: 1-37 ; Luke 21 : 5-36. 1 rAND Je'sus went out' from the temple, and ^was'loin™ onws way 1" : and his disciples came to *'Si°r to shew him the buildings of the temple. r Cp. ch. 21. 23. For vers. 1-51, see Mark 13. 1-37 & Luke 21. 5-36. 1. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, that is, from the court of the Temple where he had been teaching. He had just closed his public ministry, and was on his way to Beth any. His disciples came to him, gathered around him, to shew him the buildings of the temple, lepov, the whole mass of the temple build ings, not vaov, which was the sanctuary, the Tem ple proper ; saying, " See what manner of stones and what buildings" (Mark). "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the 24 : 2, 3. MATTHEW. 283 2 ButntlSiswereaand said unto them, See ye not all these things ? verily I say unto you, s There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3 H And as he sat uSSn the ' mount of Ol'iveg, the disciples came unto him " privately, saying, Tell us, " when shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of thy "coming, and of "'the end of the world? s Luke 19. 44. I See ch. 21. 1. 2. 19. x See oh. 13. 39. u Cp. Mark 4. 34. v Cp. Acts 1. 6, 7. w vers. 27, 37, 39. See 1 TheSB. great king" (Ps. 48: 2). Jerusalem in all her magnificence was like " a bride adorned for her husband," " a city of palaces and right royally en throned as none other." " But alone and isolated in its grandeur stood the Temple mount. Ter race upon terrace its courts rose, till, high above the city, within the enclosure of marble cloisters, cedar-roofed and richly ornamented, the Temple itself stood out a mass of snowy marble and of gold, gHttering in the sunlight against the half- encircling green background of Olivet. In all his wanderings the Jew had not seen a city like his own Jerusalem. Not Antioch in Asia, not even imperial Rome herself , excelled it in archi tectural splendor. Nor has there been, either in ancient or modern times, a sacred building equal to the Temple, whether for situation or magnifi cence." "It occupied an elongated square of from 925 to 950 feet and upwards."1 Thus the buildings occupied an area of about 19 acres. " The Temple of Jerusalem was one of the won ders of the world." The Babylonian Talmud says, " He that never saw the Temple of Herod, never saw a fine building." The Rabbis said, " The world is Hke an eye. The ocean surround ing the world is the white of the eye ; its black is the world itself ; the pupil is Jerusalem ; hut the image within the pupil is the Sanctuary." " Jo- sephus, in his Antiquities (xv : 11, 3), speaks of the stones of a certain part of the edifice as being each, in length, 25 cubits (37 to 44 feet) ; in height, 8 (12 to 14 feet) ; in breadth, about 12 (18 to 21 feet). In his Wars (v : 5, 6), he speaks of some of the stones as 45 cubits in length, 5 in height, and 6 in breadth." 2 The disciples " called his attention to those nine gates overlaid with gold and silver, and the one of solid Corinthian brass, yet more precious ; those graceful and towering porches ; . . . those alternate blocks of red and white marble, recall ing the crest and hollow of the sea waves ; those vast clusters of golden grapes, each cluster as large as a man, which twined their splendid luxu riance over the golden doors."8 Josephus states that "fastened all around the Temple were bar baric spoils." So Luke speaks of the Temple as adorned with offerings (Luke 21 : 5). 2. There shall not be left here one stone upon another. At the time of this prophecy no event was more improbable. The world was at peace. The Jewish nation was subject to the Roman Empire, and under its protection. Yet within 40 years the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. After a three years' siege by Vespasian and his son Titus, Jerusalem was taken, and the Temple destroyed August, A. D. 70. The expression means total destruction of the Temple. It would be fulfilled even though a single stone could be found upon another, but as a matter of fact not a vestige of the Temple remains. The great stones which have been found by recent explorations be long to the foundations of the immense platform on which the Temple was built. The literal ful filment is the more remarkable since, as we learn from Josephus (Bella Judaica, vi: 4: 6-8). Titus made every effort to preserve the Temple from destruction, and only when this was found to he impossible, did he order the work of destruction to be completed. 3. The disciples were amazed and perplexed at this strange statement of Jesus which seemed to render impossible the coming of the New Kingdom as it floated in vision before their imaginations, or as foretold by the prophets interpreted by the whole trend of popular thought and expectation. How could the Kingdom of God come when the dwelling place of God — the centre of the religious Hfe of God's people for a thousand years, around which clustered the prophecies and the hopes of ages — should he destroyed ? They walked on in silence up the slopes of Olivet toward Bethany by the road on which Jesus had made his triumphal entry three days before, till they came to the turn in the road where, to one descending, the city and Temple suddenly burst into view in all their glory. The Temple stood before them " Hke a mount of snow fretted with golden pinnacles." And as he sat. Probably upon the exact spot where the famous tenth legion of the Roman sol diers who captured Jerusalem were encamped during the siege. The disciples came unto him privately, so that other travellers on the road would not hear or interrupt them. Mark men tions four, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, as 1 Edersheim, The Temple and its Services. . 3 Farrar. 284 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 24:3. the leaders in this questioning. "The sun was setting, and the whole city, with the surrounding valleys and hillsides alive with the camps of pilgrims, lay beneath him in the evening light. The history of a thousand years, the divine oracles speaking by a thousand voices, the mon uments of prophets, patriarchs, and kings, the visitations of angels, miraculous interpositions in judgment and in blessing, from the offering of Isaac and the building of the Temple, were present to him, as he looked upon Moriah and Zion, and heard the murmur and the evening songs of a million people gathered within and around the walls of the holy city." J They asked two questions, — (1) "When shall these things be ? the destruc tion of the Temple he had just foretold. (2) What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ? aXwvos, the exist ing, current age, the present dispensation. Fikst. Note that such questions are not un important. They are very practical. The dis ciples had to pass through seasons of great dark ness, confusion, and trouble. They needed to know what these things meant, how they were to act in them, and what the outcome would he. The answer brought encouragement, warning, hope, enthusiasm, and courage. It guided their conduct. It threw light on their path. It kept them from being taken unawares. It was neces sary that they should understand that, though their Master was crucified, this was not the end. He himself, " this same Jesus," was to return in glory and establish his kingdom. Second. This revelation of the future caused that the very things which would naturally dis courage them should he the means of confirming their faith. The night itself revealed the stars of heaven. It is stated that two Jewish Rabbis were crossing Zion hill in Jerusalem, and looking at its desolation. One wept at the sight, while the other cheerfully smiled. He who had laughed inquired the cause of the other's tears. " How can I help weeping," he replied, " when I see the threatenings against our Holy City so exactly fulfilled?" "And for that reason I rejoice," said the other, " for the prophecies of its glorious restoration are equally plain and numerous ; and, as the punishment has been literally executed, we may the more certainly expect the accom plishment of the promises." Thikd. The answers to these two questions are commingled. They are coupled together as belonging to one great event, the fulfilment of which was to take place within that generation. Prof. Broadus well says, " This discourse cer tainly foretells in the outset the destruction of Jerusalem ; and in the conclusion certainly fore teUs the final coming of our Lord, with the general judgment of mankind." " Every attempt to assign a definite point of division between the two topics has proved a failure." " But if the destruction of Jerusalem was itself in one sense a coming of the Lord, why may we not suppose that the transition from this to the final coming is gradual? " "Similar cases occur in the Old Testament, where a prediction refers to some nearer event, and also, by typical relation, to a kindred event in the remoter future. This view does not rest on the crude notion of a ' double sense ' in Scripture words or phrases, hut on the unquestionable Scripture use of types, prophetic as well as ceremonial."2 "Some of these utter ances clearly point to the Destruction of Jeru salem ; others equally clear to the Beturn of the Christ. But there are some which might ap ply to either or both ; and we, who stand he tween the two, cannot be sure which one, if only one, is intended. In its appHcation to the Hves of the hearers each event taught a sim ilar truth, and conveyed a similar warning ; and therefore a clear-cut distinction between them was as little needed as an exact statement of date." 8 Fourth. We need, as reaUy as did the dis ciples, the glorious and blessed truth of the second coming of Christ. We should he very careful that because there have been misinterpretations and false views about the coming of the Lord, we do not, on that account, cloud to our eyes and hearts the comfort and hope in the promise of his coming. Fifth. There is only one way in which I have been able to bring into harmony and yet include, all that is said here and elsewhere concerning the second coming of Christ ; namely, that this one great event consists of a series of epochs or marked stages each of which is rightfully and naturally called his second coming ; just as when we speak of the coming of the day, we speak of it as having come when the first rays touch the mountain tops, or we think of it as having come when the sun rises, or again when the sun has burst through the clouds and we see the full blaze of day. To change the figure, the Second Advent seen in a vision of the future is Hke a great mountain range, which is really but one mountain system, and, when described as seen from a distant point, may he described as one mountain ; and yet, on a nearer view, is seen to consist of three ranges, rising one above the other, with long spaces between. We find, then, a threefold coming, all preceded by the same signs, all characterized in 1 Daniel March, D. D. 2 American Commentary on Matthew. s Prof. Alfred Plummer, D. D., in Int. Crit. Com. on Luke. 24:4. MATTHEW. 285 4 And Je'sus answered and said unto them, » Take heed that no man deceive you. lead you astray. y Jer. 29. 8. Eph. 5. 6. Col. 2. 8. 2 Thess. 2. 3. 1 John 3. 7. the same terms, all based on the same principles, all the effects of the same forces. I. There was a second advent which began with the day of Pentecost and culminated at the destruc tion of Jerusalem, when Christ's kingdom had really been estabHshed on the earth in the place of the old dispensation. In John 14: 16-18 it is expressly implied that Jesus himself came in the coming of the Holy Spirit. The removal of the holy city and the Temple and its sacrifices made way for the acceptance of the true kingdom and sacrifice of Christ. The accuracy of the prophecy recorded in this chapter in its appHcation to this event, the repeated declaration that this coming should take place in this generation (ver. 30), and that some of the disciples who heard Christ should be still Hving when he came in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mark 9:1; Matt. 16 : 27, 28 ; Luke 9 : 26, 27), prove that this must he what is referred to. (1) This period was a second coming, a return to earth and to his church after his death. This was absolutely necessary to the work of the apostles in building up the church. They could not found it on a dead Christ. The first rays of this coming began at the resurrection, appeared more fully in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pente cost, and became a completed coming, or phase of his coming, when the old dispensation passed away at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the new dispensation took its place. This was the beginning of an altogether new order of things. It was the removal of the chief obstacle to the fuU development of the kingdom by the destruc tion of Jerusalem and the old form of the kingdom. Paul's illustration from the grafting of a new growth on an old stock (Rom. 11 : 17-21) helps us to understand this. For 40 years the new graft of Christ's kingdom was becoming united to the old Jewish dispensation. Then by the destruction of Jerusalem the old branches were cut off and left the new graft alone on the tree. It was the tree ; it had " come . ' ' Then it was to grow into the large and flourishing tree full of fruit — the completed coming, when the Master will appear and gather the fruit. (2) This coming was personal : he promised to abide with the church. "Lo, I am with you alway." (3) It was preceded by great judgments such as are here described. (41 The Gospel was first preached to all nations. So Paul says in Romans 1 : 8 (written A. D. 58), and in Colossians 1 : 6, 23 (written A. D. 62). (5) Thus we see that the expectation of the immediate coming of their Lord was not a mis take of the apostles. It was not a looking for something 2000 years ahead, but for a sunrise whose herald rays showed them that it might come at any time, though it was not revealed to them how or when it should come. II. There will be a second advent when the Gos pel has triumphed over all the earth, and the mil lennium is ushered in, and the believers, scattered through many nations and organizations, shall become one visible kingdom, free, governed only by Jesus Christ and his heavenly principles. This is the full coming of the kingdom prophesied in Daniel and the Old Testament ; this is the coming the later apostles were expecting ; this is what John means when he prayed, " Lord Jesus, come quickly." It was not the judgment and the de struction of the world, but the conversion of the world they longed for, and for which we long and pray, saying, Thy kingdom come. (1) This is per sonal, for Christ will reign in every heart. (2) It will be preceded by the fall of all the powers of evil, all tyrannies, and hierarchies, and slav eries, and idolatries, and systems of false religion. This will not take place without wars and perse cutions. The governments of the earth, as now founded, must perish, and he changed into gov ernments for the good of the people. These stars shall fall, and powers be shaken. (3) The Gospel will be preached to all the world. (4) It will he a coming in the clouds with power and glory ; for the source of all these triumphs of Christ is from heaven, the triumph is spiritual, and no kingdom is so glorious or so powerful as this. III. There will be a coming of Christ, in visible presence, at the time of the judgment and resur rection, as in 1 Thess. 4 : 13-18 ; Rev. 20 : 7 to 22 : 5 ; and Matt. 25. This, too, will be preceded by all the signs foretold as tokens of his com ing. The Signs of his Coming. 4. Take heed. The four moral keynotes of this Discourse on the Last Things are "Beware," " Watch," "Endure," and " Pray." x That no man deceive you. By leading them to think that Christ had come again in the flesh, or that these newcomers were the real Messiah, instead of Jesus. They would come in such a way, with such claims, with such at tempts at political leadership, or at the head of armies, that many would imagine that the great promised Deliverer of the Jews had come. It would be hard even for the very elect to escape from being deceived. 1 Farrar. 286 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 24 : 5, 6. 5 For z many shall come in my name, saying, I am the " Christ ; and shall deceive many. lead many astray. 6 And ye shah hear of wars and rumours of wars : see that ye b be not troubled: for a11 these things "must needs come to pass'; but the end is not yet. z vers. 11, 24. Jer. 14. 14. 1 John 2. 18. a See ch. 1. 17. b 2 Thess. 2. 2. 5. Por many shall come in my name. The name of Messiah. Saying, I am (the) Christ. The promised Messiah, the great DeHverer and King for whom the Jews were looking. During the years following Christ's death, and partly because the Christians were preaching that Jesus was the Messiah, the Messianic hopes of the Jews were at fever-heat ; many enthusiasts arose and awakened false expectations, and drew large num bers after them (Acts 5: 36, 37 ; 1 John 2 : 18). Josephus says that in the reign of Claudius (who died A. d. 54), the land was overrun with magi cians and impostors, who drew multitudes of the people into the deserts to see the signs and mira cles which they promised. And now, as his coming draws near, there are arising many men with their new religions and doctrines, pretending to be better than Christianity, and to be the real Messiahs of humanity ; and they stiU deceive many. 6. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. Josephus gives an account of the trou blous times before the fall of Jerusalem. The peace that prevailed over the world during Christ's life was soon broken. Rome too was troubled. ' Four Roman emperors were mur dered in swift succession." But especially in Palestine "the war fiend ran riot." The Jews themselves were divided into contending factions, who slew each other by thousands. The neigh boring nations joined one party or the other. Then the Jews revolted against the Romans, and the Roman armies overran the whole country. Blood flowed like water. Note that the Jews brought this destruction on themselves (1) by re volting ; (2) by factions ; (3) by destroying the food in the city, and killing one another. With out these fruits of their sin they could have re mained till this day. Their faith in Christ would have saved them. See that ye be not troubled, as if everything were going to ruin. Because they are the sign of the coming of Christ and his kingdom, for all these things must come to pass. These great trials and commotions which were to follow the coming of the Prince of Peace would naturally bring discouragement and doubt, or even despair. To guard against this, Jesus not only foretells the facts, but assures them that in a wicked world they are necessary facts and signs that the king dom of God is coming. The world of evil will not yield without a conflict. The wrong customs and methods of government and society cannot be removed without commotion. The old things will not give way to the new without disturbance. This is still true, and will he true till the final tri umph of perfect righteousness and love. Com pare the French Revolution, and the whole history of the progress of freedom and religion and re forms. The disturbance will first be moral, then often physical in wars and rumors of wars. Taking the world as it is, it ia impossible that the kingdom of God should come without awak ing opposition and wars, any more than one can build a house without disturbing the ground ; or improve a city by putting in gas, electricity, waterworks, and electric roads, without disturb ing the streets. This unrest in educational and scientific and social affairs, disturbing the old foundations in many respects, reversing old theories and ancient customs, is not to be feared if earnestness and truth are behind it, because it is a sign of life. It is a proof that the forces of the kingdom of heaven are active and working. The one thing to be feared is the inactivity of death, the peace that comes from the cold of winter, freezing men to gether into peace. It is the harmony of a garden, not of an iceberg, that the church needs. " When the assaults of skepticism seem to shake the church of Christ till it totters, we shall see that naught is being overthrown but some unsound in terpretations of the Scriptures on which a coun terfeit Christianity has been erected ; that thereby the eternal city is being brought forth into a clearer light, the city that hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God; and that the living Word is manifesting himself in more radi ant glory." 1 But the end is not yet, immediately. The end of troubles, the end of the disturbing process preceding the coming of the Son of Man, nor the final results you are to expect ; as one might have said to an angel beholding the chaos, This is not the end ; wait till you see the new heavens and the new earth ; or as the farmer might say to one watching his ploughing in the spring, This is not the end ; fruits and flowers and grain lie beyond. 1 W. D. Ridley in The Expositor. 24 : 7-9. MATTHEW. 287 7 For d nation shall rise against nation, and e kingdom against kingdom : and there sball be ¦''famines' a"d i,estilences' and earthquakes' in divers places. 8 BuVan these thin^are the beginning of »sSv°aTis' 9 Then * shall they deliver you up S,„tobtra£uon, and ¦> shall kill you: and *ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. <*2Chr. 15. 6. Cp. Rev. 6. 4. e Isai. 19. 2. /Acts 11. 28. Rev. 6. 8, 12. g John 16. 21. Acts 2. 24 (Gk.). Rom. 8. 22. h ch. 10. 17, 21. i ver. 21, 29. Rev. 2. 10. j ch. 23. 34. John 16. 2. k See ch. 10. 22. 7. For nation shall rise against nation. (See under ver. 6.) At Seleucia, about, A. d. 38, there were disturbances in which more than 50,000 Jews were slain. But this is an almost universal fact when active good makes such progress as to threaten the existence of organized evil. There shall be famines. We learn of several famines during this "period, one in Judea, foretold by Agabus (Acts 11 : 28) not far from A. D. 49 ; three others in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 41-54, one in Greece, A. D. 50, and two in Rome, A. d. 41 and 52.1 And pestilences. A pestilence in Rome, A. D. 65, carried off 30,000 persons. " This year, disgraced by so many deeds of horror, was further distinguished by the gods with storms and sicknesses. Campania was devastated by a hurricane which overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the soil in every direction, even to the gates of the city, within which a pestilence thinned aU ranks of the population, with no at mospheric disturbance that the eye could trace. The houses were choked with dead, the roads with funerals: neither sex nor age escaped."2 And earthquakes, in divers places. " Perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which inter venes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem." 8 " Between this prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem there were (1) a great earthquake at Crete, A. D. 46 or 47 ; (2) one at Rome, A. D. 51 ; (3) one at Apamia in Phrygia, A. D. 53 ; (4) one at Laodicea in Phrygia, A. D. 60 ; (5) one in Campania ; (6) one in Jerusalem, A. D. 67, described in Josephus."4 The fre quency and destructiveness of the earthquakes of this period have been remarked upon by Seneca.6 Pompeii was partly destroyed by an earthquake, A. D. 63 ; and, with Herculaneum, wholly over thrown in August, A. d. 79. 8. All these are the beginning. For greater moral woes flow out of them. Only the smaller portion of the terrors of those days could he de scribed, but some are foretold in the verses that follow. Of sorrows \i>Slvw), travail pains, birth throes. In the midst of these sorrows they are to find not alarm, hut hope, for they are the labor pangs of the birth of the kingdom of God ; they are the prophecy and promise of redeemed hu manity, of the golden ace ; and all these sorrows shall he forgotten in the joy at the birth of the new heavens and the new earth. 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, eU 9\Z>piv, unto tribulation. The domi nant idea is that of pressure. There was a pro vision of the old English law by which those who wilfuHy refused to plead in the courts had heavy weights placed on their breasts, and so were pressed to death unless they yielded. One case only of the infliction of the peine forte et dure occurred in this country in its early history, in the ease of Giles Corey. " He would be thrown upon his hack and weights of stone or iron would be piled upon him. There he would be kept sometimes for days, the weights gradually increas ing, until the sufferer had consented to plead or had been pressed to death." 6 This is a vivid picture of the pressure which persecution placed upon the souls of the disciples to compel them to deny Christ. " We read of Christians bound in chairs of red-hot iron, while the stench of their half-consumed flesh rose in a suffocating cloud to heaven ; of others who were torn to the very bone by shells or hooks of iron ; of holy virgins given over to the lust of the gladiator or to the mercies of the pander ; of two hundred and twenty-seven converts sent on one occasion to the mines, each with the sinews of one leg sev ered by a red-hot iron, and with an eye scooped from its socket ; of fires so slow that the victims writhed for hours in their agonies ; of mingled salt and vinegar poured over the flesh that was bleeding from the rack ; of tortures prolonged and varied through entire days." 7 Ye shall be hated of all (the) nations. Be cause everywhere they had the same evils to oppose, the same conflict with customs, and false religions, and vested interests. For my . . . sake, not because they were disagreeable in themselves, hut because they were teaching his truth, and working for his kingdom. There is no virtue in being hated ; but only in being hated on account of good deeds, and a good character. The Acts 1 See Josephus, Antiquities, iii : 15. 2 Tacitus, Annals, xvi : 10-13. 3 E. H. Plumptre. i Wars of the Jews, iv : 4, 5. ' Prof. A. C. Kendrick, D. D. 8 Allen's New England Tragedies in Prose, p. 147. 7 Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. i. 497. 288 THE TEACHERS' COMMENTARY. 24 . 10-14. 10 And then shall many bst°umb?ee,d' and shall 'deuvSup one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many m false prophets shall arrfse, " and shall leadma.^'affiy. 12 And because iniquity shall bemuitSiied, the "love of the many shall wax cold. 13 p But he that 8taindufeth tT° the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom " shall be preached in thalwhoie world for a r telumony * unto all the nations ; and ' then shall the end come. I ch. 10. 21. m See ch. 7. 15. n ver. 5, 24. o Cp. Luke 18. 7 & Rev. 2. 4. p See ch. 10. 22. { Rom. 10. 18. Col. 1. 6, 23. Cp. Mark 14. 9. r ch. 10. 18. s ch. 28. 19. ( Cp. ver. 6. and the Epistles give abundant evidence of the fulfilment of this prophecy. Secular historians confirm and emphasize the fact. Tacitus (Annals) calls Christians " a race of men hated for their crimes," and Suetonius (Nero, 16) and Pliny (Epistles, x. 97) speak in the same way. Accord ing to Gibbon (Borne, ii. 11) Christians were hated, and charged with licentiousness, incest, and human sacrifices. 10. Then shall many, of my professed disci ples, be offended, stumble, trip, he snared, be scandalized. The persecutions were too terrible for any who were not Christians in their inmost hearts. Shall betray, or deHver u to the magis trates, one another, even parents, brothers, and relatives (Luke).1 11. And many false prophets shall arise, teachers who claim to have received a message from God, when they had not received it, but taught falsehood for the truth. And shall de ceive many, by their plausibility, by teaching things agreeable, but sinful. " The Epistles give abundant evidence of the many false teachers who arose in the apostolic age ; and, if then, how much more in the ages succeeding. Bom. 16 : 17 ; 2 Cor 11 : 13 ; Gal. 1 : 7 ; 1 Tim. 1 : 6, 20 ; 2 Tim. 2 : 17, 18 ; 1 John 2 : 18 ; 4 : 1 ; Jude 3, 4 ; Rev. 2 : 14, 20 ; see, also, Acts 20 : 30." 2 12. And because iniquity, lawlessness, shall abound, irXnOwefivai., shall be multiplied, shall in crease rapidly, not by addition, but by multipli cation. Paul, in 2 Thess. 2: 7, speaks of "the mystery of iniquity " as already working in the church, and in ver. 3, of a falling away first be fore the day of Christ could come. The love of (the) many, t£>v ttoKKSiv. " The A. V. in omitting the definite article misses the force of Christ's saying. It is not the love of many people only that shall be chilled, but of the many, the majority, the great body " 3 Shall wax (grow) cold, \pvyn