Mk. 1 THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. L. 1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of 2. Iturea, and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the Baptist, the 3 son of Zacharias, in the wilderness of Judea. And in those days he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4 and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. As it is written in the prophets, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For this is he that was spoken of in the book of the words of Esaias, the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the 5. Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways 6 shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And the same John M. 4 had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all the land of Judea, and all the region round 6 about Jordan, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, and to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of L. 8 vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children 9 unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. 10,11. And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth, and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that 12 hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto 13 him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that 14 which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages. 15. And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, 16 whether he were the Christ or not; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but one cometh after me mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose, whose shoes I am 17 not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 18. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people. HERE is the honest, outspoken boldness of a man of God, and yet one who took broad and noble views of existence and its duties. He advocated no unnatural disseverance of man from his work-day world, as if business and religion were antagonistic and incompatible. He enjoins all classes to return to their ordinary occupations, but imbued with a new heaven-born spirit; seeking that religion should moderate worldly cares, employments, and enjoyments, and leave its sanctifying influence upon all. Macduff. Though he did not claim the credentials of a single miracle, yet, while he threatened detection to the hypocrite and destruction to the hardened, he promised also pardon to the penitent and admission into the kingdom of heaven to the pure and clean. "The two great utterances," it has been said, "which he brings from the desert, contain the two capital revelations to which all the preparation of the gospel has been tending. Law and prophecy; denunciation of sin and promise of pardon; the flame which consumes and the light which consoles—is not this the whole of the covenant?" F. John enunciated the first principles and enforced the first great duties of the gospel; and ere the echoes which he awakened in the hearts of men had died away into silence, a greater than he took up the noble theme, and proclaimed it as with the tongue of a trumpet to an astonished world. J. L. P. Mk. 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, places us at the opening of the mystery of godliness, of the salvation of the world, of the glory which fills the heavens, and of the kingdom which endures forever. The beginning of the gospel (according to this Evangelist) is not found at the birth of Jesus, when the communications of heaven were made to few, and died suddenly into silence; but from the time when John baptized, and when Jesus began to show himself, and "the word of the beginning of Christ" was publicly proclaimed, never again to be suspended till it should have become the word of a completed gospel. The gospel which Jesus preached was a gospel which in its main particulars had yet to be fulfilled, and which could not be fully opened till it had been fulfilled. Considered as fact, the gospel began from the Incarnation, and was completed at the Resurrection; but considered as doctrine, it began with the first preaching of Jesus, and was completed in the dispensation of the Spirit. When the Lord quitted the world, he left the material of the gospel already perfect, but the exposition of the gospel only begun. T. D. B. All the Evangelists set out from the Baptist in introducing the ministry of Jesus, but the differences in procedure are characteristic. Mark, keeping in view the Roman, merely makes the imprisonment of the Baptist the starting-point of a wonder-working ministry of Jesus in Galilee, into the marvels of which he hurries us at once, without even hinting at its prophetic relations. Luke, in tracing for the reasoning Greek the orderly development of the life and work of Jesus, opens with the ministry in Galilee, as the natural sequence of that of the Baptist, but does not emphasize the connection. John, writing for the Christian, sets out with the Baptist, as preparing the way for that private ministry of Jesus in Judea which preceded the public ministry in Galilee, and which, as being directed to the true Israel and dealing with high spiritual themes, is passed over in silence by the other Evangelists, but brought forward in the gospel for the Christian, the spiritual man, as eminently fitted to further its peculiar aim. Matthew, with his eye on the Jew, starts with the public ministry of Jesus in Galilee—which, strictly speaking, could begin only when that of the Baptist, the forerunner, closed—and presents Jesus at once and most prominently in his Messianic character, fulfilling prophecy. D. S. G. L. 1. Herod the Great, in whose day Christ was born, had divided his entire kingdom among his three sons, Archelaus, Philip, and Herod Antipas—Archelaus obtaining Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. In the tenth year of his reign, however, Archelaus was deposed by the emperor, and a Roman governor appointed in his room. The fifth in order of these governors was Pontius Pilate. C. B.—The Roman governors, or procurators, were lieutenant-governors of divisions of Roman provinces, under the governors-general of each province. Occasionally, in smaller provinces, or in districts belonging to a larger province, they took the place of the governor-general, and in that case had in part the command of the troops, and were the judges even in criminal matters, but always in subordination to the governor-general of the province. This was the position of the procurators in Judea and Samaria after the incorporation of these as one district with the province of Syria, on the banishment of Archelaus. G.—Herod Antipas, the brother of Archelaus, was confirmed by Augustus in the tetrarchy of Galilee and Perea, which had been assigned to him by his father's will, and hence he is mentioned in the gospels by the style of Herod the Tetrarch. His whole importance is derived from his two appearances in the gospel history, as first the hearer and then the murderer of John the Baptist, and as taking part with Pilate in the condemnation of our Lord. Herod Philip II. was the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra, a maiden of Jerusalem. He received as his own government "Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis (Gaulonitis), and some parts about Jamnia" (i. e., N. E. Palestine), with the title of Tetrarch. His rule was distinguished by justice and moderation, and he appears to have devoted himself entirely to the duties of his office without sharing in the intrigues which disgraced his family. He built a new city on the site of Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, which  he called Cæsarea, and raised Bethsaida (in lower Gaulonitis) to the rank of a city under the title of Julias, and died there A. D. 34. He married Salome, the daughter of Philip I. and Herodias, but, as he left no children, his dominions were added at his death to the Roman province of Syria. S. (See Section 9.) 2. The Word of God came. The usual formula for the divine commission of the prophets (Jer. 1:1; Ezek. 6:1). And the effect of the Holy Spirit on John was more in accordance with the O. T. than the N. T. inspiration; more of a sudden, overpowering influence, as in the prophets, than a gentle indwelling manifested through the individual character, as in the apostles and evangelists. A.—Such formulas, of course, are never used when speaking of Jesus, because the divine nature manifested itself in him not at certain isolated moments of his life. He was the one everlasting manifestation of the Godhead—The Word. O. John the Baptist. The true meeting-point of the Old and New Testaments is found in the mission and character of John the Baptist. He is the living link between the earlier and later parts of the Bible. In his personality and in the style of his teaching he seems to belong alike to both dispensations. The manner of his appearance, the sententious severity of his words, remind us of the old prophets; while yet we see in him all that loving personal, intelligent devotion to Christ which is the mark of the Christian saint. J. S. H.—His mission was calculated, in accordance with the office of the law which gives the knowledge of sin, to bring men's minds into that state in which the Redeemer invites them as weary and heavy-laden to come to him. A.—John was a dweller in the wilderness, only that he might thereby become the prophet of the Highest. His nature was full of impetuosity and fire. The long struggle which had given him so powerful a mastery over himself—which had made him content with self-obliteration before the presence of his Lord, which had inspired him with fearlessness in the face of danger, and humility in the midst of applause—had left its traces in the stern character and aspect and teaching of the man. His very teaching reflected the imagery of the wilderness—the rock, the serpent, the barren tree. "In his manifestation and agency," it has been said, "he was like a burning torch; his public life was quite an earthquake—the whole man was a sermon; he might well call himself a voice—the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." F. 3. Baptism.** Symbolical or ceremonial washing, such as the Mosaic Law prescribed as a sign of moral renovation, and connected with the sacrificial types of expiation, to indicate the internal connection of atonement and sanctification. It was from these familiar and significant ablutions that John's baptism was derived. Baptism (not the baptism) of repentance: i. e., a ceremonial washing, which involved and denoted a profession of repentance, or a thorough change of mind, both of judgment and of feeling, with respect to sin. To (or for) remission, with a view to it or for the purpose of promoting it, not directly or efficiently, but as an indispensable prerequisite. Remission: loosing, leaving, i. e., letting go unpunished, which is essentially the same with pardon or forgiveness. The indefinite expressions of this clause (a baptism of repentance for sins) are not unmeaning or fortuitous, but designed to introduce John's ministry as something new and previously unknown to the reader. The meaning of the verse as thus explained is, that the ancient prophecies were fulfilled in the appearance of a preacher in the wilderness calling the people to repent, and baptizing them in token of their having done so. J. A. A. 3. Kingdom of heaven:** Signifies the gospel dispensation, in which subjects were to be gathered to God by his Son, and a society to be formed, which was to subsist first in imperfect circumstances on earth, but afterward complete in glory. In some places the phrase denotes the state of it on earth; sometimes it signifies only the state of glory; but it generally includes both. The Jews understood it of a temporal monarchy at Jerusalem, which would become, instead of Rome, the capital of the world; and the expected sovereign of this kingdom they learned from Daniel to call the Son of man; by which title they understood the promised Messiah, the Christ, or the Anointed One of God. Both John the Baptist and Christ took up this phrase, and used it as they found it, and gradually taught the Jews to affix right ideas to it. This very demand of repentance showed it was a spiritual kingdom; and that no wicked man, how politic or brave, how learned or renowned, soever, could possibly be a genuine member of it. D.—As to the nature of the Messianic expectation prevailing in this period among the Jews, what can be established with any degree of certainty amounts to the following: The Jews divided the entire history of the world into two principal periods, the present and the future. At the end of the first the coming of the Messiah has place, whose way, it was expected, would be prepared, and his coming announced by Elijah the prophet, who was to appear a second time. The Jews expected him from the tribe of Judah and the family of David (the Samaritans on the contrary from Ephraim), and regarded Bethlehem as the place of his approaching birth. Of an extraordinary birth by the Holy Ghost they seem not to have thought. Anointed with the Spirit of God, and richly furnished with higher powers, he should not only make an end to all religious disputes, and effect a restoration of religion and morals which had so sadly declined, but above all should shine forth in royal dignity. He should deliver Israel from the oppressive yoke of his enemies, yea, he should conquer all the earth for the sake of the chosen people, in order so to found a universal theocratic government. Then should a golden age of peace and happiness dawn, and Jerusalem's temple be the centre of a dominion, of which Israel should enjoy the glory and all the world the blessing. Moral improvement was, especially according to the better disposed, the condition of his manifestation. Hence it was that John's requirement of repentance excited as little surprise as it met with contradiction, and that still at the present day the Jews ascribe the delay of the Messianic period to their transgressions. The representation of the Messiah's person, that prevailed with most, was that he should be a true man, anointed to be a theocratic king, filled with the Holy Spirit, and invested with the most unlimited authority. The earthly-minded multitude expected from his rule freedom, national glory, and sensual bliss: the better disposed hoped also that he would teach them to serve God without fear, that he would also be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and would dispense spiritual gifts. Van O. M. 4-6. The traveller who now wanders along the desolate shores of the Dead Sea, or roams over the bleak hills of Juttah, will see many a figure whose garb and mode of life must remind him of John. Time has not changed, and fashion never modifies the simple costume and manners of those children of the desert. The brown cloak of camel's hair, thrown loosely over the shoulders, is still the principal covering. The leathern girdle is still worn. The wilderness is still their only home; sometimes a tent, and sometimes the canopy of heaven, their only covering. Locusts, too, and wild honey, are still articles of food. J. L. P.—A mysterious intimation had closed the prophetic writings, announcing, from the lips of Malachi, on which the fire of prophecy had expired, a second coming of Elijah. And where, and at what time, and in what form, was he so likely to appear, as in the desert, by the shore of the Jordan, at so fearful a crisis in the national destiny, in the wild garb and with the demeanor so frequent among the ancient seers? H. M. The region round about Jordan. Properly the valley on both sides of the Jordan, from Tiberias to the Dead Sea. The tract near Jericho is so large in proportion to all the rest that it often takes the name. The expression points, however, to John's ministry being carried on on both sides of the river. G.—Went out to him all. That which no doubt drew the whole population in such crowds to the desert shores of the Jordan, was the mysterious yet distinct assertion that the "kingdom of heaven was at hand;" that kingdom of which the belief was as universal as of the personal coming of the Messiah. H. M.—The nation was daily expecting the appearance of "the wise and perfect prophet, who should restore the tribes of Israel, reprove the times, and appease the wrath of God, before it broke out in fury." A prophet, in the Jewish point of view, might reveal the future; but his great characteristic was, that he was the mouthpiece of God, to utter, by resistless impulse, the rebukes or commands of the Almighty, as his ambassador, and the interpreter of his will to men. John realized this ideal. G.—Here was no "reed shaken by the winds," but an inspired soul, liberated from all dread of man, elevated above the influence of selfish passion, and himself schooled to practise the virtues which he demanded of others. G. P. F. The conscience of the masses was roused. It had sunk to sleep under Pharisaic formalism, Roman oppression, and Sadducean indifference. John's voice sounded like a trumpet to alarm them. The  popular excitement spread. Crowds gathered in daily greater numbers from Jerusalem, Judea, and the wide uplands of Perea. It seemed, indeed, as if he were the promised Elias, the herald of Messiah. G. A Tiberius was polluting by his infamies the throne of the empire; a Pontius Pilate, with his insolences, cruelties, extortions, massacres, was maddening a fanatic people; Herod Antipas was exhibiting to facile learners the example of calculated apostasy and reckless lust; Caiaphas and Annas were dividing the functions of a priesthood which they disgraced. Yet the talk of the new prophet was not of political circumstances such as these; the lessons he had to teach were deeper and more universal in their moral and social significance. Whatever might be the class who flocked to his stern solitude, his teaching was intensely practical, painfully heart-searching, fearlessly downright. And so Pharisee and Sadducee, scribe and soldier, priest and publican, all thronged to listen to his words. F. THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN, from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, depressed from 650 to 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, is now called The Ghor. It is filled up to a certain level with alluvial deposit, forming what is often called the "upper plain" of the Jordan valley; and in this the river has hollowed out for itself, during the course of long ages, a "lower plain," varying in width from a quarter of a mile to a mile, and from 50 to 100 feet below the general level of the valley. There are thus two distinct, well-defined plains in the Jordan valley: the upper, generally sterile, and only capable of cultivation where springs or perennial streams afford the means of copious irrigation; and the lower, through which the river pursues its tortuous course, keeping by its occasional overflows certain small tracts under cultivation. Wilson.—The Jordan valley on the east side, between the Lake of Tiberias and the Jabbok, was a paradise of cities and gardens and cultivated fields, and well watered in every part. I have found the ruins of at least a dozen important places between the points just named, which show that in Christ's time there was here a dense population. S. M. Baptized in the river of Jordan. Both physically and historically, the Jordan is the most remarkable river upon earth. The whole valley is just a great rent or chasm in the crust of the earth. At its southern end, along the shores of that mysterious lake, there is the intense heat only found elsewhere beneath the equator; while at its northern end the noble cone of Hermon towers to the skies, and is crowned with perpetual snow. . . . We naturally conclude that the place indicated was close to the wilderness of Judea, which included the whole of that wild region lying between Jericho and Jerusalem. The plain or valley of the Jordan at Jericho is about ten miles wide, and is inclosed on each side by ridges of gray limestone, which rise up in abrupt, jagged masses. A number of great highways, from Hebron, Jerusalem, Bethel, Samaria, and Galilee, converged on the plain of Jericho. Down these the people of those cities and regions would find easy access to the Baptist; and he whose mission it was to give the widest publicity to the Messiah's advent, would doubtless take advantage of such facilities, and preach in the most accessible locality. J. L. P.—The place (five miles N. E. of Jericho) was known as Bethabara, "the house of the ford." Fords do not change in a river like the Jordan; roads are never altered in the East; and this must always have been, as it is now, the place of passage from Jericho to Gilead. At this spot we must place the departure of Elijah from earth, and the preaching of the Baptist. And there is surely a deep significance in the fact that here, as suddenly as the first Elijah disappeared, did the second Elias appear; and where the first dropped his mantle, did the second take it up. And this was the ordinary place of passage for those who travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem by the Jordan route. Here our Lord often crossed with his disciples, when he would avoid passing through Samaria on his way to the temple festivals at Jerusalem. The east bank of Jordan seems always to have been preferred to the western as the route from Galilee. The way was more shaded by occasional trees, and frequent streams intersect the path. These streams are perennial, and over them waves many a palm-tree; while on the other side the palm is all but extinct. H. B. T. M. 7. Pharisees and Sadducees. These two sects, according to Josephus, originated at the same period, under Jonathan the high-priest (B. C. 159-144). The Pharisees took for their distinctive practice the strict observance of the law and all its requirements, written and oral. The religionism represented by the Sadducees was bare, literal, moral conformity, without any higher views or hopes. They thus escaped the dangers of tradition, but fell into deadness and worldliness, and a denial of spiritual influence. While our Lord was on earth, this state of mind was very prevalent among the educated classes throughout the Roman Empire, and most of the Jews of rank and station were Sadducees. The two sects, mutually hostile, are found in the gospels united in opposition to our Lord, the Pharisees representing hypocritical superstition; the Sadducees, carnal unbelief. A. (Read Section 182.) L. 8-17. The language of the Baptist at once fell in with and opposed the popular feeling; at one instant it raised, at the next it crossed their hopes. He announces the necessity of a complete moral change, while he repudiated the claims of those who rested their sole title to God's favor on their descent from the chosen race. But, on the other hand, he proclaimed the immediate coming of the Messiah; and, on the nature of the kingdom, there was nothing which interfered with the prevailing belief in the personal temporal reign of the Son of David. H. M.—The narrow separatism and worthless externalism of the law were to be forsaken, and love to God and their neighbor, and a future baptism of the Holy Ghost, by him who was to come, were to take their place. G. 9. The axe is laid at the root.** Laid there, at hand for immediate use, though as yet no blow has been struck; but laid there also that this sign of what is threatened may avert the fulfilment of the threat. T. 12. The publicans.** The Greek word translated "publicans" describes the inferior officers employed as collectors of the Roman revenue. But the Latin word publicani, from which the English has been taken, was applied to a higher order of men. The Roman senate farmed the direct taxes and the customs to capitalists, who undertook to pay a given sum into the treasury (publicum), and hence received the name of publicani. Contracts of this kind fell naturally into the hands of the richest class of Romans. In the provinces were managing directors, and under them were the actual custom-house officers. The latter were commonly natives of the province in which they were stationed. The Greek word, which etymologically might have been used of the publicani properly so called, was used popularly, and in the N. T. exclusively, of the inferior officers. The system was essentially a vicious one. The publicani encouraged their agents in the most vexatious or fraudulent exactions. By accepting the baptism of John, the publicans gave, at the very beginning of the gospel dispensation, an illustration of the great principle so often taught by Christ, that the sinner, conscious of his guilt, is better prepared to enter the kingdom of heaven by repentance, than self-righteous men who think they need no repentance. S. 16. I baptize. I administer but the external symbol of purification. His it is, as his sole prerogative, to dispense the inward reality. And with fire.** Clearly it is the fiery character of the Spirit's operations upon the soul—searching, consuming, refining. And thus in two successive clauses the two most familiar emblems—water and fire—are employed to set forth the same purifying operations of the Holy Ghost upon the soul. B. 17. Purge his floor.** The Jewish Church, or people, is here compared to a threshing-floor covered with a mixture of chaff and wheat, which should be separated by the winnowing fan of Christ. His doctrines were such as to test the real dispositions of the hearts of men, and to distinguish between the hypocritical and the sincere. The separation to be made is described as preparatory to everlasting rewards and punishments. The phrase of burning the chaff with unquenchable fire is inconsistent with all views of the restoration of the wicked or of their annihilation. D. 18. Preached he unto the people.** It was John's hand which struck the first bold stroke at the root of the strong national prejudice which narrowed and carnalized the expected kingdom of their Messiah. One thing was revealed to him in clearest light, and upon this he spoke with such power: that whatever the future kingdom was to be, it should be one in which force and fraud, selfishness and insincerity, and all sham piety, were to be denied a place; for which those would stand best prepared who were readiest to confess and give up their sins, and to act justly and benevolently toward their fellow-men, humbly and sincerely toward God. You have but the rudiments, indeed, of the true doctrine of repentance in the teaching of the Baptist—the Christian doctrine but in germ; but it is not difficult to see in it the same great lesson as to the inner and spiritual qualifications required of all members of the kingdom of Christ, which was unfolded, at the very beginning of our Lord's ministry in Judea privately to Nicodemus, and publicly to the multitudes on the hill-side of Galilee. H.—He knew that the highest truth of spiritual life was to be given by One that should come after. What he had learned in the desert was contained in a few words: Reality lies at the root of religious life. Ye must be real, said John. "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." Let each man do his own duty; let the rich impart to those who are not rich; let the publican accuse no man falsely; let the soldier be content with his wages. The coming kingdom is not a mere piece of machinery which will make you all good and happy without effort of your own. Change yourselves, or you will have no kingdom at all. Personal reformation, personal reality, that was John's message to the world. F. W. R. The grandeur of his mission lay in the keen discernment with which he had seized hold of the one ordinance to bring before his countrymen the truth, ever old, yet ever new, that the cleanness, the whiteness of the human heart is the only fitting preparation for the divine presence. This startling note of the universal need for the creation of a new morality, for a "transformation of the mind," struck a chord which had not vibrated since the days of Malachi. A. P. S.—He spoke nothing of Levitical rites or sacrifices, but demanded that the law should be applied to the conscience, and carried out in the life. A spiritual preparation would alone avert the coming wrath. Religion must henceforth be in the heart and life, not in worthless outward forms or privileges. For the first time the great truth was pressed home to the conscience of men that the true kingdom of heaven is in the renewed soul. Everything was new, startling, impressive—the wilderness, the stream, the solemn hills—a prophet appearing, after more than five hundred years. His words, his baptismal symbol, the kingdom he preached, the Messias whom he announced as at hand, the very multitudes assembled, the visible emotion, the evident good effected, the contrition of the most sunken classes—the publicans and harlots—all showed that the whole nation believed in him. G. M. 13 AND it came to pass in those days when all the people were baptized, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And he was baptized of John in Jordan. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And praying, lo, he saw the heavens opened unto him, and the Spirit of God descending in a bodily shape like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age. J. 15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. It is as he prays that the Spirit comes, sustaining him under that consciousness of his Sonship to God, which now fills, expands, exalts his weak humanity. And does not our great Head and Representative stand before us here a type and pattern of every true believer in the Lord, as to the duty, the privilege, the power of prayer? Of him, and of him only of the sons of men, might it be said that he prayed without ceasing; that his life was one of constant and sustained communion with his Father; and yet you find him on all the great occasions of his life having recourse to separate, solitary, sometimes to prolonged acts of devotion. His baptism, his appointment of the twelve apostles, his escape from the attempt to make him a king, his transfiguration, his agony in the garden, his death upon the cross, were all hallowed by prayer. The first and the last acts of his ministry were acts of prayer. From the lowest depth, from the highest elevation of that ministry, he poured out his spirit in prayer. For his mission on earth, for all his heaviest trials, he prepared himself by prayer. And should we not prepare for our poor earthly service, and fortify ourselves against temptations and trials, by following that great example? The heavens above are not shut against us, the Spirit who descended like a dove has not taken wings and flown away from this earth. There is a power by which these heavens can still be penetrated, which can still bring down upon us that gentle messenger of rest—the power that lies in simple, humble, earnest, continued believing prayer. H. AT this period the power and influence of John over the public mind were at their height. Jesus, humanly speaking, was but an unknown youth, whose higher character was as yet untried. Yet John cedes at once the first place: in the strongest language he declares himself immeasurably inferior to him who stood among the crowd, unmarked and unregarded. H. M. 13. We should naturally expect to find in Jesus an attitude corresponding to the extraordinary grandeur of the end which he sets before himself, and of the dignity which he claims. But his appearance is simplicity itself. When we first see him it is in the midst of the penitents who come to receive from the forerunner the baptism of repentance: when we first hear him, it is in the midst of the multitudes who are gathered from all parts to hear the new prophet, proclaiming, in language free from all pomp, the blessedness of the humble and the afflicted. Not for one instant does that simplicity forsake him. R. C. The holy Jesus leaves the home of his childhood to return to it no more as his earthly abode save for the few days that preceded the removal to Capernaum. His path lay toward the desert valley of the Jordan, to the neighborhood of that ford, not far from Jericho, to which the multitude flocked from Judea and Jerusalem. There the great forerunner was baptizing; there he had been but just uttering those words of stern warning to the mingled multitude. Around him stood men with musing hearts, doubting whether that bold speaker were the Christ or no, when suddenly, unknown and unrecognized, the very Messiah mingles with those strangely assorted and expectant multitudes, and with them seeks baptism at the hands of the great preacher of the desert. E.—As became the head of this spiritual kingdom, he entered upon his ministry by an act of obedience. In his childhood he received the sign of the covenant, and submitted to the ceremonial purification required by the law. In later years he took part in the sacrificial offerings of the temple worship. So now he is anxious to obey the divine will, not only as revealed by the founder of the ancient institutions, but as revealed by the herald of the new dispensation. He fulfilled all righteousness. “He came to John to be baptized of him.” J. A. 14. I need to be baptized of thee. Hitherto the Baptist had insisted on the purification of all who had assembled around him; and, with the commanding dignity of a heaven-commissioned teacher, had rebuked the sins of all classes and all sects. In Jesus alone, by his refusal to baptize him, he acknowledges the immaculate purity, while his deference assumes the tone of homage, almost of adoration. H. M.—John has baptized many; has seen, and in some sense seen through, men of all kinds; but no one like this had as yet come before him. They have all bowed down before him; but before this Man bows down, in the irrepressible emotion of his own most profound contrition, the sinful man in the greatest prophet. Stier.—The circumstances of their life had entirely separated them. John, as a child in the house of the blameless priest his father, had lived at Juttah, in the far south of the tribe of Judah, and not far from Hebron; Jesus had lived in the deep seclusion of Galilee. F. 15. Our Saviour doth not deny either that John hath need to be baptized of him, or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John; but he will needs thus far both honor John and disparage himself, to be baptized of his messenger. He, that would take flesh of the Virgin, education from his parents, sustenance from his creatures, will take baptism from John. Bp. H.—He received it as ratifying the mission of his great forerunner—the last and greatest child of the old dispensation, the earliest herald of the new; and he also received it as the beautiful symbol of moral purification, and the humble inauguration of a ministry which came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil. His own words obviate all possibility of misconception. He does not say, “I must,” but, “Thus it becometh us.” F. 16. As Jesus stepped forth after the baptism on the banks of the river, he stood severed from the past, connected with a new future; Nazareth, its quiet home, its happy days, its peaceful occupations, lay behind; trials and toils, suffering and death, lay before him. He would not have been the Son of man had he not felt the significance and solemnity of the hour. He turns, in the pure, true instinct of his sinless humanity, to throw himself and all his future upon his Father in prayer. And then it is, as with uplifted hands he gazes into the heavens, that he sees them opened above his head, the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him, and hears a voice from heaven saying to him, “Thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased.” This voice was twice heard again: on the Mount of Transfiguration, and within the temple. It was the voice of the Father. The fall sealed the Father’s lips in silence; all divine communications afterward with man were made through the Son. It was he who appeared and spake to the patriarchs; it was he who spake from the summit of Sinai, and was the giver of the law; but now for the first time the Father’s lips are opened, the long-kept silence is broken, that this testimony of the Father to the Sonship of Jesus, this expression of his entire good pleasure with him as he enters upon his ministry, may be given. H. Like a dove. To his vision it appeared as the form of a dove descending. A symbol this of perfect gentleness, purity, fulness of life, and of the power of communicating it. L.—The quiet flight and the resting dove betokened no rushing torrent of inspiration, no sudden seizure of the Spirit, but a uniform unfolding of the life of God, the loftiness yet the calm repose of a nature itself divine, the indwelling of the Spirit so that he could impart it to others, and fill them completely with it. N.—Here, in the baptism of our Head, are that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into whose adorable name we are baptized. B. Isaiah had foretold (11 : 2) how the Spirit of Jehovah should rest upon the branch from the roots of Jesse, and the prediction was now fulfilled. It was the divine anointing of Jesus, the consecration from on high to the office of Messiah, and, as such, the true birth-hour of Christianity. It was his solemn designation as the great High-Priest of the new and abiding dispensation. G.—At his birth, he was filled and actuated by the Holy Spirit, so far as his talent and disposition were concerned. This implied his perfect sinlessness. But at his baptism, he attained the full consciousness of his nature and mission as the God-Man and Saviour. From that moment he became the organ of the Holy Spirit, not merely so far as he was personally concerned, but also as fully realizing his mediatorial character and work, and its relation to the salvation of mankind. But this fulness of the Spirit remained still concealed under the form of a servant, and in the lowliness of his walk and work. It was only after the work had been finished and accepted, that the Spirit was poured out in all his fulness upon his believing people; and the dove, which had erst descended into his heart, issued forth to move and to brood over the waters of the nations of the earth. Lange.—At his birth his person was owned; in his baptism his ministry is owned, and the Father is pleased in him; by and by he will, for the third time, be owned again, when his regal glory shines for a moment around him; and then there will be the addition, “hear ye him.” Later still these attestations will all be confirmed; not by words only, but by solemn acts, and the resurrection will at length declare him to be the Son of God with power. His person, his ministry, and his dominion, all are owned. At each stage the full pleasure of God rests upon him; and at last the full subjection of the earth is demanded for him. J. A. L. 23. Began to be. It should be translated, “was about thirty years old when he began”—i. e., his public life and ministry. L.—The Jewish priests were required to be thirty years old before they were allowed to officiate in their ministry. Pearce. J. 16. Grace for grace—i. e., grace upon grace (as all the best interpreters), in successive communications and larger measures. B.—So inexhaustibly rich is his fulness, that not only all receive from it a full sufficiency, but each receiver of grace takes away grace for grace; for every grace received is the earnest of one yet to be received. R. B.—Grace, like life itself, is a principle of growth: the more we have, the more we shall receive, “grace for grace,” grace upon grace, one measure drawing after it another, until we shall be filled with all the fulness of God. A divine dignity was stamped upon our humanity by the incarnation of Christ; but the blessing and the glory that he brought will come to us personally only as we receive his grace by believing on his name. J. P. T. 17. The law was given by Moses. The moral law, full of high and holy demands, and of stern threatenings against disobedience; and the ceremonial law, full of burdensome sacrifices, ordinances, and ceremonies, which never healed the worshipper’s conscience, and at best were only shadows of good things to come. Grace and truth by Jesus Christ. Grace by the full manifestation of God’s plan of salvation, and the offer of complete pardon to every soul that believes on Jesus; and truth, by the unveiled exhibition of Christ himself, as the true sacrifice, the true priest, and the true atonement for sin. J. C. R.—By him grace has come, which the law, working wrath, only teaches men to feel the want of, but does not offer for their acceptance; and by him also, truth has come, which the law, prophesying of future blessings, only indicates and shadows forth, but does not actually bring to pass or realize. Moses was not himself the law, but he was the servant through whom God gave his law. Jesus Christ is himself the grace and he is himself the truth; the very substance of his announcement is contained in his person and his work. Jesus Christ! In that name, which henceforward the evangelist gives to the incarnate Word—in that name is grace and truth. “He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” R. B. 18. Only-begotten Son. What means that significant word, “only-begotten,” if Jesus is not a Son in some sense that we are not, and never can be, sons? There is that in Jesus Christ which separates him even from this spiritual nature in humanity, distinguishes him from the best dignity in man, and exalts him above even our highest honors. There is a line drawn between his soul and our souls, not cutting us off from his perfect sympathy, not barring us from his fellowship, not veiling his face with any dimness from ours, but marking us, in our nature, as human; and him, in his nature, as divine. F. D. H.—In the bosom of the Father. John remembers how he himself lay on Jesus' bosom, and he can think of no more tender expression to describe that most intimate, ever-blessed communion of the only-begotten Son with the Father than this. R. B. Declared him. A remarkable expression, here only used, presupposing the Son's conscious existence distinct from the Father, and expressing his immediate and most endeared access to and absolute acquaintance with him. He—emphatic—"He and he only hath declared him," because he only can. B.—He has explained, truly and fully, in his words and in his life; his instruction alone merits the name of an explanation; he is the expounder of God and divine things. Here is the origin of all true exegesis: Christ is the revealer and expounder of God, the Holy Ghost the revealer and expounder of Christ and his word. P. S. ## Section 15.—The Temptation. Wilderness of Judea. Mk. 1 And it came to pass on a certain day that again he entered into Capernaum, after 2 some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.L. 17 And as he was teaching, there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of 18 the Lord was present to heal them. And behold, men come unto him bringing a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed which was borne of four. And they sought to bring 19 him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, nor find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken it up, they let him down through the tiling with his couch, into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.21 And behold, certain of the scribes and Pharisees sitting there began to reason within themselves, saying, Who is this which blasphemeth? Why doth this man thus speak Mk. 8 blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, answering their thoughts he said unto them, Why reason ye these things? Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? 9 For whether is it easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to 10 say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man 11 hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto 12 thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, took up the bed whereon he lay, went forth before them all, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. But when the multitude saw it, they were all amazed, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men; and they were filled with fear, saying, We never saw it on this fashion; we have seen strange things to-day.13 And after these things he went forth again by the sea side, and all the multitude re- 14 sorted unto him, and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw a publican, named Matthew or Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. THERE had never appeared in any age such a man, such a friend, or such a helper. He seemed the contrast of a king or prince, and yet all his words were kingly; all his acts a succession of the kingliest deeds, decisions, and commands. By his works and life, he established in the midst of the old theocracy the framework of an empire before which all former religious systems were to fade away. But though his absolute self-control was never intermitted, there were times when the claims of the truth, or the service of his kingdom, brought out the full grandeur of his power and kingly greatness. It was thus when he had to meet and confute prejudice and error, or to heal the sick and diseased. At times we shall see him forced to blame and condemn, but this was only a passing shadow on the clear heaven of his unvarying grace and love. It is impossible to realize such an appearance, but we can imagine it in some measure. The stainless truth and uprightness which filled his whole nature; the exhaustless love and pity which were the very breath of his spirit; the radiant joy of the bridegroom wedding redeemed humanity; the calm light as of other worlds in his every look, may well account for the deathless love and devotion he inspired in those whom he suffered to follow him. G. L. 17. Doctors of the law: Scribes or Rabbis.—The rabbis were the heads of the nation in the widest sense, for the religion of the people was also their politics. They were the theologians, the jurists, the legislators, the politicians, and, indeed, the soul of Israel. The people gloried in them as the crown of Israel, and its distinguishing honor above all other nations. Their activity never rested. Whether as guests from the Holy City, or as residents, they pervaded the land, visiting every school and synagogue, to extend their influence by teaching and exhortations. This incident led to the first open difference between Jesus and this all-powerful order. G. 19. Jesus probably stood in the open lewan, or interior court, and the crowd were around and in front of him. Those who carried the paralytic, not being able “to come at him for the press,” ascended to the roof, removed so much of it as was necessary, and let down their patient through the aperture. Examine one of these houses, and you see at once that the thing is natural, and easy to be accomplished. The roof is only a few feet high, and by stooping down and holding the corners of the couch—merely a thickly-padded quilt, as at present in this region—they could let down the sick man without any apparatus of ropes or cords to assist them. And thus, I suppose, they did. The whole affair was the extemporaneous device of plain peasants, accustomed to open their roofs, and let down grain, straw, and other articles, as they still do in this country. W. M. T. 20. It was alike their faith and his which the Lord saw and rewarded. And this faith, as in the case of all whom he healed, was not as yet the reception of any certain doctrines, but a deep sense of need, and of Christ as the one who only could meet that need. T.—Be of good courage, my child; thy sins are forgiven thee. These first words of our Lord show that the man’s uppermost feelings were a deep sense of sin, and the doubt and fear which the sense of sin inspires. As he had lain, crippled and weary, on the bed to which his “sins” had conducted him, he had grown more sensitive to the guilt of his career. We cannot doubt that these tender words sufficed to dispel the man’s shame and fear, to quicken a dawning faith in his soul. Faith being quickened, the element in which Christ’s healing power can work is generated. With what infinite delicacy does Christ adjust himself to the man’s needs—forgiving his sins, removing his fears, quickening his faith, awakening hope, and afterward conferring health! S. Coz. It was a wondrous utterance, and must have sounded still more strangely when thus first heard, than to us who have been familiar with it from childhood. No one had ever heard him admit his own sinfulness. He showed no humility before God as a sinner; never sought pardon at his hands. The standard he demanded was no less than the awful perfection of God. But now he rises above any mere tacit assumption of sinless purity by his claim, not only to announce the forgiveness of sins by God, but himself to dispense it. It was at once a proclamation of his own sinlessness, and of his kingly dignity as the Messiah, in whose hands had been placed the rule over the new theocracy. The rabbis felt, in a moment, all that such words implied. The law knew no such form as an official forgiving of sins, or absolution. Forgiveness was the direct act of God; no human lips dared pronounce it. It was a special prerogative of the Almighty; even should mortal man venture to declare it, he could only do so in the name of Jehovah, and by his immediate authorization. But Jesus had spoken in his own name. He had not hinted at being empowered by God to act for him. It was the turning-point in the life of Jesus, for the accusation of blasphemy, now muttered in the hearts of the rabbis present, was the beginning of the process which ended, after a time, on Calvary; and he knew it. G. Mk. 10, 11. The Pharisees, always on the watch, seized upon this opportunity to renew their accusations; he had claimed a fulness of power which belonged to God alone; the power, namely, to forgive sins. Perceiving their irritation, he appealed to a fact which could not be denied, as proof that he claimed no power which he could not fully exercise. N.—“You ask an outward sign of the communication of inward grace—a proof within the cognizance of your senses of miraculous power; and that proof I will supply. J. A.—I will speak a word, I will claim a power, which if I claim falsely, I shall be convinced upon the instant to be an impostor and a deceiver. I will say to this sick man, ‘Rise up and walk;’ by the effects, as they follow or do not follow, you may judge whether I have a right to say to him, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’” T. That ye may know . . . I say unto thee. To the learned doctors who so love their logic that they must think as well as speak in it, he grants the logic they love. They ask a proof of him, and he gives them the very proof they ask. Abruptly breaking off while his sentence to them is incomplete, he finished it with a deed which spoke louder than words. At once to prove and confirm the man’s incipient faith, and to show that he has power to absolve him from his sins, the Lord turns to him with the words, “I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk!” S. Coz.—12. And immediately he arose, etc. The argument was unanswerable, for not only did the prevalent belief connect sickness in every instance with actual sin, but also it was generally maintained, even by the rabbis, "that no sick man is healed from his disease, until all his sins have been forgiven." It was, therefore, in full accordance with their own notions that he who by his own authority could heal diseases, could also, by his own authority, pronounce that sins were forgiven. F. 14. Matthew or Levi.** Matthew describes his calling, and adds "the publican" to his name in the list of apostles. Mark and Luke call him Levi, his Jewish name, and tell us that he was wealthy, "made a feast in his own house," but left all. J. G. B.—At or near Capernaum there was a receipt of custom. Lying as the town did at the nucleus of roads which diverged to Tyre, to Damascus, to Jerusalem, and to Sepphoris, it was a busy centre of merchandise, and therefore a natural place for the collection of tribute and taxes. These imposts were to the Jews preëminently distasteful. They were not only a badge of servitude; they were not only a daily witness that God seemed to have forsaken his land, but the mere payment of such imposts wore almost the appearance of apostasy to the scrupulous mind of a genuine Jew. F.—Jews who made themselves the instruments of this disgrace to their country, were accounted the vilest of the vile. They became in fact outcasts from all society except that of their own degraded class. They were not allowed to enter the synagogues or the temple, or to take any part in public prayers, nor were offerings accepted from them. K. His admission of a publican as a disciple could not fail to irritate his enemies still more. But he had no hesitation in his course. Sent to the lost, he welcomed to his inmost circle one of their number in whom he saw the germs of true spiritual life, in disregard of all the prejudices of the time, and all the false religious narrowness of ecclesiastical leaders. He desired, in the choice of a publican as apostle, to embody visibly his love for sinners, and show the quickening virtue of the kingdom of God even in the most unlikely. G.—He who came to seek and save the lost—he who could evoke Christian holiness out of the midst of heathen corruption—could make, even out of a Jewish publican, the apostle and the first evangelist of a new and living faith. It was the glorious unworldliness of a divine insight and a perfect love, and Matthew more than justified it by turning his knowledge of writing to a sacred use, and becoming the earliest biographer of his Saviour and his Lord. F. THUS ended the first year of the public life of Jesus. The fame of his wonderful works; the authority with which he delivered his doctrines; among the meeker and more peaceful spirits, the beauty of the doctrines themselves; above all, the mystery which hung over his character and pretensions, had strongly excited the interest of the whole nation. From all quarters—from Galilee, Perea, Judea, and even the remoter Idumea—multitudes approached him with eager curiosity. H. M. Jerusalem. L. 29 AND Levi made him a great feast in his own house. And it came to pass, that M. 10 as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, a great company of publicans and sinners came and sat down also with him and his disciples; for there were many, and they followed him. But when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they murmured against his disciples, and said unto them, Why eateth and drinketh your Master, why do ye eat and drink, with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, answering, he said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mk. 18 And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast, and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often, and make 19 prayers, but thy disciples fast not, but eat and drink? And Jesus said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast and mourn, while the bridegroom is 20 with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 21 And he spake also a parable unto them: No man seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment; else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old garment, and the rent is made worse, and the piece that was taken out of the new, agreeth not with L. 37 the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine will burst 38 the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must 39 be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. THERE is a religion, of which the Pharisaism of Christ's days was an exaggerated specimen—the very heart and soul of which consists in penances and prayers and fastings—in worship offered, in duties done, in sacrifices made, in mortifications inflicted and endured—all to soothe an agitated conscience, to win a peace with God, to eke out a hope of heaven. To this the faith that is in Christ our Saviour stands diametrically opposed—the one offering as a free gift what the other toils after as a reward; the one inviting us to begin when the other would have us end; the one putting forgiveness and acceptance with God in our hand and calling upon us, in the free spirit of his redeemed, forgiven, adopted children, to live and serve and in all things to submit to our Father which is in heaven—the other holding out the forgiveness and the acceptance away in the distance, and calling upon us, in the spirit of bondage, to labor all through life for their attainment; the one the old tattered garment, the other the piece of the new-made cloth. And the wine of the kingdom, ever as it pours itself afresh from its fountain-head on high into the spirit of man, is it not a new wine that needs new bottles to contain it? If it be indeed the spirit of Christ which is working in hearts that have been opened to receive it, may we not safely leave it to its own operation there, and allow it to shape the vessel that holds it as it likes? H. WHEN you take the entire attitude, bearing, and conduct of Jesus Christ as to their ablutions, their fastings, their prayers, their keeping of the Sabbath, their attendance at the feasts, it is not difficult to imagine what an inexplicable mystery he must have been to the superstitiously religious Jews among whom he lived. This man Christ Jesus—speaking so much and in such a way of God and godliness, proclaiming the advent of God's own kingdom on the earth, unfolding its duties, its privileges, its blessednesses, yet to them seeming so neglectful, so undevout, so irreligious! We may not be able now thoroughly to understand with what kind of eyes they looked upon that wonderful spectacle which the life of Jesus pressed upon their vision—but we should be capable of discerning the emphatic protest which that life was ever raising against all mere formal piety, the piety of times and seasons and ordinances, the religion of rule and of routine. H. M. 11-13. Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? The simple-minded apostles were perhaps unable to explain; but Jesus at once faced the opposition, and told these murmuring respectabilities that he came not to the self-righteous, but to the conscious sinners. He came not to the folded flock, but to the straying sheep. It was his will not to thrust his grace on those who from the very first wilfully steeled their hearts against it, but gently to extend it to those who felt their need of it. And then, referring them to one of those palmary passages of the Old Testament (Hos. 6: 6), which even in those days had summed up the very essence of all that was pleasing to God in love and mercy, he borrowed the phrase of their own rabbis, and bade them—these teachers of the people, who claimed to know so much—to "go and learn" what that meaneth, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." F.—Many of these poor publicans and sinners—excommunicated though they might be—very careless about religious rites—were men of simpler, more honest natures, kindlier in their dispositions, and, in a sense, too, more devout, than many of these pretentious pietists. "Go," said Jesus to those who imagined themselves to be righteous and despised others—"Go, and learn what that meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice"—mercy rather than sacrifice if the two be put in comparison; mercy alone, and no sacrifice, if the two are put in opposition—mercy among publicans and sinners rather than sacrifice or any amount of ceremonial observances among scribes and Pharisees. H.—The very essence of the Jewish sacrificial system was that it expressed the infinite mercy of God, in providing a way of pardon for sin. To be without the spirit of mercy was really to lose the meaning and heart of the sacrifices; as now, to hold to the doctrine of Christ's atoning sacrifice, but to be without the spirit which leads to personal self-sacrifice for the salvation of others, is to be without the spirit of Christ. L. A. 13. Not the righteous, but sinners. Nothing can mark the grandeur of his enthusiasm for humanity, more than that he thus proposed to lay the foundation of his kingdom in a class on which the priests and theologians, and the higher ranks of the day, looked down with haughty contempt and moral aversion. It shows how deeply he looked into things, that he recognized the greater openness of the truth of castes thus discredited; their franker and more decisive bearing toward the startling innovations of his teaching; their deeper longing for peace of conscience and reconciliation to God. Mk. 18. Jesus had silently left the harsh discipline of fasting behind, and had prescribed no formal rules for prayer, such as were common to the rabbis and their disciples, and to those of the Baptist; and now a deputation came to ask him for an explanation. G.—Pharisees fast often. Although they had instituted a fast twice in the week (on Thursday, because on that day Moses was believed to have reascended Mount Sinai; on Monday, because on that day he returned), this was but a traditional institution, so little sanctioned by the Mosaic law, that in it but one day of fasting was appointed for the entire year, the day of atonement. F. 19,20. He here gives the questioners to understand that if they would but recognize in him the bridegroom, if they but were the bridegroom's friends, marriage-guests' joy would drive all thoughts of fasting from their minds. C. B.—Calmly forecasting his own departure, our Lord inspired his disciples with courage and hope. The thought of Christ as our present Saviour should dispel from our religion all tinge of asceticism or gloom. The world needs the example of a cheerful piety to win it to the Church: the joy of the Lord is our strength. J. P. T.—Christ here presents himself as "the Bridegroom;" intending, as we may very well suppose, to remind the disciples of John that under this very aspect their own master had so recently hailed him. How large an amount of the Old Testament in this single phrase does he claim for himself, and as finding its fulfilment in him! How much in the New Testament, only hereafter to be uttered, does he already anticipate in this significant word! T. 21. When the garment is indeed worn out (for "old" here can mean nothing short of this), it would be no true economy to endeavor with a new piece, which would not match with the threadbare old, to fit it for use again. As such an ancient garment, the great Author of all the economies in the Church of God would here characterize that elder economy, given by the hand of Moses; whereof these obligatory fasts, which men were now seeking to thrust on his disciples, formed a part. This likening of that elder dispensation to such a worn-out garment may seem harshly spoken; yet the language is not stronger than that which Paul uses (Gal. 4: 3, 9), nor than that employed in Heb. 7: 18, where the apostle speaks of the disannulling of the commandment which went before "for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof." "It would profit nothing," Christ would here say, "to seek to attach my new as a patch to that old of yours. My doctrine is something more than a mere supplement to yours, to repair that, where it is outworn. It is something which is all of a piece, not a righteousness of works, eked out and patched here and there with the righteousness of faith, but from head to foot a new garment for souls." It was exactly such a piece of patchwork as this, which the Galatians actually attempted, and for which Paul chides them so earnestly. T. The old nature cannot be renewed by the imposition from without of the exercises of fasting and prayer; no outward and compulsory asceticism can change it. A mere renewal from without is at best an artificial, hypocritical thing. The new cloth is torn, and a patch laid upon the old that does not fit it. N.—Institutions must conform to the doctrine which they embody. They must be new, because that is new. A new type of piety must create a new ritual congenial with itself. It will not brook customs incongruous with it. G. P. F. L. 37, 38. New wine in new bottles As the first comparison had chiefly to do with doctrine, something therefore more external, even as a garment is worn on the outside of the body, this with life, that which is more inward, as wine is inwardly received. T.—Let not the Pharisees think that the new wine of the kingdom, the fresh spirit of love to God and man, which Jesus came to breathe into regenerated humanity, could be safely poured into their old bottles—into those forms and ceremonies of worship, dry as dust, and brittle as the thinnest, most withered piece of leather. No, there must be new bottles for the new wine, bottles that will yield to the pressure from within, and expand as the fermenting liquid which they contain expanded. And such new bottles as were thus required Jesus was finding—not in priestly men, chained up from childhood within priestly habits—not in those rigid Levitical institutions which the long years had been stiffening into an immovable inflexibility: but in these fishermen, these publicans—natural, homely, unlearned men, open to imbibe his spirit in all its richness and expansiveness; and in those simple forms and institutions of Christianity, which, cramped by no formal injunctions, were to be left free to take such new outward shapes as the indwelling spirit might mould. H.—The new wine was already bursting the old bottles, and the result could not be doubtful. Conservatism felt itself imperilled, for it had been weighed, and found wanting. The sacrifices were mere outward forms; the temple, notwithstanding the glory with which Herod's love of magnificence and hypocritical piety had adorned it, was a symbol of exclusiveness, intolerance, and hatred of humanity at large; the high officialism of the day a dam against every reform, every breath of fresh religious thought, and every attempt at a purer spiritual life. G. 39. He graciously proceeds to make excuse for the disciples of John. Was it to be expected that their own, to which these had been accustomed so long, should grow out of favor with them on the instant, even though he offered to them something better in its room? But let them have time and opportunity to wean themselves from that old, and doubtless there would be found among them those who would grow into liking of this new, which indeed in a higher sense is the oldest of all. T.—The “new wine” seems plainly to be the evangelical freedom which Christ was introducing; and the old, the opposite spirit of Judaism: men long accustomed to the latter could not be expected “straightway”—all at once—to take a liking for the former. “These inquiries about the difference between my disciples and the Pharisees’, and even John’s, are not surprising; they are the effect of a natural revulsion against sudden change, which time will cure; the new wine will itself in time become old, and so acquire all the added charms of antiquity.” What lessons does this teach, on the one hand, to those who unreasonably cling to what is getting antiquated; and, on the other, to hasty reformers who have no patience with the timidity of their weaker brethren! B. ## Section 61.—Healing by the Touch of his Garment. Jairus’s Daughter. Capernaum. L. 41 And while he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a man named Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue; and when he saw him, he fell down at Jesus’ 42 feet and worshipped him, and besought him that he would come into his house: for he Mk.23 had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. And he be- sought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death, is even now dead: I pray thee come and lay thy hands upon her, that she may be healed; and she 24 shall live. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples. But as he went, much people followed him, and thronged him. 25 And behold, a certain woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things, and had spent all her living upon many physicians, neither 27 could be healed of any, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind him, and touched the border of his garment. 28, 29 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she 30 was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said unto him, Master, thou seest the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. And when the woman 33 saw that she was not hid, she came fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, and fell down before him, and told him all the truth; and declared unto him before all the people, for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. 34 And when he saw her, he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 35 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying 36 to him, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? But as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, 37 Be not afraid, only believe, and she shall be made whole. And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John the 38 brother of James, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And he seeth the tumult, the minstrels and people making a noise, and them that wept and wailed great- 39 ly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? 40 Give place: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. But, when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the 41 damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha- 42 cumi: which is, being interpreted, Damsel, (I say unto thee) arise. And her spirit came again, and straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve 43 years. And her parents were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be M. 26 given her to eat. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. THE simplest and obvious use of sorrow is to remind of God. Jairus and the woman, like many others, came to Christ from a sense of want. It would seem that a certain shock is needed to bring us in contact with reality. We are not conscious of our breathing till obstruction makes it felt. We are not aware of the possession of a heart till some disease, some sudden joy or sorrow, rouses it into extraor- dinary action. And we are not conscious of the mighty cravings of our half divine humanity; we are not aware of the God within us, till some chasm yawns which must be filled, or till the rending asunder of our affections forces us to become fearfully conscious of a need. F. W. R. Christ is now, as he was then, passing through the midst of men, if they would but see him. Still they throng and press and draw nothing from him, because they bring no eye to discern, and do not feel that need which opens the eyesight. We can take from him only what we perceive in him, and must urge the prayer that "God would reveal his Son in us!" . . . It is our hope and joy to think, as we touch him here, with the hands of dying men, that he is still passing on through the world to perform his great- est work—to raise the dead. Many a home like that of Jairus looks for his appearing. Himself the Risen One; he is advancing to awake his friends who have fallen asleep, and to comfort those who mourn over them, and who wait for his coming. He spreads his garment, meanwhile, as he moves, to the touch of misery and sin, and if he lingers in his progress to the homes of the dead, it is but to gather in his train the fuller fruits of his redeeming toil. His mercy and our need cause the seeming delay. His work on the way must be finished ere the close can come. Ere long he will enter that highest house, and we possess the privilege of the best-beloved, to enter the innermost chamber with him, where sorrow shall be turned into joy, and death into life, where faith which touches the hem shall rise to vision that beholds the face, and friends who part and weep at nightfall shall meet at day-dawn, in a world where the voice of crying shall not be heard any more, nor the shadow of death fall upon the heart forever. Ker. L. 41. It is not improbable that this ruler of the synagogue had been one of the very deputation who had pleaded with Jesus for the centurion-proselyte by whom it had been built. If so, he knew by experience the power of him to whom he now ap- pealed. F.—Mk. 23. Even now dead. She had been given over when her father left her, and actually was dead before he could return. He might therefore, when he applied to Christ, fear that she was at this time dead, and express his belief of it. D. 25-34. One always loves to think of the surrounding circumstances of this miracle—Christ called to the ruler's house filled with mourning and death, with his heart absorbed in the great work which lay before him. The thronging press of the people is around him, curious and expectant. But nothing far off or near, future or present, can shut out from him the appeal of misery. He is, always and everywhere, alive to a suppliant's touch. His very garment, to its hem, is instinct with his own spirit and sensitive to the most trembling hand. It is not less so now far up in heaven. The place which increases the sympathy of all hearts that enter there, has not diminished his. His garment, widespread and dropping low, is near our hand, and he feels a sinner's and a sufferer's touch upon his throne, with circle on circle of glory gathering round him, and saints and angels thronging in. He came down that, in his nearness to our misery, we might learn to know his heart, and he rose that we might be assured of his power to help and heal. So let us seek to read this incident and consider what it teaches. Ker. 28. If I may but touch.** There was in the woman a mixture of weakness and of faith. She could not think to steal a cure without the knowledge of him by whom it was wrought; or imagine a charm in the garment that Christ wore, which could produce such an effect, independent of his agency and will. Yet she acted as if she had thought thus; and a compassionate Redeemer commended her faith, and excused her infirmity. D.—In many, faith may be weak and ignorant, but touching Christ it is forgiven much. Many things were wrong in this woman's knowledge, but her faith was very full and absolute. Up to the measure of what she needed, her confidence was entire. Ker.—She believed that she was to receive something, a real blessing, from Christ. This was that in her which was not in the crowd around her. They all travelled on in the highway together, talked about Christ, were interested in him in various ways, discussed his origin and nature, hoped that some good would come of him to the nation. But the woman believed that she should personally receive new life from him. She knew she needed it; she knew she had nothing to buy it with—for she had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed of any, but rather grew worse. Most graphic history of how many hearts! She believed that she could have that new life by a touch. The reaching out of her hand was an expression of that faith. Another signal might probably have done just as well. In other cases a prayer was as effectual. But there must have been two things: the faith that she should receive the benefit, and some act to embody that faith and bring the benefit home. With faith, action. F. D. H. 29. And she felt that she was healed.** There was an inward sense, which could not be mistaken, of return to wholeness—the stanching of a wound through which life, for long years, had been slowly ebbing, and the rising of a tide of new existence which made her feel she could yet be, and do something, in God's world. When faith, under a sense of its need, touches Christ, the virtue that comes from him gives some such feeling to the soul. When that great transference of sin and spiritual sickness is made to the Saviour the soul is safe, entirely and eternally safe, through the grace of him who will keep that soul which we commit to his trust, and who will never suffer any one to pluck it out of his hand. Ker. 30,31. Knowing in himself. Conscious of the forthcoming of his healing power, which was not as in prophets and apostles, a power foreign to him, but dwelling in him. Somebody touched.** Yes, the multitude "thronged and pressed him," but all involuntarily; they were merely carried along: but one, one only, touched him, with the conscious, voluntary, dependent touch of faith, reaching forth its hand expressly to have contact with him. This and this only Jesus acknowledges and seeks out. Even so, multitudes still come similarly close to Christ in the means of grace, but all to no purpose. The voluntary, living contact of faith is that electric conductor which alone draws virtue out of him. B.—The only touch which reaches God is that of faith. The multitude may throng and press: but heart to heart, soul to soul, mind to mind, only so do we come in actual contact with God. F. W. R. 32-34. In this the loving and gracious dealings of the Son of man, who always sought to make through the healing of the body a way for the healing of the soul, are to be traced. She had borne away a maimed blessing, had she been suffered to bear it away in secret and unacknowledged. T.—Christ will have himself openly confessed, and not only secretly sought. Our Christian life is not, as it is sometimes called, merely a thing between ourselves and God; but a good confession to be witnessed "before all the people." A.—Her faith had made her whole, and Christ's virtue had made her whole. It is as when we say that faith justifies: our faith is not itself a blessing; but it is the organ by which the blessing is received; it is the right hand of the soul, which lays hold upon it. T.—It is a principle of God's kingdom, and a part of God's command, that a confession before men shall accompany the believing of the heart. If anybody could be excused, it would seem that she might be. But there is no exception, none; none for the proudest man, none for the weakest woman. Hitherto her offering is incomplete; she has brought her secret faith, but not herself; and true faith must keep nothing back that the Lord requires. Then the Lord uses for her encouragement a term of endearment he had not spoken before: "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole." Her faith had made the occasion—doing it mediately; his divine power had made the cure—doing it directly. Faith is the conditional cause; Christ himself is the efficient, energetic cause. And the acknowledgment of him is the signal of the final blessing which then falls in a benediction from his lips: "Go in peace." F. D. H. 25-34. There is not one of all our Saviour's many miracles of healing fuller of comfort and encouragement. Whenever we grow sad or despondent as we think how much of fear, or shame, or error, or weakness, or superstition mingles with the faith we cherish, if only the depth of the spiritual disease be felt, he who accepted this woman's faith with all its weakening ingredients, will not cast us off. A timid trembling touch of him, be it only the touch of humility and trust, will still bring forth that healing virtue which delights to pour itself freely into every open receptacle that is brought to it. H. 35-38. The message had not been addressed to Jesus, but he overheard it, and with a compassionate desire to spare the poor father from needless agony, he said to him those memorable words, "Fear not, only believe." They soon arrived at his house, and found it occupied by the hired mourners and flute-players, who, as they beat their breasts, insulted the dumbness of sincere sorrow, and the patient majesty of death. F. 39. As regards the Lord's words, that the maiden was not dead, but slept, he uses exactly the same language concerning Lazarus, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." The reality of the death is not denied, but only the fact implicitly assumed, that death will be followed by a resurrection as sleep is by an awakening. He, the Lord of life, takes away that word of fear, "She is dead," and puts in its room that milder word which gives promise of an awakening, "She sleepeth." T.—41. How could that touch, that call, be other than effectual? He, who made that hand, touched it; and he, who shall once say, "Arise, ye dead," said now, "Maid, arise." Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life. The soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of spirits; it cannot but go and come at his command. Bp. H.—Jesus seldom speaks of a future time in divine things. His sense was of the presentness of the true life. The maid was not dead to him—she was only sleeping. It is in harmony with the sublime familiarity of Jesus on all the points of this subject, which men had consecrated with all solemn symbols as the one great dread of the race, that he should have used the dear mother-call to this little girl—Talitha-cumi—as if she only had slept soundly for a night. . . . Who of us ever thinks of his sleeping family as in any sense lost to him? And it is only a deeper sleep that separates the departed. The home is unbroken. Its numbers are complete. The Son of man joins for us, by his precepts and promises, home and paradise. The Talitha-cumi, heard no more by the outward ear, is heard by faith. In the calm of the holy city, the redeemed awake to the light which needs no sun nor moon to create it. Over every silent grave the ear of faith can hear the words, I am the resurrection and the life—he that believeth in me, never dies. C. H. Hall. There is nothing more remarkable about these raisings from the dead by Jesus Christ than the simple, unostentatious way in which they were effected. "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" "Maid, arise!" "Lazarus, come forth!" It is in the style of him who said, "Let there be light, and there was light." They were the highest instances of the forth-putting of his divine almighty power. With respect to many of his other works, questions might be raised as to the nature or extent of the power required for their performance, but none as to these. . . . And if Jesus never presents himself to our eye in a diviner, never does he show himself in a more human aspect than in these raisings from the dead. They were those of the only son of a widowed mother, the only daughter of two fond parents, the only brother of two affectionate sisters. And in each case there was something singular in the tenderness of our Lord's conduct toward the mourners. He knew beforehand how speedily the anxiety would be relieved, the sorrow chased away; but the "Weep not" to the mother before he touched the bier, the "Fear not, only believe," to the agitated father, the tears that fell before the grave of Lazarus, what a testimony do they bear to the exquisite susceptibility of the Saviour's spirit—to the quickness, the fullness of his sympathy with human grief! It is even then, when he is most divine, that he is most human—when he lifts himself the highest above our level that he links himself the closest to us as a true brother of our humanity. 43. That no man should know it.** As we think of the difficulty, we might almost say impossibility, of such concealment, the thought occurs that it was not so much with any desire or intention to secure secrecy that the order was issued, as to prevent those who had the closest personal interest in the miracle being the first or the loudest in noising it abroad. 41-43. Jesus is the great raiser of human souls as well as of human bodies. All that are in the grave of sin, of spiritual death, may hear his voice. Awake, it says to each of us—awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life. Let us awake, and with life new-given turn to the life-giver; rejoicing to know that as tenderly as he handed her new-raised son to the widow of Nain, as tenderly as he ordered the food to be given to the little daughter of Jairus, as tenderly will he watch over the first stages of our spiritual being; and that as fully as the griefs of widowed mother and weeping parents were shared in of old by him in Galilee, as fully will he share in all the griefs of our earthly history, till he take us to that land where his own gracious hand shall wipe off the tears from every eye. H. ## Section 62.—Heals Two Blind, and a Dumb Demoniac. Again rejected at Nazareth. Third Circuit in Galilee. M. 27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, 28 Thou Son of David have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house the blind men came to him; and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do 29 this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According 30 to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straitly charged 31 them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. 32 And as they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a 33 devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake. And the multitude mar- 34 velled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils.Mk. 1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples 2 follow him. And when the sabbath-day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, and said, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works M. 55 are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the carpenter's son? Is not his 56 mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all here with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? 57 And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without Mk. 5 honour, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could do there no mighty works, because of their unbelief; save that he laid his hands 6 on a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.M. 35 And Jesus went round about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease 36 among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are 38 few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. THIS short sentence descends to the deepest depth of his being, and lays open the chief spring of all his movements: He had compassion on the multitudes. Spiritual truth was precious to him; he felt also the burden of a great mission, and he was tenderly alive to all the rights and claims of God. But he pitied and loved the multitude; their spiritual condition, their destinies, their necessities, and their sorrows oppressed his heart. In addition to all the force of fidelity to God, to himself, and to truth of which he was conscious, there were impulses of love and pity that gushed up ever warm and fresh in his bosom, and imparted a subduing tone to all his ministrations. Jesus saw an inexpressible worth in human nature. It is fallen and ruined, but it is a precious ruin. Y.—He came so nigh to us lost sinners, that he became like to us in all things except sin; nay, as the elder Brother, the kinsman Redeemer of his people, he undertook their full deliverance from all the consequences of their rebellion, bearing their griefs, carrying their sorrows, grappling with their temptations, working out their righteousness by his own perfect voluntary obedience, and dying—on the shameful, bitter, then accursed cross—their death to the broken law, that they might receive eternal life. Even now, upon the throne of his glory, he has not laid aside his sympathy, for he has carried up with him to the right hand of the Father the body which felt our pains, the heart which bled in our sorrows, and the mind that endured our trials. Blessed be his name! He is not the less man, though “crowned with glory and honor,” than when he resisted our tempter in the wilderness, sat wayworn and weary at the gate of Sychar, wept at the tomb of his friend, staggered under his cross amid the hootings of the multitude, or gave up the ghost in a cry of agony. Every pulsation of his human breast reminds him of his brethren below. He pleads for them as he shows the scars of his crucifixion. He exerts his almighty power in ordering all providence for their good, and in embellishing the mansions of heaven for their eternal home. Bethune. M. 28. Without noticing the men or their cry, he went to the house in Capernaum where he abode; nor was it until they had persistently followed him into the house that he tested their faith by the question, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” F.—This was the first case particularly mentioned of his giving sight to the blind: and it is distinguished from the other cases by the fact that it is the only one in which the cure is effected by simple touch. Incapable of receiving visual impressions by which their faith might be aided, they are helped by the sense of touch, which they could best apprehend. And even so still are men variously dealt with. The strong in faith have their faith tried; the weak in faith have their faith strengthened. K.—29. According to your faith. The faith, which in itself is nothing, is yet the organ of receiving everything. It places the man in relation with the divine blessing; of no esteem in itself, but only in its relation to its object. It is the bucket let down into the fountain of God’s grace. T. 30. Charged them.** The purpose of our Lord’s earnestness appears to have been to prevent the already excited people from taking some public measure of recognition, and thus arousing the malice of the Pharisees before his hour was come. A.—He must guard against precipitating the conflict with the ruling class, which he well knew could only have one issue, and must gain time to train his disciples, and to plant in the world the seed of divine truth. Hence the prudence which he showed in withholding the full disclosure of his own claims, in avoiding needless publicity, and in postponing the inevitable conflict, which was a consequence of his teaching and his works, until he should have time to lay the foundations, firm and broad, of his spiritual kingdom. G. P. F. 31. In these miracles of healing our Lord must have laid one of the largest of the foundation-stones of his Church. The healed knew him henceforth, not by comprehension, but with their whole being. Their very life acknowledged him. They returned to their homes to recall and love afresh. McD.—34. He casteth out through Beelzebub. Our Lord had confuted this calumny before (Section 47); yet they had the assurance to advance it again. D. Mk. 2. Well may we ask, as the Jews on this occasion did with another spirit, Whence hath this man wisdom? What education had Jesus, what patterns to form himself upon, to become the man he was? By what train of thinking could he be led to conceive, by what prospects could he be moved to undertake, by what power was he enabled to accomplish, the unparalleled things he did? To imagine that such a person could have existed by accident, is monstrously unreasonable. But that he should also have fallen by accident just into that single country, in which there was a system of religion that he could build on, with a series of predictions applicable to himself; and just at that period too, when these predictions had so pointed him out, as to raise a universal expectation of him, that, under all the disadvantages of a low condition, he should have spirit enough to make and maintain the highest of claims, sagacity enough to interpret the ancient oracles in a much sublimer and juster sense than any of the most learned instructors of the people, and self-denial enough to prefer, in consequence of these interpretations, persecution and crucifixion before the safety of a private station, or the splendor of offered dominion; that every one of these things (and many others equally strange) should meet in the same person, without the special appointment of heaven, exceeds all power of chance. Consider him only as a man, and he appears to have been the greatest and best of men. The general reasonableness of his doctrine, the coolness of his temper, the composedness and familiarity of his whole conversation, prove he was no enthusiast; the unvaried goodness of his life, the willingness with which he suffered death, the impossibility which he could not but see of attaining any worldly advantage by the course which he took, prove sufficiently well that he was no impostor. What must he then have been? And what else can we gather from his whole behavior, than what the spectators did from the finishing scene of it upon the cross, "Truly this was the Son of God?" Secker. M. 55. Of eighteen years of his life we possess no record whatever save such as is implied in a single word: "the carpenter" (Mk. 6 : 3). We may be indeed thankful that the word remains, for it is full of meaning, and has exercised a very noble and blessed influence over the fortunes of mankind. It has tended to console and sanctify the estate of poverty; to ennoble the duty of labor; to elevate the entire conception of manhood, as of a condition which in itself alone, and apart from every adventitious circumstance, has its own grandeur and dignity in the sight of God. Our Lord wished to show that labor is a pure and noble thing; it is the salt of life; it is the girdle of manliness; it saves the body from effeminate languor, and the soul from polluting thoughts. And therefore Christ labored, working with his own hands. F.—Work—the condition of health, the law of progress, the primal duty in Eden, and the safeguard of every virtue in all ages—is touched with a grand nobility by the spectacle of the carpenter of Nazareth. Idleness, in any rank, becomes doubly a vice from the remembrance of such a lesson. G.—His mother called Mary. The omission of Joseph's name has been universally accepted as an indication that he was dead; otherwise we might suppose that something contemptuous was intended by only mentioning the mother's name. F. THERE are three main views: (1) the Helvidian—that the brethren of the Lord were the actual children of Joseph and Mary; (2) the Hieronymian—that they were his first cousins, being sons of Mary and Alpheus; (3) the Epiphanian—that they were the sons of Joseph by a former marriage. Of these three theories, the second—that of Jerome—is decidedly the most popular, and the one which has least to be said for it. It has not a particle of tradition before the time of Jerome in its favor. Even Jerome, after his residence in Palestine, seems to have abandoned it; and it is perhaps sufficient to observe that, as it assumes three at least of these "brethren" to have been actual apostles, it is in flagrant contradiction to John 7 : 5, to say nothing of the fact that it depends on a number of very dubious hypotheses. The Epiphanian theory seems to have been the tradition of Palestine, and is the one current in the apocryphal gospels; but I still believe that the Helvidian has an overwhelming preponderance of argument in its favor. The only two serious arguments against it are: (a) The fact that our Lord intrusted his mother to the care of John, not of her own children; but this is accounted for by their acknowledged want of sympathy with him up to that time. (b) The fact that the names of the sons of Alpheus were identical with those of the Lord's brethren; but these names were as common among the Jews as John and William among us. Undoubtedly the Helvidian view—that they were actual sons of Joseph and Mary—is most in accordance with the simple interpretation of the gospel narratives F. The term brethren is never used in the New Testament to signify a wider relationship than true brothers; though its use in a metaphorical sense (e. g., Matt. 12 : 49) is not uncommon. The Old Testament references do not justify us in depriving it in the New Testament of its natural and normal meaning. The more general term kinsman, though of frequent use in the New Testament, and the more precise designations of cousin, and sister's son, are never used in respect to the brethren of the Lord. In every instance in the gospels they are mentioned in connection with Jesus' mother, and in such a manner as to imply that they were part of Mary's household; while there is nothing to imply that they were either children of Joseph by a former marriage, or adopted children. L. A.—Further, there is no allusion whatever in the gospels to a former marriage of Joseph, and no hint of the childlessness of Mary after the birth of Jesus. They rather assume that she had a family, since Jesus is twice spoken of as her "first-born." In the history, Jesus himself is mentioned, without any limitation, as the brother of those named. The names of his brothers, and the fact of his having sisters, are given by his fellow-townsmen of Nazareth, without a hint at their being only cousins, or half-blood to him. In other places where "brethren" are mentioned, at times in connection with Mary herself (Matt. 12 : 46), the current use of the word precludes the idea of any other than the full relationship. The substitution of cousins for brothers throughout, is, indeed, wholly arbitrary and contrary to the usage of the language. G. After weighing all the objections which have been adduced, I can see no sufficient reason for rejecting the first and most natural reading of the passages referred to, for not believing that they were brothers and sisters of Jesus, who grew up along with him in the household at Nazareth. Perhaps our readiness to admit this may partly spring from our not sharing the impression that there is anything in such a belief either derogatory to the character of Mary, or to the true dignity of her first-born Son. H.—Neither his nor her honor requires the perpetual virginity after his birth, unless there be something impure and unholy in the marriage relation itself. The latter we cannot admit, since God instituted marriage in the state of innocence in Paradise, and Paul compares it to the most sacred relation existing, the union of Christ with his Church. And the apostles and evangelists, who are certainly much safer guides in all matters of faith and religious feeling than even fathers and reformers, seem to have had no such feeling of repugnance to a real marriage between Joseph and Mary. It may be regarded as another proof of the true and full humanity and the condescending love of our Saviour, if he shared the common trials of family life in all its forms, and moved a brother among brothers and sisters, that he might be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. P. S. 57. They were offended in him.** The grand fundamental article of all their creed was that their Messiah should be a temporal prince. They fancied nothing but triumphs and trophies, and all the nations under the victorious conduct of their Messiah. They expected such a one as should disenslave them from the Roman yoke; make the Senate stoop to their Sanhedrim, and the Capitol do homage to their Temple. With such fancies and expectations how would they receive a person bearing himself for the Messiah, yet in the poor habit of a mechanic, and preaching to them nothing but humility, self-denial, and contempt of those temporal glories which they had made the very design of their religion? What! shall we receive a threadbare Messiah, one fitter to wield a saw or hatchet than a sceptre? Can such a one be a fit person to step into the throne of David, to redeem Israel, and to cope with all the Roman power? R. S. Mk. 5. Because of their unbelief. The object of his miracles, then, was not to convince wilful skeptics of his divine authority; if it were, he would have done the most miracles where the unbelief was strongest. To use the miracles as an argument for the divine authority of Christianity, with those who deny its authority and reject its teachings, is to misapprehend their purport and aim. They are the seal of his divine authority, to those who are morally and spiritually ready to receive the truth, but need for it some external sanction. L. A.—Unbelief, and contempt of the divine word, drive Christ out of the heart, as they did out of his own country. Faith seems to put the almighty power of God into the hands of man; whereas unbelief seems to tie up even the hands of the Almighty. Q. M. 35. Teaching—healing. Jesus, on all occasions, discovers himself to be, what his name implies, the Saviour. He goes about, not to gratify or profit himself, but to diffuse his benefactions. He either teaches, or comforts, or raises from the dead, or heals, or feeds, or delivers, or departs into a mountain to pray. And all for us. For us he preaches, that we may learn the truth; for us he heals, and performs various miracles, that we may believe him; for us, no less, he retires; for us he prays; for us he gives thanks to the Father. Thus he changes his situation often, his disposition never. Horne. 38. The Church, in its missionary character, should take this precious saying along with M. 28: 18–20; the one as the directory of its devotional, the other of its active work, as Christ's instrument for evangelizing the world, and every Christian should do the same. Ministers of Christ are God's gifts to a perishing world, to be sought by prayer, offered up in the spirit of the Saviour's own compassion. B. The plain of Esdraelon constitutes one of the great physical features of Palestine. Intersecting the country from east to west, it opens eastwardly on the valley of the Jordan, and westwardly on the Mediterranean Sea. The central portion is an immense triangle, the apex of which is toward the west, at the southeast end of Mt. Carmel; its sides being the mountain-ranges of Galilee and Samaria—the one running east twelve miles, the other southeast eighteen miles, from Carmel; and the base being a line twelve or fifteen miles in length, from Jenin northward to below Nazareth, touching the western ends of Gilboa and Little Hermon. The ridges of Little Hermon and Gilboa divide the portion of the plain east of the triangle into three nearly equal parts; the middle part being the famous "valley of Jezreel," leading down to the Jordan by a gentle decline. The name Esdraelon is a Greek form of the Hebrew Jezreel. N. C. B. Southwest of the lake, between the northern uplands and the range of Carmel, stretched out the plain of Esdraelon, the market of Galilee. Beyond other parts of the province, this great plain was crowded with life, and covered with fruitful fields, vineyards, and orchards, in the days of our Lord. Jewish writers are never tired of praising Galilee as a whole. Its climate was a wellnigh perpetual spring, its soil the most fertile in Palestine, its fruits renowned for their sweetness. For sixteen miles round Sepphoris and Nazareth, the land, it was boasted, flowed with milk and honey. The whole province was, and is even still, full of verdure, and rich in shade and pleasantness, the true country of the Song of Songs, and of the lays of the well-beloved. It was a region where rich woods crowned the higher hills and mountains; where the uplands, gentle slopes, and broader valleys were rich in pastures, cultivated fields, vineyards, olive-groves, orchards, and palm-groves. G. Galilee. L. 1 And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn-fields: and his disciples were an hungered, and began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath-day. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful? And Jesus answering them, said, Have ye never read so much as this, what David did, when he had need and was an hungered, he and they that were with him; how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high-priest, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law how that on the sabbath-days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. L. 6 And it came to pass also on another sabbath, when he was departed thence, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and behold, there was a man there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath-day: and they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath-days? that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the sabbath-days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? But they held their peace. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath-days. Mk. 5 And when he had looked round about upon them all with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and his hand was restored whole, like as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees were filled with madness, and went out, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. And straightway they took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. But Jesus, when he knew it, withdrew himself from thence with his disciples to the sea. VIRTUE goes out of Christ. The shrunken hand instantly acquires a healthful color, and swells into its right proportions. In his joy the man shuts and opens it; moves the pliant fingers; and holds the miracle aloft to the gaze of a crowd, dumb with astonishment. Give him a harp, and with that hand he would sweep its sounding strings to the praise of Jesus. Pattern to men who have souls to be saved, and hearts to cure, he did what he could—using all means within his power to obtain the blessing. And, did people, with equal eagerness, repair to the church on Sabbath, as he to the synagogue, to meet Jesus Christ, and with the same earnestness and the same faith, lay out their sins and soul's sorrows before him, our Sabbaths would witness greater works than this—he who healed that withered hand healing withered hearts, and, whether they required to be saved or sanctified, giving power to them that have no might. Guthrie. 1. More properly translated “the second-first Sabbath,” and was probably a sort of proper name for the first Sabbath after the second day of the Passover or of unleavened bread; that is, the first of the seven Sabbaths reckoned between that day and Pentecost. R.—Went through the corn-fields. The Scriptures are almost entire strangers to the word fence, as they are to the word road. We read of ways and highways, instead of roads; and fences were for towns rather than for fields. In the absence of fences, there was of course the greater need of such laws concerning trespass as Moses instituted. This account seems a picture from life in modern Palestine. N. C. B.—Pluck the corn and eat. The law and practice of Palestine continue to be this day what they were so many thousand years ago (Deut. 23 : 25). We travelled in that country once in spring, before the ears of corn were full. Nothing surprised us more than the liberties which our guides took in riding through the fields and letting their horses eat as much of the standing corn as they pleased. We felt at first as if we were trespassers and thieves, but were relieved by finding that it was done under the eye and with the full consent of the owners of the crops. H.—So I have often seen my muleteers, as we passed along the wheat-fields, pluck off ears, rub them in their hands, and eat the grains, unroasted, just as the apostles are said to have done. This also is allowable. The Pharisees did not object to the thing itself, only to the time when it was done. W. M. T.—The rabbis had decided that to pluck corn was to be construed as reaping, and to rub it as threshing. F. ONE principal end of the sabbatic institute was to preserve a knowledge of, and a faith in, the one living and true God as the creator of all things. There was no rite, nor institution, not even circumcision, by which the Jews were more conspicuously distinguished from surrounding nations, and marked off as the worshippers of Jehovah. Their Sabbath-keeping was a perpetual and visible token of the connection in which they stood to God, and of the great mission which they were set apart to discharge. But, as the faith of the people grew weak, and their allegiance faltered, they began to profane the day by breaking in upon that rest from all ordinary occupations, which should have been observed. Thus, among other distinctive marks of their peculiarity as the only worshippers of the great Creator, this one became obscured and wellnigh obliterated. A singular change came over the Jewish people after the restoration from the Babylonian captivity. Previously they were ever and anon showing a tendency to idolatry; subsequently no such tendency appears. Previously they had been neglectful of many of the distinctive rites and ceremonies of their faith; subsequently they became strict and punctilious in their observance of them. Great national calamities—the persecution under the successors of Alexander the Great, the wars of the Maccabees, the aggression of the Romans, the ascent into power of the Idumean family of the Herods, the establishment of the schools of the rabbis—all conspired to intensify the national pride and religious bigotry of the Jews; who, as they had nothing but the old laws and traditions to cling to, clung to them with all the more tenacious grasp. The sect of the Pharisees arose, and carried the popular sympathy along with it. Everything regarded as purely and peculiarly Judaic was exaggerated. Punctilious observance of the old ritual was the one great merit compensating for all defects; while around the simpler statute-law of Moses there arose an oral or traditional law, growing continually in bulk and overshadowing the primitive Mosaic institute. Upon each statute additions and explanations were heaped of such a character as to turn more and more the keeping into a mere external routine and outward performance. So fared it with the old, broad, and benignant law as to the Sabbath. Its primary injunction, “Thou shalt do no manner of work,” was falsely held as aimed at all kinds of work whatever; no less than thirty-nine kinds or classes of work being specified as involved in the prohibition. It was ruled thus that grass should not be trodden on the Sabbath, for the bruising of it was a species of harvest work; that shoes with nails should not be worn, as that was the carrying a burden. In all this there was not only a wrong rendering of the Mosaic precept, but much worse than that, there was the erection of a false standard of duty, a false test of piety—the elevation of the outward, the positive, the ceremonial, over the inward, the moral, the spiritual; the putting of the letter that killeth above the spirit which maketh alive. H. M. 5, 6. He begins with his opponents upon their own ground. “You yourselves admit that the priests who serve the temple on the Sabbath must break the literal sabbatical law in view of the higher duties of the temple-service.” Then he continues, “But I say unto you, there is something here greater than the temple.” In these, as in many of Christ’s words, there is more than meets the ear. When we remember the sanctity of the temple in Jewish eyes, as the seat of the Shechinah, as the only place where God could ever be worshipped, we can conceive the weight of Christ’s declaration that his manifestation was something greater than the temple, and was to introduce a revelation of the glory of God, and a mode of divine worship to which the temple-service was entirely subordinate. We may infer Christ’s conclusion to have been, “If the priests have been freed from the literal observance of the Sabbath law because of their relation to the temple, heretofore the highest seat of worship, how much more must my disciples be freed from the letter of that law by their relation to that which is greater than the temple! (Their intercourse with him was something greater than temple-worship.) They have plucked the corn on the Sabbath, it is true, but they have done it that they might not be disturbed in their communion with the Son of man, and in reliance upon his authority. They are free from guilt, then, for the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” He thus laid the foundation for that true, spiritual worship to which the temple-service was to give way. N.—The temple—the seat of the Shechinah, the visible majesty of the divine presence—released the priesthood from the strict observance of the sabbatical law. They might offer their sacrifices. How much higher the claim to liberty on the part of the disciples through their connection with him! How natural to conclude that he who was greater than the temple is to take its place! G. P. F. Or have ye not read? His deep knowledge of the Scriptures shows itself throughout the gospels. He has a quotation ready to meet every hostile question. It was so profound that it forced even his enemies to recognize him as a rabbi. His frequent retort on the rabbis themselves—“Have ye not read?” and the deep insight into the spirit of Scripture, which opposes to rubrics and forms the quickening power of a higher life, prove how intensely he must have studied the sacred books. G. 7. The quotation (Hos. 6 : 7) bears this translation, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” the words themselves containing one of those prophetic glimpses of the gospel, one of those slights cast upon the law intimating that God had something better and higher in store for his people. The prophet of the old covenant is here anticipating the great apostle of the new, in his saying, 1 Cor. 13 : 1–3. He is declaring, That which God longs for on the part of men is not the outward observance, the sacrifice in the letter, but the inward outpouring of love—that which the “sacrifice” symbolized, the giving up of self in the self-devotion of love. This must underlie every outward sacrifice and service to give it value; and when the question arises between the form and the spirit, then the form must yield to the life, as the meaner to the more precious. T. Mk. 27. That is: Man was not created for the purpose of honoring the Sabbath; but as soon as created, the Sabbath was made to promote the best welfare of man, and, therefore, to his best welfare it must ever be held subordinate. It was made for man; not for any particular nation, but for the race; for the spiritual benefit of mankind. The very act of authoritatively regulating the duties of the Sabbath, while it doubtless implies an authority to abolish the institution, was really an authoritative recognition of it. As the authority was not used in abolishing, its effect was to confirm the ordinance. Stone. (Read Section 184.)—The end for which the Sabbath was ordained was to bless man; the end for which man was created was not to observe the Sabbath. A principle is here laid down, which must extend to the whole circle of outward ordinances. It does in fact say this, The law was made for man; not man for the law. Man is the end, and the ordinances of the law the means; not these the end, and man the means. Man was not made to the end that he might observe these; but these were given, that they might bless man, that they might train and discipline him till he should be ready to serve God from the free impulses of his spirit. T. 28. Lord even of the Sabbath.** As naked a claim to all the authority of Him who gave the law at Sinai as could possibly be made. B.—These words are inseparable from the meaning of our Lord’s answer. In pleading the example of David, the king and prophet, and of the priests in the temple, the Lord tacitly implies the greatness of his own position. He is indeed Prophet, Priest, and King; and had he been none of these, the argument would have been not merely incomplete, but misleading. It is undeniable that the law of the Sabbath was very strict. Our Lord quotes cases where the law is superseded or set aside, because he is One who has power to do the same. S. L. 9. They had put the alternatives of doing or not doing; here there might be a question. But he shows that the alternatives are, doing good or failing to do good—which last he puts as identical with doing evil, the neglecting to save as equivalent with destroying. Here there could be no question. T.—By this novel way of putting his case, our Lord teaches the great ethical principle, that to neglect any opportunity of doing good is to incur the guilt of doing evil; and by this law he bound his own spirit. B. Mk. 5. It was the sight of men, who, laying hold of one of his Father’s most merciful institutes, had exalted it into a place of false importance, attaching a specific virtue to the bare outward keeping of the letter, magnifying the minutest acts of bodily service, finding therein the materials which self-righteousness employed for defrauding the poor, the needy, and the diseased of that help which charity was ready to render—such was the source of that anger with which Jesus looked round about on the scribes and Pharisees. H.—Being grieved. One of the most striking and graphic descriptions in the gospels. It was thus that he bare even while on earth our infirmities and our sins. Their hearts were hardened—but he grieved for it. A. He stretched it forth. He believes that Christ can give the strength to execute the command. It is in that faith he acts, and, paradoxical as it may seem, let us say that, if in that faith he had not made the effort, he never would have got the strength; and yet if he had not got the strength, he never could have made the effort. Stretch forth thy withered heart to love—thy withered hand to serve—such is still his command. Fixing an eye of faith on him, who has already fixed his eye of love on us, let us make the effort, and in the very making of the effort we shall get the strength. H. 6. Filled with madness.** Thus in every way were his enemies foiled—foiled in argument, shamed into silence, thwarted even in their attempt to find some ground for a criminal accusation. For even in healing the man, Christ had done absolutely nothing which their worst hostility could misconstrue into a breach of the Sabbath law. He had not touched the man; he had not questioned him; he had not bid him exercise his recovered power; he had but spoken a word, and not even a Pharisee could say that to speak a word was an infraction of the Sabbath, even if the word were followed by miraculous blessing! Took counsel with the Herodians. Hitherto they had been enemies of the Herodians. They regarded them as half-apostate Jews, who accepted the Roman domination, imitated heathen practices, adopted Sadducean opinions, and had gone so far in their flattery to the reigning house that they had blasphemously tried to represent Herod the Great as the promised Messiah. But now their old enmities were reconciled in their mad rage against a common foe. F.—The Herodians were such Jews as favored Herod Antipas, and thus, outwardly at least, were friends of Rome, whose vassal Antipas was. Antipas had seen Judea and Samaria made a Roman procuratorship, and longed to get them back for himself, as a son of Herod, of whose kingdom they had been part. Intrigues to gain this end led to standing enmity between him and the rest of the family on the one side, and the procurators on the other. Disappointment at the results of annexation to Rome had made some look with kindlier feeling on the Idumean dynasty, which in its turn felt itself endangered by the claims of Jesus to set up a new kingdom. The Herodians in the end got their wish, when Agrippa I. (A. D. 37) was appointed king, and a Herod kingdom was thus again set up for a time. Even the Pharisaic or national party, indeed, came in the end to favor this scheme, in their deadly hatred of Rome. The alliance with the Herodians against Jesus was the first step in this new political path. G. ## Section 34.—Healing at the Seaside. The Apostles chosen. Mk.19 And they went into an house. And the multitude cometh together again, so that 20, 21 they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself. M. 22 Then was brought unto him one possessed of a devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that it came to pass when the devil was gone out the blind and dumb 23 both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? 24. But the Pharisees, when they heard it, and the scribes which came down from Jerusalem, said, This fellow hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out 25 devils. But Jesus knew their thoughts, and called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. 26 And if Satan rise up against and cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: how 27 shall then his kingdom stand? He cannot stand, but hath an end. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be 28 your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God 29 is come unto you. No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 31. Wherefore, verily, I say unto you, All manner of sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come: he hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. 33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good: or else make the tree corrupt, and his 34 fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak- 35 eth. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: 36 and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the 37 day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. GOODNESS, in the spiritual representation of Christ, is a certain interior disposition, a frame of the soul, where the first fixed choice is for righteousness, and the first fixed love is for God. Goodness, then, lies not so much in specific deeds as in the faithful heart; not so much even in special attainments as in that principle of a consecrated will which presides over all our doings and gettings; not so much in this or that act, or even series of acts, as in that pervading and supreme purpose or motive which, having been appropriated from Christ himself, rules the general tenor and course of life into harmony with his spirit; not so much in outward manifestations as in an internal aspiration, strong and constant, for newness of life, and fellowship with God by his Son. In other words, a Christian righteousness consists in being first and doing afterward; in a right spirit before there can be a right life; in a changed and reconciled heart, in order to a noble and beautiful conduct. We must do Christian works from a love of them, or else we never do them—Christian works—at all. Make the tree a good tree, or the fruit will not be good fruit. F. D. H. 21. A mode of life like this—out all night upon the mountain-top, teaching, walking all day long without food or rest—so affected the minds of his immediate relatives when they heard of it, that they went out to lay hold of him, for they said, He is beside himself. 22. Blindness and dumbness, whether springing from original defect or induced by disease, he had often before cured. But here, underlying both, was the deeper spiritual malady of possession. Jesus cast the devil out, and the immediate effect of the dispossession was the recovery of speech and vision. H.—23. The dissolution of so hideous a spell as that which had bound this man—the power to pour light on the filmed eyeball, and to restore speech to the cramped tongue, and intelligence to the bewildered soul—was something that the people had never witnessed. The miracle produced a thrill of astonishment, a burst of unconcealed admiration. For the first time they openly debated whether He who had such power could be any other than their expected Deliverer. “Can this man,” they asked, “can he be the Son of David?” F.—Here were three cures simultaneously effected; and when the people beheld the lunatic sensible and collected, when they heard the dumb speak, and perceived that the blind saw, they exclaimed in amazed reverence, “Is not this the Son of David?”—that is, the Messiah? K.—The descent of the Messiah from David was universally acknowledged. “The Son of David” was, therefore, a very common title for the Messiah. To this day, all Jews speak of the Messiah they expect as “The Son” or “The Branch” of David. G.—It was in connection with this class of cases only that the double result appeared, of an extraordinary commotion among the people and an extraordinary allegation put forward by the Pharisees. 24. Christ had not yet broken with the Pharisees as a party, nor denounced them either privately to his disciples or publicly to the multitude. But now, at the close of his second circuit through Galilee, the collision came, and the whole manner of his speech and action toward them was changed. A winebibber, a gluttonous man, a friend of publicans and sinners, a Sabbath-breaker, a blasphemer, they had called him, but here is the vilest thing that calumny can say of him—that he is in league with Satan, and that it is to his connection with the devil that he owes all his wisdom and power. H.—Beelzebub. How the name of this Philistine idol came to be given to Satan, is not known; but as idolatry is in reality devil-worship, it was not unnatural. Christ's bitterest enemies did not deny the reality of his miracles; and being stung by the unsophisticated testimony of "all the people," they had no way of holding out against his claims but by the desperate shift of ascribing his miracles to Satan. B. 25-29. That he spoke thus against them was but a further carrying out of his mission, a further inroad upon the kingdom of that Beelzebub. And yet they were the accredited authorities in the church of that day. It was for the sake of the people that he called the Pharisees hypocrites, and not for their own sakes, for how should he argue with men who taught religion for their own aggrandizement? They who were cured, and they in whom self-worship was not blinding the judgment, had no doubt that he was fighting Satan on his usurped ground. Torture was what might be expected of Satan; healing what might be expected of God. The reality of the healing, the loss of the man, morally as well as physically, to the kingdom of evil, was witnessed in all the signs that followed. Our Lord rests his argument on the fact that Satan had lost these men. McD.—Christ silences the Pharisees by referring to their own practice and belief. The Jews believed in exorcisms. Their exorcists, called here the children (i. e., disciples) of the Pharisees, pretended to eject demons, and persuaded the common people that they really did so. Our Saviour does not acknowledge the reality of these exorcisms, but shows that on their own principles they ought not to charge him with casting out devils by Beelzebub. That their cures were pretended and incomplete is evident from Matt. 9: 33, where in view of the perfect cure of one possessed with a devil, the people said, "It was never so seen in Israel." J. J. O.—Christ points out the contradiction involved in their assertion, and showed that such works could be wrought only by the power of God, which alone could free the human soul from the dominion of the evil spirit. He designates this individual case as a sign that the kingdom of God, before which the powers of darkness must flee away, had manifested itself. N.—A rigid monotheistic religion like the Jewish left but one way of escape from the authority of miracles, which were acknowledged to be indeed such, and not mere collusions and sleights of hand. There remained nothing to say but that these were works of hell. We have our Lord's answer to the deep malignity of this assertion; his appeal, namely, to the whole tenor of his doctrine and his miracles—whether they were not altogether for the overturning of the kingdom of evil—whether such a lending of power to him on the part of Satan would not be wholly inconceivable, since it were altogether suicidal. T. 29. The soul is here represented as the usurped possession and dwelling-place of Satan, "a strong man." The only "stronger than he" is Christ, who comes upon and overcomes him in the soul by using the sword of the Spirit, even the word of God—the same weapon which won him the personal victory in the wilderness. Falsehood is the weapon by which Satan takes and holds the soul captive. By its reception of the pure truth as taught by the Holy Spirit, Satan's power is broken. The palace, or the soul, passes into possession of Christ. J. G. B.— 30. He that is not with me is against me. Not with me (works not with me in the power of the Holy Ghost) is against me (opposes in his works the kingdom of God); and he that gathereth not with me (does not, in communion with me, gather souls for the kingdom) scattereth abroad (leads them astray, and thus really works for the kingdom of Satan, against which he apparently contends). N.—The first clause of the verse asserts that he who is not Christ's follower is his foe, and it classes the multitude, who were listening but not obeying, with the Pharisees, and both with Satan and the devils; the second asserts that every act and influence in life, of the disciple as well as of him who is not, if it gather nothing for Christ and with him, scatters and wastes that which has been or is being gathered. Every act as well as every individual is with and for Christ or against him. L. A.—The mightiest spiritual forces are struggling for the possession of the soul of man: on the one hand, Satan, the tempter of our first parents, the "father of lies," with his subtle devices of temptation; and, on the other, the Holy Spirit of light and truth and love, with his influences of grace. No one can be passive in this conflict of spiritual powers; and as one chooses his alliance here will be his state and portion in the hereafter. J. P. T. 31,32. The sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost consists evidently in words malignantly spoken against the power of the Holy Ghost working in Jesus Christ. The Pharisees are virtually charged with having committed this crime. They had deliberately attributed to the devil one of the highest acts of omnipotence. No conceivable sin could be greater than this. J. J. O.—Nothing could be here intended, short of the entire and final alienation of the heart and will and life from everything divine, the contradiction of the whole man to all of God's which testifies of grace and mercy and truth and holiness; a sin which therefore, in its very nature, excludes its own forgiveness, inasmuch as it excludes the conditions under which alone forgiveness could be obtained. T.—He speaks of a certain malicious disposition of mind, which by venting itself under such circumstances in blasphemy against the greatest of our Lord's miracles, plainly discovered itself to be incapable of amendment by any means which God would vouchsafe to make use of. That particular blasphemy, in those particular circumstances, was a sign only or an evidence, which our Saviour knew and declared to proceed from an incurable and therefore unpardonable malicious disposition of mind. Nothing therefore can be gathered from this passage, concerning any particular sin against the Holy Ghost (as many have without reason imagined), in its own nature unpardonable. The blasphemy our Saviour here speaks of is not singly sinning against the person of the Holy Ghost, or against his good motions, but presumptuously reviling the greatest works of the Holy Ghost, and so obstinately rejecting the last call to repentance. He that blasphemed against the Holy Ghost, against the highest evidence of our Lord's greatest miracles, was never to be forgiven; not because even this was in itself and in the nature of the thing absolutely unpardonable (for no reason can be given why speaking against the person of the Holy Ghost should be in itself of greater malignity than speaking against Christ, or against God the Father himself), but because it was an obstinate rejecting the last means of conviction, and an evident token of incorrigible malice. S. C. Hath never forgiveness, but, etc. Hath not remission (or forgiveness) to eternity, but is subject (or obnoxious) to eternal judgment. The common version of the second clause (hath never forgiveness), though impressive and substantially correct, obscures the antithesis between the cognate noun and adjective, aiona and aioniou. The former properly denotes duration—sometimes definite, as an age, a lifetime, or a dispensation; but, when limited by nothing in the context, indefinite and even infinite duration. This strongest sense would be implied here, even if these words were not expressed, by the structure of the sentence. If some sins will be forgiven, and some not, the latter must be coextensive with the former; and as those forgiven are forgiven to eternity, those unforgiven must eternally remain so. The same thing is more positively stated in the last clause. As his sin is not to be remitted, he is of course subject to eternal condemnation, i. e., actually subject, or judicially subjected to it, and not merely in danger of it, as the word is inexactly rendered. J. A. A. 33. The greatest of God's inward works is the work of regeneration. It is this which is the root of all subsequent growth. To this our Lord remands the Pharisees instead of all cleansing of the "outside of the cup and the platter," saying, "Make the tree good." No change from better to better can be compared with the change from darkness to light. J. W. A.—The tree is known by its fruit. Ye accuse me of working by Beelzebub. But if the devil be evil, he cannot do good works; so that if my works are good, the devil is not the doer of them. Jerome.—A tree is known by its fruits, not the fruits by the tree. Having no fault to find with the fruit, ye pass sentence against the tree, saying that I have a devil. Chrys. 34-37. And then, speaking to them in language of yet plainer significance, he turned the light of truth into their hypocritical hearts, and showed them how this fruit of falsehood and calumny could only spring from roots of hidden bitterness; how only from evil treasures hid deep in darkness, where the very source of light was quenched, could be produced these dark imaginings of their malignity. Lastly, and with a note of warning which has never since ceased to vibrate, he warned them that the words of man reveal the true nature of the heart within, and that for those, as for all other false and lightly uttered words of idle wickedness, they should give account at the last day. F.—Because words, so lightly thought of by the careless, spring from the inner fountains of good and ill, therefore they will form subjects of the judgment of the great day, when the whole life shall be unfolded and pronounced upon. Words are the outward utterance of the man—a specimen of what is within. A. # Section 48—Rebukes the Scribes and Pharisees. Disciples his Kindred. # Galilee. M. 38 THEN certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees tempting him answered, saying, 39 Master, we would see a sign from heaven, from thee. But when the people were gathered thick together, he answered and said to them, This is an evil and adulterous generation; they seek after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. As Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of 40 man be to this generation. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is 42 here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.L. 33 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a 34 bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of 35 light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore 36 that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.M. 43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seek- 44 ing rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I 45 came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.L. 27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps 28 which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.M. 46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, there came then his mother and his brethren, and standing without, sent unto him, calling him, desiring to speak with him. And 47 the multitude sat about him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy 48 brethren stand without, desiring to see thee, to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he 49 looked round about on them which sat about him, and stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! my mother and my breth- 50 ren are these which hear the word of God and do it. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. CHRIST and his gospel stand out totally distinct from the times and the life when they appeared. That gospel could not have been produced by the age, for it was an antagonism to it; the age was a degenerate one, a mixture of formal ceremony and licentious unbelief. Paganism was waning; Rome becoming debased; the ancient traditions of the Jews were lost in human inventions and rabbinical fantasies—when rising up in the midst of all this debasement, this corruption, these anomalies, came Christ and his gospel, gentle in the midst of violence, holy amongst flagrant infidelity and wanton vice, the Preacher and the preaching both sent from somewhere, but manifestly not from the world, not from Oriental barbarism, not from Western paganism, not from Jewish corruption. It could then have come from no other place than heaven, and had no other author than God. And when we reflect upon what was compressed in that three years' labor, and compare it with systems which have occupied men's lives to sketch out merely, and taken ages to perfect; when we see that this greatest system, which has spread over the whole civilized world by the force of its own truth, was in three short years laid down and consolidated, every principle defined, every rule established, every law delineated, and an impetus given to it by its great Master, which has always kept it advancing in the world against every opposing force, and in spite of every disadvantageous circumstance, all doubt about its individuality, its superhuman character, and its divine origin, must vanish from the mind. Therefore the best thing for Christians still to do is to lift up Christ before the eyes of men, no matter how, so that he be lifted up boldly and faithfully, be it by the voice, or the pen, or better still, by the more impressive exhibition of Christ in a Christian life. An. M. 38. The crowds that gathered round him wherever he went; the wonder and gratitude with which his miracles were hailed; the impression his discourses had created, and the steps that he had now obviously taken toward organizing a distinct body of disciples, fanned into an open flame the long-smouldering fire of Pharisaic opposition. H.—Though baffled, the Pharisees did not intend to leave Jesus long in peace. He had spoken to them in language of lofty warning, nay, even of stern rebuke—to them, the leaders and religious teachers of his time and country. How did he dare thus to address them? Let him at least show them some sign from heaven, no mere exorcism or act of healing, but some great, indisputable, decisive sign of his authority. It was the old question which had assailed him at his very earliest ministry, "What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?" To such appeals, made only to insult and tempt—made by men who, unconvinced and unsoftened, had just seen a mighty sign, and had attributed it at once without a blush to demoniac agency—made, not from hearts of faith, but out of curiosity, and hatred, and unbelief—Jesus always turned a deaf ear. F. 39. As Jonah, by his deliverance, was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be, by his resurrection from the dead, to this generation. L. A.—40. The usual formula which our Lord employed in speaking of his resurrection was, that "he should rise on the third day." The expression "three days and three nights," our Lord uses here, and here alone, because he is quoting from Jonah 1:17. The Hebrew form of expression for three days and three nights was likewise used generally and indefinitely for three days simply. This is manifestly the case here. R.—Jesus was dead part of the first and part of the third day. The Jews were accustomed to call parts of a day as a whole day. Jesus, of course, speaks with a recognition of the custom of the people. The phrase "the heart of the earth" does not mean "the grave," but Hades—the "death kingdoms." G.—Our Lord treats the history of Jonah as a true history, to be understood in its plain sense; and expounds the meaning of it, hitherto unrevealed, viz., that it was not only a history, but also a prophecy, a typical representation of himself—of his own wonderful death, burial, and resurrection. W. 41. This generation, our Saviour says, compared with the people of Nineveh, shall be more justly condemned. For, when the men of Nineveh were preached to by Jonah, a stranger, who continued among them but three days, and wrought no miracles to confirm his mission, they yet hearkened to him, and repented. But this generation, though they have Christ himself sent to preach to them, though they hear his doctrine, and see his miracles, though they are astonished at the authority with which he teaches, and the power by which he acts, yet they are not by all these things brought to repentance. S. C. L. 34. Christ tells them that they will not see the significance of his teaching and miracles because they shut the eyes of their understanding which should be the light of the soul; this is set before them in a parable concerning the light of the body which is the outward eye. A.—35. Take heed that the light which is in thee. That is, Let every man take care that the moral judgment of his understanding be not corrupted with blind unreasonable prejudices, or with vicious wilfully indulged affections; for, in that case, his very guide becomes his seducer, and his light itself is darkness. S. C.—36. Our Lord is speaking of his teaching as apprehended by the simple, single-seeing soul. If the soul, having no part darkened by prejudice or selfish lusts, approach thus to his teaching, it shall be wholly illuminated by it. The second clause expresses the waxing onward of the shining light, arising from the singleness of the eye, and becomes, in its spiritual significance, a weighty declaration of truth. A. M. 43-45. The direct application of this parable is to the Jewish people, and the parallel runs thus: The old demon of idolatry brought down on the Jews the Babylonish captivity, and was cast out by it. They did not, after their return, fall into it again, but rather endured persecution, as under Antiochus Epiphanes. The emptying, sweeping, and garnishing may be traced in the growth of Pharisaic hypocrisy and the rabbinical schools between the return and the coming of our Lord. The repossession by the one, and accession of seven other spirits more malicious than the first, hardly needs explanation. The desperate infatuation of the Jews after our Lord's ascension, their bitter hostility to his Church, their miserable end, are known to all. A.—The personal application of the parable may be thus stated: A purposed and begun reformation makes the soul an uncongenial resting-place for the "unclean" or evil spirit, and he goes out for a time. After a while he concludes to return and ascertain how the attempt at reformation has ended. He finds the soul empty! No "stronger man than he," no Christ in possession; none to resist his renewed control. Nay, the self-reformer has only prepared the way by successive declensions for Satan's return; sweeping the soul of all good purposes, and so suitably garnishing it for his reentrance and permanent abode. Now, Christ intimates, the state of that soul is hopeless! J. G. B.—Relapse into evil, when thoroughly yielded to, makes the case ever worse than before. The power of a resisting will is destroyed; in just judgment God lets this awful law of the human soul take effect; and the enemy is permitted to take his own advantage of it. B. L. 28. He does not deny the honor pronounced upon his mother. "Yes indeed, but." This answer cuts at the root of all Mariolatry, and shows us in what the true honor of that holy woman consisted—in faith and obedience. A. M. 49. Christ, surrounded by a host of anxious seekers for salvation, heard the announcement undisturbed. To show, by this striking case, that blood relationship did not imply affinity for his spirit, pointing to the seeking souls around him, and to his nearer spiritual kindred—the disciples—he said, "Behold my mother and my brothers!" N.—How great is the honor of faith and obedience! How blessed the consanguinity! To be born of God, and to bear the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts; to express his image in every thought and word and action; and to be ourselves confirmed to him, partakers of his holiness, and of his crown. Thus to become his brethren, and the children of God, is no empty honor, no sounding name, but gives a sure title to a share in his glory. Stanhope. 46-50. Mary is included in what is a virtual censure on the part of her Lord. He neither goes out to meet her and her companions, nor admits them into his presence. He exclaims that his nearest of kin are the children of God. It is thus remarkable that in the only two instances, until the crucifixion, where Mary figures in the gospel, she appears in order to be reproved by the Saviour, and to be placed, as far as the mere maternal relation is concerned, below obedient servants of God. These passages must be regarded as protests laid up in store against the heathenish eminence which the Roman Church assigns to Mary, and especially against that newly-established dogma, of her being without sin from her birth, which they so signally contradict. T. D. W. Christ came for all men, the second Adam, taking our entire humanity on him. Though he was born of a woman, he is not on that account more nearly united to her than to all those who are united to him by the spirit; nor bound to regard the call of earthly relations so much as the welfare of those he came to save. . . . Our Lord, though he introduces the additional term sister into his answer, does not introduce father, inasmuch as he never speaks of an earthly father. A.—His vocation lies altogether in the reconciliation of men with God, and thereby with each other. Not that he felt any indifference, much less contempt, toward the earthly relations or vocations of men. He was a loving son, a faithful friend. But the holiest of earth's relations, and the purest of its vocations, are nothing to him, except in so far as each is not only controlled but penetrated by a higher relation and vocation. His true friends are those who do what he commands. His true, his sole vocation is that of Saviour. R. C.—The earthly and the heavenly bonds, the common and the Christian ties, do not always coincide, neither are they always in harmony. If ever they interfere—if mother, or brother, or sister, or dearest friend, should tempt us away from him in nearness to whom standeth our eternal life—then let us remember this scene and ask our Lord to give us of his own spirit, to follow him. H. ## Section 49.—Dining with Pharisees, denounces their Hypocrisy. Galilee. M. 1 THE same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side, and began again to 2 teach. And great multitudes were gathered together, and were come unto him out of every city, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 And he spake unto them, and taught them many things by parables; and said unto Mk. 3 them in his doctrine, Hearken; behold, a sower went out to sow his seed. And it came 4 to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls 5 of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not 6 much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. But as soon as it was sprung up, when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no 7 root and lacked moisture, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the 8 thorns grew up with it, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. But other fell into good ground, and sprang up, and increased; and brought forth fruit, some thirty, and some 9 sixty, and some an hundred-fold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that 10 hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone they that were about him, with the twelve disciples, came and asked him saying, What might this parable be? M. 11 Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto them that 12 are without it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that 13 he hath. Therefore speak I to others in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand; lest at any time they should be con- 14 verted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing 15 ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, 16 and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they 17 see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. WHAT was true of the instructions of that single day is true of the whole body of disclosures made to us in the Bible. There are things simple and things obscure. We must compass the simple first, if we would fathom the obscure. We must receive into honest hearts and make good use of the plainest declarations of the divine Word, if we would have that lamp kindled within us, by the light of which the more recondite of its sayings can alone be understood. It is in an inner sanctuary that the true Shechinah, the light of God's gracious presence, still shineth, to be approached with a humble tractable spirit, the prayer upon our lips and in our heart, "What I know not, Lord, teach thou me; I beseech thee show me thy glory." It is not in the intellect, it is in the conscience, in the heart, that the finest, most powerful organs of spiritual vision lie. There are seals that cover up many passages and pages of the Bible, which no light or fire of genius can dissolve; there are hidden riches here that no labor of mere learned research can get at and spread forth. But those seals melt like the snow-wreath beneath the warm breathings of desire and prayer, and those riches drop spontaneously into the bosom of the humble and the contrite, the poor and the needy. H. MORE than half of the term allotted to his ministry in Galilee had now expired. Here beside him was a small band of followers—ignorant, yet willing to be taught; weak in faith, but strong in personal attachment. There against him was a powerful and numerous band, socially, politically, religiously the leaders of the people. Between the two lay the bulk of the common people—greatly excited by his miracles, listening with wonder and half approval to his words, siding with him rather than against him in his conflict with the Pharisees. Behind all the show of outward attachment he saw that there was but little discernment of his true character, but little capacity to understand the more secret things of his spiritual kingdom. And as he had altered his conduct toward his secret enemies by openly denouncing them, so now he alters his conduct toward his professed friends by clothing his higher instructions to them in a new and peculiar garb. H. M. 2. He sat in the sea. The Rob Roy approached, and we had a pleasant talk. It was very remarkable how distinctly every word was heard, though our voices were not raised, even at three hundred yards off; and it was very easy to comprehend how, in this clear air, a preacher sitting in a boat could address a vast multitude standing upon the shore. J. M. 3. Many things by parables.** We have not anywhere else in the gospels so rich a group of parables together, so many and so costly pearls strung upon a single thread. The only passage that will bear comparison is chapters 15 and 16 of Luke. The seven that are here recorded divide themselves into two groups—the first four being spoken to the multitude while he taught them out of the boat—the last three, as it would seem, on the same day, in the narrower circle of his disciples at his own home. T.—These short and lively apologues were admirably adapted to suggest the first rudiments of truths which it was not expedient openly to announce. Though some of the parables have a purely moral purport, the greater part delivered at this period bear a relation to the character and growth of the new religion; a subject which, avowed without disguise, would have revolted the popular mind, and clashed directly with their inveterate nationality. H. M.—In these parables the whole idea, progress, and destiny of the kingdom of heaven are unfolded: its beginnings among men, in the parable of the sower; its counterfeits, and their treatment by us and by God, in that of the tares; its vast outward extent, from the smallest beginning, in that of the mustard-seed; its inward purifying and transforming power, in that of the leaven; the two ways in which men find it, one by chance, in a field which he gives up all he has to buy, another by search, also giving up all to acquire it when found; and finally, the ultimate destiny of the good and bad in it, in the parable of the draw-net. A. Mk. 3-9. Present appearance of the Plain of Gennesaret. There was the undulating corn-field descending 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 falling 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 hill-side 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. A P. S.—The imagery was derived, as usual, from the objects immediately before his eyes—the sown fields of Gennesaret; the springing corn in them; the hard-trodden paths which ran through them, on which no corn could grow; the innumerable birds which fluttered over them ready to feed upon the grain; the weak and withering struggle for life on the stony places; the tangling growth of luxuriant thistles in neglected corners; the deep loam of the general soil, on which already the golden ears stood thick and strong, giving promise of a sixty and hundred-fold return as they rippled under the balmy wind. To us, who from infancy have read the parable side by side with Christ’s own interpretation of it, the meaning is singularly clear and plain, and we see in it the liveliest images of the danger incurred by the cold and indifferent, by the impulsive and shallow, by the worldly and ambitious, by the preoccupied and the luxurious, as they listen to the Word of God. But it was not so easy to those who heard it. Even the disciples failed to catch its full significance. F. 3. Went forth.** The expression implies that the sower, in the days of our Saviour, lived in a hamlet or village, as all these farmers now do; that he did not sow near his own house, or in a garden fenced or walled. He must go forth into the open country, as these have done, where there are no fences, where the path passes through the cultivated land, where thorns grow in clumps all around, where the rocks peep out in places through the sandy soil, and where, also, hard by, are patches extremely fertile. W. M. T. 4. Some fell on the hard footpath, or road, where the glebe was not broken, and so it could not sink down in the earth, but lay exposed on the surface to the feet of passers by, till at length it became an easy prey to the birds. 5. Stony ground. What is meant is ground where a thin superficial coating of mould covered the surface of a rock, which stretched below it. 7. Ground where the roots of these thorns had not been carefully extirpated, ground which had not been thoroughly cleansed. The good seed grew dwarfed and stunted, for the best of the soil did not feed them—forming indeed a blade, but unable to form a full corn in the ear. It is not here, as in the first case, that there was no soil, or none deserving the name—nor, as in the second case, that there was a poor or shallow soil. Here was no lack of soil, it might be good soil; but what was deficient was a careful husbandry, a diligent eradication of the mischievous growths, which would strangle whatever sprung up side by side with them. T.—8. An hundred-fold. An extraordinary number of stalks do actually spring from a single root. Here, on this plain of Sidon, I have seen more than a hundred, and each with a head bowing gracefully beneath the load of well-formed grains. The yield was more than a thousand-fold. W. M. T. A PARABLE is a serious narration, within the limits of probability, of a course of action pointing to some moral or spiritual truth. The parable is especially adapted to various classes of hearers at once; it is understood by each according to his measure of understanding. A.—The original Greek word signifies, literally, placing side by side—hence a comparison. The parable always teaches by comparing a spiritual truth with some type or symbol, in nature or human experience. It differs from the proverb in being a narrative, from the fable in being true to nature, from the myth in being undeceptive, from the allegory in that it veils the spiritual truth. L. A. As the truth which he uttered was deeper, so the aphorism in which it was embodied was the more weighty. The use of parables was not something absolutely new. It had examples in the Old Testament and among the rabbis. The immediate motive for the employment of this means of conveying knowledge was the advantage afforded by it for a lucid and vivid exhibition of the truth. In these narratives, as in pictures, the abstract reality was made to stand forth in a concrete form. Doctrine, precept, and argument were all incorporated in them in a way that could hardly be gainsaid. On the ear of those who were destitute of sympathy with the Teacher and his doctrine, and therefore lacked both curiosity and insight, they produced no effect, they awakened no desire to get at the truth that was wrapped up in them. On the contrary, those who felt the attraction of the Teacher, and wished to see clearly that of which they had gained a partial glimpse, could tarry and receive the enlightenment which they craved. That others besides the twelve took this way of gaining light, the Evangelists explicitly inform us. G. P. F. The parable is his favorite method in speech, and the miracle in action, which, as he performs it, is a parable put into a living shape. In both of these a man sees little or much, according to the spirit he brings, and what he sees is always growing into something deeper and higher, as he ponders it. Our Lord desired that truth should not be thrust upon a man from without, but grow up within, as from a seed, night and day, he knows not how. "Seeing, he sees and does not perceive; hearing, he hears and does not understand;" but, if he will only be patient and thoughtful, a new world grows up in him as plants and leaves grow in spring. It is this manner of Christ's teaching, by parable and miracle, which makes it suited to all the years of human life, as it is suited to every age of the world. The youngest child can understand something of it, and the most mature Christian feels that he has not reached the end of it. Ker. Our Lord's general teaching, in regard to form, is cast in the mould of parable or proverb. It is to be noticed, not only in the large amount of professed parables, but in the general habit of proverbial sayings, that is, sayings which glance by us as condensed and momentary parables, suggesting much that it would take long to tell, or sayings which have more or less the shape and air of proverbs, complete in themselves, terse and pointed, fashioned for common memory and common use, meaning more than they say, and, by strong antithesis, or seeming paradox, fitted to arouse reflection and fix on the mind some principle of thought or conduct. It is of the essence of proverbial speech that it detaches itself from particular occasions, that it has a capacity for various applications, and a fitness for permanent use, and embraces large meaning within narrow limits. It therefore fitted well the lips which were to utter the great principles of Christian thought, and to leave them among men for all times and occasions. T. D. B. Every type is a real parable. The whole Levitical constitution, with its outer court, its holy, its holiest of all, its high-priest, its sacrifices, and all its ordinances, is such, and is declared to be such in the Epistle to the Hebrews. T.—The symbols and the sacrifices were divine parables, where the learners had to take part with their hands, and were made their own instructors. The daily acts were impressing upon them the great lessons of sin, atonement, and purity, and, step by step, they saw a deeper meaning as their minds were ready for it. There is nothing more beautiful than to trace how their views of these three things, guilt, pardon, and holiness, kept equal pace, growing in clearness till Christ came and satisfied all their longings. Ker.—The wanderings of the children of Israel have ever been regarded as a parable of the spiritual life. In like manner we have parabolic persons, who are to teach us not merely by what simply in their own characters they did, but as they represented one higher and greater. How often has God chosen that his prophets should teach by an acted parable rather than by any other means, and this because there was no other that would make so deep and so lasting an impression! In the New Testament we have a great example of the same teaching in Peter's vision (Acts 10: 9-16), and throughout all the visions of the Apocalypse. Nay, we might venture to affirm that so it was with the highest and greatest truth of all, the manifestation of God in the flesh. This, inasmuch as it was a making intelligible of the otherwise unintelligible; a making visible the invisible; a teaching not by doctrine, but by the embodied doctrine of a divine life, was the highest and most glorious of all parables. The parables may not be made first sources of doctrine. Doctrines otherwise and already grounded may be illustrated or indeed further confirmed by them; but it is not allowable to constitute doctrine first by their aid. For from the literal to the figurative, from the clearer to the more obscure, has been ever recognized as the law of Scripture interpretation. T. M. 11. The mystery is something hidden from men of worldly minds; incomprehensible to them and to all who are excluded, by their spirit and disposition, from the kingdom of God. And this is the case with all truths that relate to that kingdom, however simple and clear they may seem to those whose inner life has made them at home in it. N.—12. In this saying is summed up the double force—the revealing and concealing properties of the parable. By it, he who hath, he who not only hears with the ear, but understands with the heart, has more given to him; and it is for this main purpose undoubtedly that the Lord spoke parables: to be to his Church revelations of the truth and mysteries of his kingdom (every kingdom has its secrets and inner councils which strangers must not know). But his present purpose in speaking them was the quality possessed by them of hiding their meaning from the hard-hearted and sensual. By them he who hath not, in whom there is no spark of spiritual desire nor meekness to receive the engrafted word, has taken from him even that which he hath ("seemeth to have"); even the poor confused notions of heavenly doctrine which a sensual and careless life allow him are further bewildered and darkened by this simple teaching. A.—He came to be a light to men, and to reveal the truth, not to hide it; but men must have willing ears, and take heed to what they hear, pondering over it in their hearts. In natures wilfully indifferent, hardness only grows the worse the more they hear. To such, the very word of life becomes a word of death. Rejecting the light, they are given up by God to the darkness they have chosen, and lose ere long even the superficial interest in higher things they may have had. G.—It is among the simplest and most obtrusive facts of life, that here where we are, now in the day in which we live, the vast mass of men have no quick perceptions of spiritual truths, no vivid realizations of them. They move all encompassed by them, and yet they penetrate not to the seat of their life to quicken and draw it into their own higher sphere. The inner ear is dull—their eye have they closed—they are in the broad blaze of the gospel, and yet in darkness. J. D. ## Section 55.—Explains the Parable of the Sower. Capernaum. Mk. 13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables? Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. The parable is this: The seed 14, 15 is the word of God. The sower soweth the word. And those by the way side where the word is sown are they that hear the word of the kingdom and understand it not; but when they have heard Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that 16 was sown, out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. And these are they likewise which have received the seed into stony places, who, when they have 17 heard the word, immediately receive it with joy; yet these have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: which for a while believe; afterward, in time of temptation, when tribulation or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are 18 offended, and fall away. And these are they which received seed among thorns: such 19 as hear the word, who when they have heard go forth; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and pleasures of this life, and the lusts of other things enter- 20 ing in, choke the word, and they bring no fruit to perfection. But these are they that received seed into the good ground; such as hear the word, and understand and receive it in an honest and good heart, and keep it; which also bear fruit with patience, and bring forth, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an hundred. 21 And he said unto them, No man when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bushel, or under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that 22 they which enter in may see the light. For there is nothing hid which shall not be manifested: neither was anything kept secret, that shall not be known, and come 23, 24 abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed therefore what and how ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured 25 to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have. THE number, diversity, and incumbrance of the affairs of the world; the continual motion and hurry in which worldly men are; that chain of employments, which to appearance are neither good nor bad, and of new designs which succeed one another; and that circle of pleasures, amusements, and vanities—these are the things wherein that art and policy consists which the devil uses, in order to render the word, good thoughts, and good desires fruitless, and to take away God's seed out of their hearts and minds. Q. While there is such a thing as laying waste the very soil in which the seed of life should have taken root—while every act of sin is a treading of the ground into more hardness so that the seed shall not sink in it, or a wasting of the soil so that the seed shall find no nutriment there, or a fitting it to nourish thorns and briars; yet on the other hand a recovery is still, through the grace of God, possible: the hard soil may again become soft—the shallow soil may become rich and deep—and the soil beset with thorns open and clear. As the earthly seed finds its soil, so it must use it, for it cannot alter its nature. But the heavenly seed, if it be acted upon by the soil where it is cast, also reacts more mightily upon it, softening it where it is hard, deepening it where it is shallow, extirpating the roots of evil, and transforming each of these inferior soils, till the heart has become good ground, fit to afford nourishment to the divine Word, that seed of eternal life. T. 14-19. All spiritual life depends on a divine seed sown in the heart by the divine Sower. The life of the seed depends on, first, receiving it; second, rooting it; third, cultivating it. The unfruitful hearers described are of three classes: The first hear, but heed nothing; the second heed, but resolve nothing; the third resolve, but persist not. The first hear, but without really apprehending the truth; the second apprehend, but only for a transient emotional enjoyment—the truth gets no hold, and produces no real moral convictions or changed life; the third hear, apprehend, and begin a new life, but suffer it to be choked by the world. The first danger described is that of careless hearing; its cause is a heart made hard by worldliness, and inattentive by wandering thoughts; to guard against it, keep the heart tender and the attention fixed. The second danger is that of mistaking emotion for principle—glad reception of the truth for resolute practice of it; its cause is an underlying selfishness of life; to guard against it, count the cost of following Christ. The third danger is worldliness, whether cares and anxieties, or pleasures and luxuries; its cause is a divided heart and a divided service; to guard against it, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and watch and pray against the first appearance of worldly-mindedness. L. A. 15. The way-side hearers. The seed, which does not penetrate the earth at all, and is trodden or devoured by birds, corresponds to the relation of the divine word to the wholly worldly, who, utterly unsusceptible, reject the truth without ever comprehending it at all. N.—The man does not recognize himself as standing in any relation to the word which he hears, or to the kingdom of grace which that word proclaims. All that speaks of man's connection with a higher, invisible world, all that speaks of sin, of redemption, of holiness, is unintelligible to him, and wholly without significance. He has brought himself to it; he has exposed his heart as a common road to every evil influence of the world, till it has become hard as a pavement. T. 16, 17. The stony-ground hearers. Under the figure of the stony ground, in which the seed shoots up quickly but withers as soon for want of earth and moisture, he depicts that lively but shallow susceptibility of spirit which grasps the truth eagerly, but receives no deep impressions; and yields as quickly to the reaction of worldly temptations as it had yielded to the divine word. Faith must prove itself in strife against the world without, as well as within; but the mind just described never appropriates the truth in such a way as to obtain power to resist. N.—The hearer described has not counted the cost; whatever was fair and beautiful in Christianity as it first presents itself, had attracted him—its sweet and comfortable promises, the moral loveliness of its doctrines; but not its answer to the deepest needs of the human heart; as neither, when he received the word with gladness, had he contemplated the having to endure hardness in his warfare with sin and Satan and the world. As the heat scorches the blade which has no deepness of earth, so the troubles and afflictions, which would have strengthened a new faith, cause a faith which was merely temporary to fail. The image has a peculiar fitness and beauty; for as the roots of a tree are out of sight, yet from them it derives its firmness and stability, so upon the hidden life of the Christian his firmness and stability depend. T. 18, 19. The word choked among thorns. The seed which takes root but is stifled by the thorns that shoot up with it, figures the mind in which the elements of worldly desire develop themselves along with the higher life, and at last become strong enough to crush it, so that the received truth is utterly lost. N.—It is not here, as in the first case, that the word of God is totally ineffectual; nor yet, as in the second case, that after a temporary obedience to the truth, there is an evident falling away from it, such as the withering of the stalk indicates: the profession of a spiritual life is retained, the name to live still remains—but the life and power of religion is by degrees eaten out and has departed. And to what disastrous influences are these sad effects attributed? To two things, the cares of this world, and its pleasures; these are the thorns and briers that strangle the life of the soul. T. The evil here is neither a hard nor a shallow soil—there is softness enough, and depth enough; but it is the existence in it of what draws all the moisture and richness of the soil away to itself, and so staves the plant. What are these “thorns?” “The cares of this world”—anxious, unrelaxing attention to the business of this present life; “the deceitfulness of riches”—the fruit of this worldly “care;” “the pleasures of this life,” or “the lusts of other things entering in”—the enjoyments, in themselves it may be innocent, which worldly prosperity enables one to indulge. These “choke” or “smoother” the word; drawing off so much of one’s attention, absorbing so much of one’s interest, and using up so much of one’s time, that only the dregs of these remain for spiritual things, and a fagged, hurried, and heartless formalism is at length all the religion of such persons. B.—Our Saviour here places riches in the midst, between cares and pleasures; for cares generally precede the gaining of riches, and, when gained, they draw men into pleasures and indulgences. Dodd.—Marvel not at his calling luxury thorns. For it pricks sharper than any thorn, and wastes the soul worse than care, and causes more grievous pain both to body and soul. Chrys. 20. The fruitful word.** When seed is sown into good ground, it is variously productive according to the fertility of the soil. So the fruitfulness of divine truth, when once appropriated, depends upon the degree in which it penetrates the whole interior life and all the powers of the spirit, stamping itself upon the truth-inspired course of life. N.—The fourth class must not be understood as a decided, well-marked company, excluding all the rest. For the soil is not good by nature. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; but every disposition to receive them is of God. A.—We must keep ever in mind that the good soil comes as much from God as the seed which is to find there its home. God's secret and preventing grace runs before the preaching of the word of the kingdom; and thus when that word comes, it finds some with greater readiness for receiving it, as a word of eternal life, than others. T. We here see that a principal qualification for hearing the word of God, and for rendering it capable of bearing fruit in us, is an honest and a good heart, a heart clear from prejudice, pride, and self-conceit, sincerely disposed, and earnestly desirous to find the truth, and firmly resolved to embrace it when found; ready to acknowledge its own ignorance, and weakness, and corruption, and "to receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save the soul." P.—It is always the fault of men themselves if it be not living seed in their hearts. Worldly indifference may have made the soil impenetrable as the trodden path, or have left only a skin of sentiment over hidden callousness; or worldly cares or pleasures may be let spring up, and choke the better growth; in all cases it is the man, not the seed or the sower, on whom the result turns. G.—Believers should fix the truths of religion on their minds by serious application of thought, and frequent reflection. They should bear in mind that this word ought to influence all the powers of their souls, and bring them forth into action; that it is therefore called the seed, because it is the first and common principle whence all our virtue springs; that the end of it, therefore, is never answered, but by bringing forth fruit, and that fruit is no other than a holy conversation. Stanhope. L. 16. After unfolding its import, he taught them that the truth then veiled in parables was to become a light for all mankind; that they were to train themselves to be his organs in diffusing it; but that, in order to this, they must ever grow in the knowledge of his truth by a faithful employment of the means that he had given them. N.— Mk. 22. For there is nothing hid. He means, that the things which he now tells them privately ought to manifest themselves publicly in their life and doctrine; and though it was necessary at present to conceal some things from the multitude, because of their prejudices, yet the time was coming when all these things must be published openly and plainly before all the world. S. C.—25. And he concludes with the general law, "Whosoever has—in reality has—whosoever has made to himself a living possession of the truths which he has heard, to him shall more be ever given. But he that has received it only as something dead and outward, shall lose even that which he seems to have, but really has not." His knowledge, unspiritual and dead, will turn out to be worthless—the shell without the kernel. N. ## Section 56.—The Tares, and the Interpretation. 24. ANOTHER parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened 25 unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came 26 and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung 27 up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the house- 28 holder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from 29 whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The ser- 30 vants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came 37 unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered 38 and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of 39 the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the 40 world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned 41 in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 42 which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing 43 and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. WE behold Satan here, not as he works in deceiving the world, but in his deeper skill and malignity, as he mimics and counterworks the work of Christ: in the words of Chrysostom, "after the prophets, the false prophets; after the apostles, the false apostles; after Christ, Antichrist." With what distinct- ness the doctrine concerning Satan and his agency, his active hostility to the blessedness of man, of which there is so little in the Old Testament, comes out in our Lord's teaching in the New! As the lights be- come brighter, the shadows become deeper; but till the mightier power of good was revealed, we were not suffered to know how mighty was the power of evil. It was not till the Son of man actually ap- peared on the stage of the world, that Satan came distinctly forward upon it also; but the instant that Christ opens his ministry for the setting up of the kingdom of God, at the same instant Satan starts for- ward as the hinderer and adversary of it, the tempter of him who is the head and prince of this kingdom. It is observable, too, that Satan is spoken of as his enemy, the enemy of the Son of man; for here, as in so many other places, the great conflict is spoken of as rather between Satan and the Son of man, than between Satan and God. It was part of the great scheme of redemption, that the victory over evil should be a moral triumph, not obtained by mere putting forth of superior strength. T. 24. The parable of the tares accounts for the existence of evil in this world, and declares that it is not from God; at the same time it assures us of God's perfect goodness, and of his desire and de- sign (short of compulsion) that the whole world should be saved; for as our Lord declares, "the field is the world"—that is, in his will and design the Church is coextensive with the world. The parable assures us also of the continuance of the Church visible unto the end; of the future full and final victory of good over evil; and of the everlast- ing reward of virtue and the eternal punishment of sin. W.—The disciples must have been so little prepared to expect a mixture of good and bad in the Church, that it was needful to warn them before- hand, that they might not be offended and think the promises of God had failed, when the evil should appear. T. 25. Sowed tares. The tares and wheat both belong to the special group of wheat-like grasses. Their structure, mode, and conditions of growth are almost the same; and it is only when the fruit is formed that the impostor is detected by its smaller and darker ear. The darnel, or tare, is the only species of grass that is possessed of deleterious properties. If its seeds are mixed with wheat, the bread thus produced causes nausea, giddiness, pa- ralysis, and in extreme cases even death. Macmil- lan.—The tare abounds all over the East, and is a great nuisance to the farmer. It resembles the American cheat, but the head does not droop like cheat, nor does it branch out like oats. The grain, also, is smaller, and is arranged along the upper part of the stalk, which stands perfectly erect. It is a strong soporific poison, and must be carefully winnowed, and picked out of the wheat, grain by grain, before grinding, or the flour is not healthy. Of course the farmers are very anxious to extermi- nate it, but this is nearly impossible. W. M. T. 28. In the householder's reply the mischief is traced up to its origin: An enemy hath done this. It is attributed not to the imperfection, ignorance, weakness, which cling to everything human, but to the distinct counterworking of the great spiritual enemy. 29. It makes much for the beauty of the parable and is full of instruction, that wheat and tares are not seeds of different kinds, but that the last is a degenerate wheat. They are only distinguishable when the ear is formed; thus fulfilling literally the Lord's words, "By their fruits ye shall know them." T.—Until the grain has headed out the closest scrutiny will fail to detect the tares. Even the farmers, who in this country generally seed their fields, do not attempt to separate the one from the other. They would not only mistake good grain for them, but very commonly the roots of the two are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them without plucking up both. Both, therefore, must be left to grow together until the time of harvest. W. M. T. Lest ye root up the wheat. This plainly teaches the difficulty of distinguishing the two classes, and so the impropriety of sitting in judgment on men's state before God. 30. Let both grow together—i. e., in the visible Church. This, however, must not be stretched so far as to justify retaining scandalous persons in the communion of the Church, in the teeth of apostolic injunctions (1 Cor. 5). B.—When Christ asserts that it is his purpose to make a complete separation at the end, he implicitly forbids, not the exercise of a godly discipline, not, where necessary, absolute exclusion from church-fellowship—but any attempts to anticipate the final irrevocable separation, of which he has reserved the execution to himself. Both are to grow, evil and good, till they come to a head, till they are ripe, one for destruction, and the other for full salvation. And they are to grow together; the visible Church is to have its intermixture of good and bad until the end of time. T.—Bind in bundles. Grain-fields covered the whole surface; but the crops were very unequal; part thick, shrunk, and almost dry; part full, and stately. Men, women, and children were busy in many of the fields pulling out the weeds, which they gathered in heaps and bound into bundles, to burn them. Furrer. 38. Good seed.** "The children of the kingdom;" the same seed of "the word" as in the former parable, but now received into the heart and converting him that receives it into a new creature, a "child of the kingdom." "The children of the wicked one," resembling, in religious profession, "the children of the kingdom, and produced by the same process" ("sowing"). B. 39. Satan is a created, finite spirit. He cannot create anything new; he can only mar and destroy what has been created. He cannot create angels of darkness; he can only seduce angels of light into devils. He cannot originate evil men; he can only tempt and spoil creatures made in the image of God. The fulness of Satan's dominion was most clearly manifested in the world, when the fulness of the Godhead that dwelt in Christ bodily was displayed to the eyes of men. But now that Christ is concealed by the cloud, so is Satan. In harmony with the viewless operations of the Holy Spirit are the subtle and impalpable agencies which Satan now wields. He has withdrawn his sorceries, his outward signs, and tempts with covetousness and worldliness. And so thoroughly has he carried out this system of invisible temptation, that he has succeeded in persuading many that he has no existence as a personal spirit of evil, and that evil is only an immature stage in the progress of the world's ripening. Macmillan. 41. Son of man. He claimed the title (which was already given him in the Old Testament, Dan. 8 : 13), inasmuch as it was he who alone realized the idea of man, the second Adam, who, unlike the first, should maintain his position as the head and representative of the race—the one perfect flower which had ever unfolded itself out of the root and stalk of humanity. 42, 43.** As fire was the element of the cruel kingdom of hell, so is light of the pure heavenly kingdom. Then, when the hindering element is removed, shall this element of light which was before obstructed by it, come forth in its full brightness. T. ## Section 57.—The Seed growing secretly. The Mustard-seed. The Leaven. Hid Treasure. The Pearl. The Net. Capernaum. Mk. 26 AND he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he 28 knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then 29 the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison M. 31 shall we compare it? Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; 32 which indeed is the least of all seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, and shooteth out great branches; so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the 33 branches thereof, under the shadow of it. 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 the whole was leavened. 34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables. And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a 35 parable spake he not unto them. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. And when they were alone, he expound- 36 ed all things to his disciples. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him. [After explaining the parable of the tares (verses 37-43) he continues:] 44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and 45 buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking 46 goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and 48 gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and 49 gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the 50 world; the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 51 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, 52 Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out 53 of his treasure things new and old. And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. THE kingdom of God begins in any man in the solemn and central purpose of his soul to become like God, to honor and to serve him; the personal commitment of himself to the Father, through the mediation of the Son, and under the quickening influence of the Spirit. And yet this purpose is but the commencement of a course whose end is still distant. One temptation after another must be met and overcome. One desire after another, which has grown inordinate through long indulgence, must be brought into harmony with the law of holiness. The principles of action, though now pure and high, require to be confirmed by the discipline of effort; the thoughts of divine truth to be made more clear, comprehensive, controlling; above all, the affections demand to be developed, cherished, matured, until they shall answer as they ought to God's character; until they shall spring spontaneously toward Christ, on his cross or his throne; until they shall purely control and impel our whole moral action, making duty a delight, privation a pleasure if borne for God, and death a sure and immeasurable gain! It is not till after long seasons of effort that this magnificent consummation is reached; that the world seems nothing, and God all in all; that the cross becomes the summit-fact, in personal experience as in the world's history; and that heaven opens bright and near its gates of pearl! It is not till sorrows and prosperities both have brought their ministry from God to the soul; not till life has been experienced, in its successes and its changes; not till sermons and treatises, works and worships, self-denials and charities, homes and teachers, have done their office; and the communion with friends, the communion of the Church, contemplation, study, prayer, self-scrutiny—all have taught and disciplined the soul, and brought it in a measure to the likeness of Christ's. This harvest comes after long summer; first a purpose; then a principle; then a habit; then a life, pervading, renewing, glorifying the soul; then the heavenly nature and peace! R. S. S. THE seven parables of Matthew have a certain unity, succeeding one another in natural order, and having a completeness in themselves. In the Sower are set forth the causes of the failures and successes of the gospel, when it is preached in the world. In the Tares, the obstacles to the internal development of Christ's kingdom are traced up to their true author, with a warning against the manner in which men might be tempted to remove those obstacles. The Mustard-seed and the Leaven declare the victorious might—the first the outward and the second the inward might of that kingdom; and therefore implicitly prophesy of its development in spite of these obstacles, and its triumph over them. The two which follow (the Treasure and the Pearl) declare the relation of the kingdom to every man, its supreme worth, and how those who have discovered that worth will be willing to renounce all things for its sake. The last (the Draw-net) is the declaration that entire separation from evil shall yet come to pass, looking forward to which, each is to strive that he may so use present privileges that he may be found among those that shall be the Lord's when he shall set a difference between them who serve him and them who serve him not. Mk. 26-29. The seed growing secretly. This is the only parable peculiar to Mark. Like that of the Leaven, of which it seems to occupy the place, it declares the invisible energy of the divine word, and that this word of the kingdom has that in it which will allow it safely to be left to itself. T.—Christ obviously intended by this parable to impress upon the disciples that their duty was to preach the word [not to make it fruitful]; that where the truth was once implanted in the heart, its growth was independent of human agency; unfolding itself by its own inherent divine power, it would gradually accomplish the transformation of human nature into that perfection for which God designed it [the full corn in the ear]. N.—Those who under Christ are teachers are here implicitly bidden to have faith in the word which they sow, for it is the seed of God; when it has found place in a heart they are to have confidence in its indwelling power, not supposing that they are to keep it alive; for maintaining its life is God's part, and he undertakes to fulfil it. Of course they are to follow up the work which has been through their instrumentality commenced. T. M. 31-33. The parables which treat of the progress of his kingdom, and the effects of his truth upon human nature, viz., the parables of the Mustard-seed and of the Leaven, were designed to illustrate a development which was to commence with small beginnings, and to propagate itself by a mighty power working outwardly from within. All these parables presuppose the renewal of human nature by a new and pervading principle of spiritual life; and imply that the kingdom of God cannot be visibly realized among men until they become subjects of this renewal. N.—In the parable of the Sower, the disciples had heard that three parts of the seed sown perished, and only a fourth part prospered; again, they had heard in that of the Tares of the hinderances which beset even this part that remained: lest then they should be tempted to lose heart and despair, the Lord spake these two parables (the Mustard-seed and the Leaven) for their encouragement. My kingdom, he would say, will survive these losses, and surmount these hinderances, until, small as its first beginnings may appear, it will, like a mighty tree, fill the earth with its branches—like potent leaven, will diffuse its influence through all the world. T.—The point in which the two parables agree is, the designating of the power with which the kingdom of God develops itself outwardly from within; the greatest results proceeding from the most insignificant beginnings. The point in which they differ is, that the development illustrated in the parable of the Mustard-seed is more extensive, in that of the Leaven more intensive; in the former is shown the power with which the Church, so feeble in its beginning, spreads over all the earth; in the latter, the principle of divine life in Christianity renews human nature, in all its parts and powers, after its own image, to become its own organ; thus illustrating the growth of religion not only in the race, but also in individual men. N. 31. Small as a grain of mustard-seed, was a proverbial expression among the Jews for something exceedingly minute. The Lord, in his popular teaching, adhered to the popular language. Maldonatus relates that even in Spain he has seen great ovens heated with its branches; he mentions as well that birds are exceedingly partial to the seed, so that when it is advancing to ripeness he has often seen them lighting in great numbers on its boughs, which were strong enough to sustain the weight. 33. By the leaven we are to understand the word of the kingdom, which word in its highest sense Christ himself was. As the mustard-seed, out of which a mighty tree was to grow, was the least of all seeds, so the leaven is also something apparently of slight account, and yet mighty in operation. Till the whole is leavened. A prophecy of the final complete triumph of Christianity; that it will diffuse itself through all nations, and purify and ennoble all life. We may also fairly see in these words a promise and an assurance that the word of life, received into any single heart, shall not there cease its effectual working till it has brought the whole man in obedience to it, so that he shall be a new creature in Christ Jesus. T.—The unleavened mass, untouched by any particle with the true leaven in it, will remain unchanged. The whole secret of the spread of Christianity over the world is in this figure of the leaven. It is fire that kindles fire; love that kindles love; Christianity manifested that spreads Christianity. Talent, learning, conviction from argument, are well in their places, but avail little. Belief is needed, but it must be in the form of trust. It must be belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. There must be in it the acceptance of him for all that for which he offers himself to us, and sympathy with him in all that he proposes to do. In such a belief there is life; and in life there is power. M. H. In the process of leavening it is not the substance but the character of the meal that is changed. Even so with the effect of grace. It did not give John his warm affections; but it fixed them on his beloved Master, sanctifying his love. It did not give Paul his genius, his resistless logic, and noble oratory; but it consecrated them to the cause of Christ. It did not give David a poet's fire and a poet's lyre; but it strung his harp with chords from heaven, and tuned all its strings to the high praises of God. So grace ever works. It does not change the metal, but stamps it with the divine image, and assimilates all who have received Christ to the nature of Christ. Guthrie. 44.46. The kingdom of God is not merely a tree overshadowing the earth, leaven leavening the world, but each man must have it for himself, and make it his own by a distinct act of his own will. He may come under the shadow of this great tree, and partake of many blessings of its shelter. He may dwell in a Christendom which has been leavened, and so in a manner himself share in the universal leavening. But more than this is needed, even a personal appropriation of the benefit. We have the history of this in the two parables which follow. They were spoken not to the multitude, not to those "without," but within the house (verse 36), and to the more immediate disciples. These are addressed as having found the hid treasure—the pearl of price, and are now warned of the surpassing worth of these, and that, for their sakes, all things are to be joyfully renounced. T. 44. Owing to the insecurity of property in the East, from war and oppression, joined to the necessity of keeping valuable property in hand for want of secure banks of deposit, the practice of hiding precious utensils and ornaments, money and jewels, has always been common in the East. Often it is built up into the walls of the owner's house, often buried in fields and gardens. The owner often dies and takes his secret with him. K.—Many such transactions are still negotiated. It is extremely difficult, and even dangerous, to remove treasure thus discovered in another person's field; but, having purchased it, you can wait in safety, work in secret, and the coveted treasure is yours. This country has always been subject to revolutions, invasions, and calamities of various kinds, and hence a feeling of insecurity hovers over the land like a dismal spectre. Then there are, and always have been, intestine commotions and wars. At such times multitudes bury their gold and jewels, and in many cases the owners are killed, and no one knows where the treasure was concealed. W. M. T. Buyết field. Whenever any man renounces the thing that is closest to him, rather than that should be a hinderance to his embracing and making his own all the blessings of the gospel—when the lover of money renounces his covetousness—and the indolent man, his ease—and the lover of pleasure, his pleasure—and the wise man, his confidence in the wisdom of this world—then each is selling what he has that he may buy the field which contains the treasure. T. 45. Seeking pearls.** The occupation of a travelling jeweller is still common in the East. He deals in precious stones and pearls, and travels widely in search of advantageous purchases or exchanges. K.—Those persons who feel that there must be some absolute good for man in which he shall find the satisfaction of all his longings, and who are therefore seeking everywhere for this good, are likened to the merchant that has distinctly set before himself the purpose of seeking goodly pearls. These are the fewest in number, but at the same time, perhaps, the noblest converts to the truth. 46. The pearl is the kingdom of God within a man—or God revealing himself in the soul—or the knowledge of Christ—or Christ himself—all different ways of expressing the same thing. It is God alone in whom any intelligent creature can find its centre and true repose; in Augustine's beautiful and often-quoted words, "Lord, thou hast made us for thee, and our heart is disquieted till it reacheth to thee." T. Those who find Christ without seeking him have usually the liveliest joy, while those who find him after long and anxious search have usually the deepest apprehension of his value. It will be observed that the joy of discovery is only in the former parable, as if to express not the value set upon the treasure, but the unexpectedness of it. Yet not less profound is the sense of Christ's preciousness when found after long and anxious search has deepened the craving of the soul after him. B. 47. He had to teach his disciples that not all who joined him were fitted to be genuine followers, and that the spurious and the true should be intermixed in his visible kingdom, until that final process of decision which God had reserved to himself. To convey this truth, he compares the kingdom of God, in the process of its development on earth (which corresponds to the visible Church as distinguished from the invisible), to a net cast into the sea, in which fish of all kinds, good and worthless, are caught, and which are only assorted after the net has been drawn to the shore. N.—A net. A drag-net. It was leaded and buoyed, and then drawn in a circle, so as to inclose a multitude of fishes. H. B. T.—The word in the original is a hauling-net, as distinguished from the casting-net—a net of the largest size, suffering nothing to escape from it. And this, its all-embracing nature, contains a prophecy of the wide reach and potent operation of the gospel. The kingdom of heaven should henceforward be a net, not cast into a single stream as hitherto, but into the broad sea of the whole world, and gathering or drawing together some out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. T.—52. Things new and old. He teaches his apostles and ministers to avail themselves of what is old in teaching what is new, and by teaching what is new to confirm what is old; to show that the gospel is not contrary to the law, and that both are from one and the same source. W.—As they hearkened to the Lord from heaven these Galilean peasants and fishermen found something that was new, and something that was old. Duties were declared, principles were announced, springs of human feeling and action were touched, which their religious education and the light of their consciences had made as familiar to them as the slopes of the hills about the lake, the curves of the shore, or the trees along the street, under the common sunshine, where they plied their daily calling. This was “old,” but this was not all. As the heavenly words came from the lips of this “Son of man,” knowing not only all that is in man but the secrets in the bosom of God, they caught glimpses of something “new,” and as grand as it was new. Very faint and inadequate these glimpses were at first. But the patient Master knew the work he had to do, and led their dull intellects along through this simple path of parable, giving them what they were able to bear—tempered beams for their weak eyes. What he was seeking to unfold to them was nothing less than the nature of that everlasting and universal kingdom of God, which embraces all other truth, transcends all mortal understanding, and provides redemption for all the nations of our race, and yet sets up its true throne in the unlettered heart of a regenerated child or a penitent slave. Holding fast all that was good in the “old” religion of conscience and law, he was bringing forth to them the “newness” of his gospel. F. D. H. ## Section 58.—Answers to Unready Disciples. Stilling of the Tempest. Near and on the Lake. L. 1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick of the palsy, and 3 ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, 4 beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do 5, 6 this. For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself. M. 5, 6 Then came unto him the centurion, beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant 7 lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will 8 come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come 9 unto thee: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say unto this one, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great 11 faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it L. 10 done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the self-same hour. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick. THERE is here no analysis of faith, and no definition of it. It seems to be assumed by Christ and his evangelists that all would understand what faith is. The thing is enacted, not described. Men do in regard to Christ almost everything in the range of possibility: philosophize about him, study about him, reason about him, everything save trusting in him. Trusting, I mean, after the simple method which impelled this centurion to implore his help. Trust is at once the most active and the most quiet of all qualities. What the centurion had not, we have: the positive assurance and promise of the Redeemer. This has been verified by ages of human experience. Every man who has died in peace, looking unto Jesus, is an irrefutable argument for the wisdom of faith. The simpler our trust in Christ for all things, the surer is our peace. W. A. 1. The inauguration of the great doctrine was immediately followed and ratified by mighty signs. Jesus went, says one of the Fathers, from teaching to miracle. Having taught as one who had authority, he proceeded to confirm that authority by accordant deeds. F. 2. Centurion. All Palestine was under Roman military government; this centurion was probably connected with the garrison at Capernaum. The Roman army was divided into legions, varying in size from three thousand to six thousand men. There were in each legion sixty centuries, each under the command of a centurion. L. A.—He was one among the many who are distinguished from the seed of Abraham, yet described as fearing God, or worshipping God, of whom we read so often in the Acts—the proselytes, whom the providence of God had so wonderfully prepared in all the great cities of the Greek and Roman world as a link of communication between Gentile and Jew, in contact with both—holding to the first by their race, and to the last by their religion; and who must have greatly helped to the ultimate fusion of both into one Christian Church. T. M. 5. Before the centurion's friends can deliver this message to the Lord, who was approaching nearer and nearer to the house, the centurion himself hastens from the house to be the bearer of his own petition. The report of Matthew commences where that of Luke ceases. C. B.—It may be considered probable that the first evangelist abridges the tale by the omission of incidents that were familiar to him. But the suggestion must occur to the historical student that possibly two separate traditions, differing from one another in the circumstance of the deputation of the elders, appear in the two narratives. G. P. F. 8,9. The centurion's humility was not more low than his faith was lofty: that reaches up into heaven; and, in the face of human weakness, deseries Omnipotence: "Only say the word, and my servant shall be whole." Bp. H.—"I am," he would say, "one occupying only a subordinate place, set under authority, a subaltern, with commanders over me. Yet those that are under me obey me. I have power to send them hither and thither, and they go at my bidding. How much more thou, who art not set, as I am, in a subordinate place, but who art as a prince over the host of heaven, who wilt have angels and spirits to obey thy word and run swiftly at thy command! His view of Christ's relation to the spiritual kingdom is as original as it is grand; and it is so truly that of the Roman officer: the Lord appears to him as the true Imperator, the highest over the hierarchy, not of earth, but of heaven. T.—He begins with acknowledging his own subjection, and states his own authority; then leaves it to our Lord to understand that he recognizes in him an authority beyond all, expecting the powers of nature to obey their Master, just as his soldiers or his servants obey him. How grandly he must have believed in him! And it is to be well heeded that the Lord went no farther—turned at once. McD. 10. Marvelled.** He did this but at two things—faith and unbelief. B.—Midway between the Gentile and the Jew stood the woman of Samaria; outside the bounds of Judaism stood this Roman centurion. Was it to prefigure the great future of the gathering in of all people and tongues that so early in his ministry such a manifestation of faith in the Saviour was made? H. 13. Counting himself unworthy that Christ should enter into his doors, he was counted worthy that Christ should enter into his heart—a far better boon: for Christ sat down in the houses of men, as of that proud, self-righteous Pharisee, whose hearts were not for this the less empty of his presence. But this centurion received him in his heart, whom he did not receive in his house. T.—The centurion's faith came out strongly in every point where that of the nobleman (Section 24) had been deficient. The mind of this semi-heathen—free from the cloud of notions respecting the nature of the Messiah's kingdom which obscured the Jewish mind—had been enabled to realize a clear conception of his own lowliness and of the loftiness of the One to whom he spoke—a state of heart in all ages essential for true access to him. K. ## Section 43.—The Widow's Son raised to Life. Messengers from John. Mk.21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath-day he entered 22 into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes; and his word was with power.L. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and 34 cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One 35 of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and thrown him in the midst, and cried with a Mk.27 loud voice, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing, what a word is this? What new doctrine is this? for with authority and power he commandeth even the 28 unclean spirits, and they do obey him, and come out. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region, into every place of the country round about Galilee.29 And forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the 30 house of Simon Peter and Andrew, with James and John. And Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a great fever: and anon they tell him of her, and besought him for her. 31 And he came, and stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and took her by the hand, and lifted her up. And immediately the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them.32 And at even, when the sun did set, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and they brought unto him many that were possessed with 33, 34 devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And, cast out with his word, devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him, that he was Christ. And he laid his hands on every one of them that were sick of M. 17 divers diseases, and healed them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Nor this day only but every day of his earthly life was a coming under, upon his part, of the evils which he removed from others. For that which is the law of all true helping, namely, that the burden which you would lift you must yourself stoop to and come under, the grief which you would console you must yourself feel with—a law which we witness to as often as we use the words "sympathy" and "compassion"—was, of course, eminently true in him upon whom the help of all was laid. Not in this single aspect of his life, namely, that he was a healer of sicknesses, were these words of the prophet fulfilled, but rather in the life itself, which brought him in contact with these sicknesses and these discords of man's inner being, every one of which as a real consequence of sin, and as being at every moment contemplated by him as such, did press with a living pang into the holy soul of the Lord. Not so much the healing of these sicknesses was Christ's bearing of them; but his burden was that there were these sicknesses to heal. He "bore" them inasmuch as he bore the mortal suffering life, in which alone he could bring them to an end, and at length swallow up death in victory. T. Mk. 22. As one that had authority. Christ spoke as one who claimed to be, who was himself, a sufficient authority for all he uttered; by no means bound to appeal to law or testimony, although he often did so to silence gainsayers or to convince doubters. He spoke as one who was himself a law-giver, superior to Moses, entirely competent by his own authority to abrogate any old law, and to establish any new one. Others said—others say, Believe this, for it is written there. But he always says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you." Believe this, because I say it. K.—Not as the scribes. As the successors of Ezra (7 : 6), the scribes were the conservators and guardians of the sacred text and canon, which implies a critical acquaintance with them, such as qualified the scribes above all others to be expounders of the Scripture. Christ taught not as a mere expounder, but with the original authority belonging to the author of the law expounded. Even those who were most accustomed and most submissive to the teachings of the scribes, must have felt, when Jesus spoke, that he was speaking with authority, declaring his own will and expounding his own law, not that of another. J. A. A. (Read Section 180.) Jesus at once assumed a superiority not merely over these teachers of the law, this acknowledged religious aristocracy, whose reputation, interests, and pride were pledged to the maintenance of the existing system—but he set himself above those inspired teachers of whom the rabbis were but interpreters. He superseded at once by his simple word all that these rabbis had painfully learned and regularly taught as the eternal irrepealable word of God, perfect, complete, enduring no addition. H. M.—The synagogue sermons of the rabbis, as we see in the book of Jubilees, were a tiresome iteration of the minutest rabbinical rules, with a serious importance which regarded them as the basis of all moral order. The kind and quality of wood for the altar; the infinite details of the law of tithes; the moral deadliness of the use of blood; or the indispensableness of circumcision on the eighth day, were urged with passionate zeal as momentous and fundamental truths. The morality and religion of the age had sunk thus low; and hence the fervid words of Jesus, stirring the depths of the heart, created profound excitement in Capernaum. Men were amazed at the phenomenon of novelty, in a religious sphere so unchangeably conservative as that of the synagogue. "New teaching," said one to the other, "and with authority—not like other rabbis." But if they were astonished at his teaching, they were still more so at the power which he revealed in connection with it. G. L. 33-35. The N. T., and especially the Evangelists, repeatedly mention individuals whom they describe as possessed by devils. The possession was often accompanied by physical disease—blindness, dumbness, epilepsy. The Evangelists unquestionably believed and intended to be understood as asserting that the persons described as possessed with evil or unclean spirits were really under the control of disembodied spirits, agents of Satan. They are frequently distinguished from those afflicted with mere physical disorders; the demons are distinguished from the persons whom they control, and are represented as recognizing in Jesus the Son of God, a title not given to him even by his disciples until toward the close of his ministry. No honest interpreter can doubt that the Evangelists shared the common opinion of their day, and intended to be understood as asserting that these individuals were under the control of evil spirits, and that Christ literally emancipated them from this diabolical servitude, and cast the evil spirits out. L. A.—The two Greek words daimon and daimonion—whence our word "demon"—are synonymous; and are the words almost always employed to represent the agents—real or imaginary—in the afflictions we are considering. These words, in the gospels, are uniformly translated "devil" in our version. Wrongly, however; for the representation of the Bible is that there is but one devil—for which the Greek had a different word, diabolos—while demons are represented as being innumerable. By the word "demon" was meant an immaterial, intelligent being. S. Hopkins.—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. There appeared to have been in him a double will and a 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. A. Mk. 27. This miracle—the first of the kind—struck the people with amazement; and they rightly recognized miracles as evidence of Christ's doctrine and mission. K.—34. Suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. Earth has not recognized her king; but heaven and hell alike bear witness unto him. T.—The fact that these persons, all of them and at first sight, recognized our Saviour in his superhuman character and divine office (and this in advance of the popular voice, and even against it), cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition that these men—these demoniacs—were under some intelligent impulse, foreign to themselves, which controlled their minds and shaped their utterance. S. Hopkins.—Our Lord himself everywhere speaks of demoniacs not as persons merely of disordered intellects, but as subjects and thralls of an alien spiritual might; he addresses the evil spirit as distinct from the man. T.—Our Lord's promptitude in silencing this testimony would seem to suggest that he saw it was intended for mischief, and could in the end accomplish nothing else. From such a source it was likely to injure the estimation of him in whose behalf it was borne; for the truth itself might come into discredit when the "father of lies" bore witness to it. K. (On demoniacs, read also notes in Sections 59 and 77.) 31. And she arose.** She rises, as if no disease had ever weakened her, with glad and grateful spirit to wait upon Jesus and the rest. And so within that home kindly hands were provided, like those of Martha at Bethany, to minister to the Saviour's wants during the busiest, most toilsome period of his life, when, in season and out of season, early in the morning and far on often in the night, he came and went, living longer under that roof of Peter's house at Capernaum than under any other that sheltered him after his public ministry had begun. H. 32. Hushing by his voice the delirium of madness, and touching disease into health again by laying on each unhappy and tortured sufferer his pure and gentle hands, moved, in his love and tenderness, the young prophet of Nazareth, the Christ, the Saviour of the world. F. 34. No doubt was entertained by the devils who came "out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God." The testimony so given was not welcomed by Christ. It came unsuitably from a quarter whence no witness was wished for, as it came unseasonably, when premature revelations of his true character were not desired. But, though refused thus by our Lord, its first wild, impatient utterances, all that it was permitted to give forth, this voice is most striking to us now as a testimony from the demon-world. Accepting, with whatever mystery the whole subject of demoniae possession is clothed, the simple account of the Evangelists, it does appear most wonderful—the quick intelligence, the wild alarm, the terror-striking faith that then pervaded the demon-world, as if all the spirits of hell who had been suffered to make human bodies their habitation, grew pale at the very presence of Jesus, and could not but cry out in the extremity of their despair. 32-34. All the city had gathered together at the door of Peter's house. The sun goes down, and Jesus steps out into that bustling, anxious crowd; he lays his hand on every one of the diseased and heals them, and casts out all the spirits with his word. The stars would be shining brightly in the heavens ere the busy blessed work was done, and within a few hours a city which numbered many thousand inhabitants saw disease of every kind banished from its borders. H.—The memorable Sabbath, the events of which are thus circumstantially recorded, may show us how he fulfilled his own great saying concerning doing good on the Sabbath-days: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." S.—What an insight does the account of this day, so marked by deeds of love and mercy, give us into the nature of our Lord's ministry in Galilee! What holy activities, what ceaseless acts of mercies! Such a picture does it give us of their actual nature and amount, that we may well conceive that the single day, with all its quickly-succeeding events, has been thus minutely portrayed to show us what our Redeemer's ministerial life really was. E. M. 17. In all the afflictions which met his eye, "he was afflicted." And when, from the day of his baptism to the night at Gethsemane, he was going from village to village thronged by moaning sufferers and by parents stricken through their children, he comprehended perfectly, as no man ever did, the suffering of each; adopted and realized in his own self each quivering agony; "took their infirmities, bare their sicknesses." Even on the way to Calvary, and upon the cross, "bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows" to the last! S. Hopkins. # Section 28.—First Journey through Galilee. Heals a Leper. M. 18 And the same day when the even was come, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart; and saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side of the lake. 19 And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain scribe came and said 20 unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath 21 not where to lay his head. And he said unto another of his disciples, Follow me. But 22 he said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me. Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of L. 61 God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them 62 farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Mk. 36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And when he was entered, his disciples followed him. And there were also with him other little ships. And they launched forth. But as they sailed he fell asleep. 37 And behold, there came down a great storm of wind, and there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves; and the waves beat into 38 the ship so that it was now full, and they were in jeopardy. And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow; and his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, Master, we perish! carest thou not that we perish? Lord, save us; we perish! And he saith unto them, Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds, and the raging of the water, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith? How is it that ye have no faith? But the men feared exceedingly, and marvelled, and said one to another, What manner of man is this? for he commandeth even the winds and water, and the winds and the sea obey him. JESUS lying this moment under the weakness of exhausted strength, rising the next in the might of manifested omnipotence: in close proximity, in quick succession, the humanity and the divinity that were in him exhibited themselves. Though suddenly roused to see himself in a position of great peril, Jesus has no fear. His first thought is not of the danger, his first word is not to the tempest, his first care is not for the safety of the body, it is for the state of the spirit of those who wake him from his slumbers; nor is it until he has rebuked their fears that he removes the cause; but then he does so, and does it effectually, by the word of his power. And so long as the life we are living shall be thought and spoken of as a voyage, so long shall this night-scene on the Lake of Galilee supply the imagery by which many a passage in the history of the Church, and many in the history of the individual believer, shall be illustrated. Sleeping or waking, let Christ be in the vessel and it is safe. The tempest may come, our faith be small, our fear be great, but still if in our fear we have so much faith as to cry to him to save us, still in the hour of our greatest need will he arise to our help, and though he may have to blame us for not cherishing a livelier trust, he will not suffer the winds or the waves to overwhelm us. H. M. 19. One, himself a rabbi, offered to follow him as his scholar. He returned an answer which should test the applicant's motives to the utmost. It might have seemed of moment to secure the support of a rabbi, but Jesus had seen the worldly bent of his thoughts, and thus turned him aside, by blasting any hopes of advantage or honor in joining him. G. 20. The Son of man.** J. 12 : 34 shows that the Jews understood it to mean the Messiah, and L. 22 : 69, 70, that they considered the Son of man to mean the same as the Son of God. Burton.—It is the name by which the Lord ordinarily designates himself as the Messiah—the Son of God manifested in the flesh of Adam—the second Adam. And to it belong all those conditions of humiliation, suffering, and exaltation, which it behooved the Son of man to go through. A. 21,22. To bury my father. Under other circumstances Christ would not have hindered the indulgence of such a filial love; but he made use of this case to show, by a striking example, that those who sought to follow him must deny natural feelings that were otherwise entirely sacred, when the interests of the kingdom of God required it. "Let those who are themselves dead, who know nothing of the higher interests of the kingdom of God, or the divine life, attend to the lifeless clay. But thou, upon whom the divine life, which conquers all death, is opened, thou must devote thyself wholly to propagate it by preaching the gospel." N.—L. 62.** As ploughing requires an eye intent on the furrow to be made, and is marred the instant one turns about, so will they come short of salvation who prosecute the work of God with a distracted attention, a divided heart. B.—This reply of Christ was not meant merely and only to repel; but rather to throw back this candidate for discipleship on deeper heart-searchings. T.—We must bid all things stand aside that would impede us when we are in pursuit of so great a good; the love of which will soon reconcile us to the hardest duties and endear to us the most self-denying courses. It will alter the countenance of suffering and make all the troubles of this life cast a kinder aspect on us. Nay, it will enable us to look death in the face with a cheerful heart; for it will present it to us in another shape, and make the grave, that house of darkness, seem like the Beautiful Gate of the Temple of God. Patrick. Mk. 37. Came down. The expressions used by the Evangelists all imply the extreme fury of the hurricane. The heated tropical air of the Sea of Galilee, 600 feet beneath the level of the Mediterranean, is suddenly filled by the cold winds sweeping down the snowy ranges of Lebanon and Hermon through the ravines of the Perean hills. F.—This torrent of heavy cold air was pouring over the mountain-crests into the deep caldron of the lake below, a headlong flood of wind, like a waterfall into the hollow. The peculiar effects of squalls among mountains are known to all who have boated much on lakes, but on the Sea of Galilee the wind has a singular force and suddenness; and this is, no doubt, because the sea is so deep below the earth's surface that the sun rarefies the air in it enormously, and the wind gathers much force as it sweeps through flat deserts, until suddenly it meets this huge gap in the way, and it tumbles down here irresistible. J. M.—The whole lake, as we had it, was lashed into fury; the waves repeatedly rolled up to our tent-door, tumbling over the ropes with such violence as to carry away the tent-pins. And, moreover, those winds are not only violent, but they come down suddenly, and often when the sky is perfectly clear. Some such sudden wind it was, I suppose, that filled the ship with waves "so that it was now full." Small as the lake is, and placid, in general, as a molten mirror, I have repeatedly seen it quiver, and leap, and boil like a caldron, when driven by fierce winds from the eastern mountains, and the waves ran high—high enough to fill or "cover" the ships, as Matthew has it. In the midst of such a gale "calmly slept the Son of God," in the hinder part of the ship, until awakened by the terrified disciples. W. M. T. 38. On a pillow.** A part of the boat was used for the boatman's lying or sitting on, and was provided with a leather cushion. Meyer.—Evidently a regular part of the boat's equipment, from the use of the definite article, "the pillow." The stern in ancient ships was much higher than the prow, and this form continued even to the last century in England, while it is still the fashion in Egypt. It was on this account that they could anchor from the stern (as in the case of Paul's shipwreck), and the high stern made a safe and sloping place, where our Saviour slept in the storm. J. M. Master, carest thou—Master, we perish—Lord, save. These variations indicate the different characters of the men who were with Christ in the vessel, and make our conception of the scene at once more graphic and complete. Instead of urging them as an argument against the veracity or accuracy of the Evangelists, we ought rather to find new proofs of their honesty, and the transparent fidelity of these reports. And, after all, however various the words the apostles heard, or thought they heard, they all learned the great lesson of the Master's rebuke. The gist and substance of the rebuke was, that if they had had faith, or faith enough, they would not have feared. The common lesson is, that faith is the conquering opposite of fear. S. Coz. O ye of little faith. Faith they had, for they applied to Christ for relief; but little, for they were afraid, though Christ was in the ship. Faith dispels fear, but in proportion to its strength. B.—Jesus awakes, and the only thing that he beholds is the unbelief of his disciples; his ear tells him not of the fury and rack of the elements, but of the guilty fears of his Galilean friends. And his first reproof is for them. He lets the storm rage on unrebuked, until he has rebuked the agitation of their souls. And now they perceive that a most precious opportunity of signalizing their faith in Christ had been given, and given in vain. The elements had been let loose that their faith might gain a victory, and go on to perfection. The progress of ordinary months might have been made in an hour, had they been watchful. When will they understand that this matter of the education of faith is the most important thing going on under the sun? The school of faith is a school in which we are advancing, lesson by lesson, to a condition where the glory of God shall be perpetually revealed to the soul. G. B. 39. Peace, be still!** The quiet, simple recital of the Evangelists more effectually realizes this sublime transaction than any garniture of words could do. Nothing comes near it but that one other instance which the commencement of the sacred volume supplies—"And he said, Light be—and light was." And he who now rebukes the wind, is he "by whom also God made the worlds"—he, "without whom was nothing made that was made." K.—When he comes down as the Incarnate One, to be man with us, tired and spent as we by life's toils, when he lies so humbly down that even the waters of a lake some hundreds of feet below sea level dash over him, and there sleeps, our feeling is in a strange maze of tenderness. Our God is so nigh, our glorious tent-mate in a guise so gentle, that we come to look upon him in his divine sleep, more tenderly than we could even in the waking mercies and charities of his life. The very heaven of sky and stars that cells the august chamber of his sleep, is more sanctified from underneath, than, before, it was from above. The world is another world—we are other ourselves. H. B. 41. We see here one of the moral purposes to which, in the providence of God, who ordered all things for the glory of his Son, this miracle should serve. It should lead his disciples into thoughts ever higher and more awful of that Lord whom they followed, and should more and more bring them to feel that in nearness to him was safety and deliverance from every danger. The danger which exercised, should strengthen their faith—who indeed had need of a mighty faith, since God, in Chrysostom's words, had chosen them to be the athletes of the universe. T.—The miracles of Jesus, as attestations that the elements of nature were plastic in his hands, are really a new key to the grandest scientific principle in the universe—which is that God lives and moves and acts in all of nature, every instant, and that the whole creation is formed and guided in the interest of the spiritual man, i. e., of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. This world is a place for the training of souls in a Christian immortality. All its laws are yet to serve that end. Its evils, sufferings, disorders; its blights and tempests and agonies, are somehow in it—we know not how, and shall not know at present, because it is the residence of a wrong-choosing, falling, and sinning race. Everything material, visible and tangible, answers to something, expresses something, symbolizes something, in the soul and its spiritual life, as it is hereafter to be developed. Hence Christ must be Lord of life and death, of seas and storms, of diseases and demons, of every mystery and might and secret of created things. “The winds and the sea obey him.” The whole creation, now groaning and travailing in pain together, waits for the redemption, the manifestation of the sons of God. F. D. H.—This sensible miracle was an image of that higher spiritual one which Christ works in all ages, in speaking peace to the soul amid all the tempests of life, and in bringing to obedience all the raging powers that oppose the progress of his kingdom. N.—By this you may know you dwell in Christ, if, when the tempest come, you are ready to run under his wing, and think of no shelter, no protection, but his. Talk what we will of faith, if we do not trust and rely on him, we do not believe in him. Farindon. To set them thinking of him, to give them truer thoughts of the Rabbi whom they loved but did not understand, to teach them that he was Lord of all, and to win them to a deeper trust in him, this was what the storm came for, and was hushed for. And this is what our disasters and happy fortunes come for, our tempests and our calms, our perils and deliverances. They come to set us thinking of him whom, in the quiet every-day course of our life, we are too apt to forget. They come to teach us that he is always with us, ordering all things according to the good pleasure of his will, and to constrain us to trust in him instead of in ourselves, by making us feel how utterly we are in his hands. Danger is not dangerous, nor death dreadful, if Christ be with us and we have faith in him. S. Cox. ## Section 59.—The Demoniac of Gergesa or Gadara. East Side of the Lake. Mk. 1 AND they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gada- 2 renes, or Gergesenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth out of the ship to land, there met him, out of the city, two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by that way: [one] a man with an 3 unclean spirit which had devils long time, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and 4 no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains; and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fet- 5 ters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him. And he ware no clothes, neither abode in any house; but driven of the devil into the wilderness, always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran; and fell down before him, and worshipped 7 him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? I 8 beseech thee, I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he had said unto 9 him, Thou unclean spirit, come out of the man! And Jesus asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many: because many 10 devils were entered into him. And they besought him much, that he would not send them away out of the country, that he would not command them to go out into the deep. 11. Now there was there, a good way off from them, nigh unto the mountains, a great 12 herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, 13 suffer us to go away into the herd of swine, that we may enter into them. And forth- with Jesus gave them leave, and said unto them, Go. And the unclean spirits went out of the man, and entered into the swine. And behold, the whole herd of swine ran vio- lently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand), and were choked, and perished in the waters. 14 And when they that fed the swine saw what was done, they fled, and went their ways and told everything in the city and in the country, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and to see 15 what it was that was done. And they came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed; and saw him that had the legion, sitting at the feet of Jesus, 16 clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed, and also concerning 17 the swine. Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them out of their coasts; for they were taken with a great fear. 18 And when he was come into the ship, the man out of whom the devils were de- 19 parted besought him that he might be with him. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not, but sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and to thy friends, and tell them how great things God hath done for thee, and how the Lord hath had compassion 20 on thee. And he departed, and went his way, and began to publish throughout the whole city, and in Decapolis, how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel. 21 And he entered into a ship, and when he was passed over again unto the other side, much people gathered unto him, and gladly received him, for they were all waiting for him; and he was nigh unto the sea. And he came into his own city. THROUGH his life, he not only affirmed but demonstrated his love; a friend to the afflicted and broken- hearted, to the publican, to the sinner; "tasting death for every man," "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Plenitude, perfectness of love! Adapting himself to our capacities, he gave practical illustrations of his power: of his power over nature—stilling the tempest, walking on the sea, blighting the fig-tree; over providence—supplying abundance for thousands from a handful of food, bringing tribute-money from the sea and a wondrous draught to toil-worn fishermen; over men and women—winning them by his love, confounding them by his wisdom, awing and baffling them by his majesty; over diseases—removing them by a word; over death and the grave—raising the dead, laying down his own life and taking it again. But, when we see Jesus truly, literally, "casting out demons by a word," effecting deliverance to their captives; when we find these evil spirits not only obedient to his will, but trembling at his presence; when we find their wretched victims made the Lord's freedmen, following him and ministering to him with grateful devotion; when we find the maniac of yesterday sitting at the feet of Jesus to-day, clothed and in his right mind: the evidence of Christ's sufficiency is complete! All things in his hand! Lord over nature, providence, death, the grave, the world of spirits! He who can provide for the body and protect it, he who can cause it to sleep in the dust and raise it again, can protect the soul also, even from its most subtle adversaries; can comfort it, train it, perfect it, and save it! This, and the plenitude of his love, are enough! In this faith we can rest; in this, find perfect repose. To this faith he solicits us, encour- ages us, in each recorded act of his supremacy over unclean spirits. The Seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head! To such a Saviour, and only to such, we can each trustfully and safely appeal, like Stephen, "full of the Holy Ghost," "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." S. Hopkins. PECULIAR outbreaks of hostile passion from the kingdom of darkness, against the kingdom of light and peace, attended the appearance of the Lord on the earth; as if the forces that wrought to resist him had been held in reserve for that critical hour, to be then precipitated, in fiercest assault of infernal phalanx, on the field of his divine operations. The very sky of Palestine looks lurid, its sod seems teeming, with malign shapes and glancing figures swift for evil, as we revert to the years when he walked there. R. S. S.—If there was anything that marked the period of the Lord's coming in the flesh, it was the wreck and confusion of men's spiritual life which was then, the sense of utter disharmony, the hopelessness, the despair which must have beset every man that thought at all—this, with the tendency to rush with frantic eagerness into sensual enjoyments as the refuge from despairing thoughts. That whole period was the hour and power of darkness—of a darkness which then, immediately before the dawn of a new day, was the thickest. It was exactly the crisis for such soul maladies as these, in which the spiritual and bodily should be thus strangely interlinked, and it is nothing wonderful that they should have abounded at that time. T. This passage in our Saviour's life abounds in striking contrasts. Reckless frenzy, abject terror, profound attention, devoted attachment, rapidly succeed each other in him who, brought into closest union with the highest and the lowest of the powers of the spiritual world, presents to us a condensed epitome of the great conflict between good and evil—between Christ and Satan—in the domain of the human spirit. Undoubtedly it stands the most remarkable instance of dispossession in the gospel narrative, revealing to us at once the depth of that degradation to which our poor humanity may sink, and the height of that elevation to which, through the power and infinite compassion of the Saviour, it may be raised. Was it for the purpose of teaching us more manifestly that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, that in that age of his appearance devils were permitted to exercise such strange dominion over men? Was it to bring into visible and personal collision the heads of the two opposite spiritual communities—the Prince of Light and the prince of darkness—and to make more visible to all men the supremacy of the one over the other? H. We greatly err if we conceive of the demoniacs as the worst of men, and their possession as the penalty of a wickedness in which they had eminently surpassed their fellows. On the contrary, the most eminent representatives and organs of Satan, false prophets and antichrists, are never spoken of in this language. We all feel that Judas's possession, when Satan entered into him, was specifically different from that of one of the unhappy persons whom Christ came to deliver. T. By persons represented as demonized, were meant those who were supposed to be in some way under the control or mastery of evil spirits. The same thing is meant by the phrases, "hath a demon," "is vexed with a demon," "hath an unclean spirit." The writers of our Saviour's memoirs uniformly represent that this was the case, and that to this demoniacal presence and power were to be attributed the exasperation and continuance—if not the origin—in certain individuals, of bodily and mental maladies. However demonized persons may have been afflicted with bodily diseases or infirmities, the mere presence of these did not constitute them demoniacs; their being demonized was something superadded to their being sick, or in any particular impotent. The bodily affliction and the demoniacal were not the same. Though the former may have been caused by the latter, still they were not the same. In other words, all demoniacs were persons afflicted in some other way or ways than by natural bodily disease or infirmities. Such is the plain import of the language employed. Persons called demonized recognized Jesus as the Messiah of God. We find them all agreed in acknowledging Jesus as the holy anointed of God; we find them agreed in advance of the popular voice; we find them thus agreed, although the popular voice, from which some of them might have received their impressions, was the other way. These men must have made their remarkable confessions by a preternatural influence common to them all; under some intelligent impulse, foreign to themselves, which controlled their minds and shaped their utterance. But two other cases are on record of persons who, at first sight and with no other natural means of information, recognized the Messiah in Jesus; and they were clearly indebted to preternatural aid—Simeon, and Anna the prophetess. Even John the Baptist, his kinsman and forerunner, did not know him to be the Messiah otherwise. By preternatural means, we designate an agency out of the range of the natural senses; an immaterial, or spirit agency. In this case the agency must have been that of evil spirits; for their character is shown by the wretched condition of their victims. Our Saviour taught by his words and by his deeds that evil spirits did torment men by holding their bodies in subjection to infirmity and disease; by holding their minds in subjection to the most cruel of sufferings. He plainly and repeatedly sanctioned the popular belief. Upon the minds of ear-witnesses and eye-witnesses, he left the impression, and meant to leave it, that the doctrine was true. S. Hopkins. (Compare Sections 27 and 77.) 1. The names of Gergesa and Gadara do not occur in the New Testament, but we have “Gergesenes” and “Gadarenes,” which imply that there existed in Christ’s time two cities or countries named respectively Gergesa and Gadara. S. M.—Gadara was a famous fortified city on the east of the Jordan, on the steep edge of the valley of the Jarmuk. It was one of the cities of the Decapolis (League of ten cities), and was about eight miles southeast from Tiberias, across the lake. It was reckoned the capital of Perea, and had coins of its own. The great roads from Tiberias and Scythopolis passed through it to the interior of Perea and to Damascus. G.—The region to the south and to the north of the city would bear in popular language the name of the city itself; and the most natural thing in the world would be for one to speak of the region “over against Galilee,” which might embrace the whole district east of the Lake of Tiberias, as “the country of the Gadarenes.” But there could also be local names which would be just as appropriate as this. Hence, when Matthew, referring to the same event, speaks of Christ’s crossing “to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes,” he is also literally correct. The phrase, “the country of the Gergesenes,” points out, in the unobtrusive minuteness peculiar to inspiration, the particular portion of the “country of the Gadarenes” to which our Saviour went. Directly opposite Tiberias, there is a large valley through which flows a copious stream of water. After leaving the hills and before reaching the lake, it crosses a plain of considerable breadth, on which, just south of the stream, and stretching from the lake back for some distance toward the hills, are ruins called Kersa, or “Gersa.” S. M.—In this Gersa or Chersa we have a position which fulfils every requirement of the narratives, and with a name so near that in Matthew as to be in itself a strong corroboration of the truth of this identification. It is within a few rods of the shore, and an immense mountain rises directly above it in which are ancient tombs, out of some of which the two men possessed of the devils may have issued to meet Jesus. The lake is so near the base of the mountain that the swine, rushing madly down it, could not stop, but would be hurried on into the water and drowned. W. M. T. 2. Of the current explanations of the seeming difficulty that Matthew names two, and the other Evangelists one demoniac, that of Chrysostom and Augustine seems most satisfactory, that one of the demoniacs took so entirely the prominent part as to cause two of the narrators to omit all mention of his companion. E. 3. Dwelling among the tombs. We arrived before sunset at Um Keis—the ancient Gadara. We were kindly received by the sheik of the natives who inhabit the sepulchres. The tomb we lodged in was capable of containing between twenty and thirty people. It was of an oblong form, and the cattle, etc., occupied one end, while the proprietor and his family lodged in another. The sepulchres, which are all underground, are hewn out of the live rock. The doors, which are very massy, are cut out of immense blocks of stone; some of these are now standing and actually working on their hinges, and used by the natives. Irby. 3-8. Our Lord has just spoken peace to the winds and to the waves. But there is something wilder and more fearful than winds and waves in their fiercest moods—even the spirit of man, when it has broken loose from all restraints. And Christ will do here a yet mightier work than he accomplished there; he will prove himself here also the Prince of Peace; he will speak, and at his potent word this madder strife in the heart of man will allay itself; and here also there shall be a great calm. 6-8. His state is in the truest sense of the word “a possession;” another is ruling in the high places of his soul, and he knows this; and out of his consciousness of it there goes forth a cry for redemption, so soon as a glimpse of hope is afforded, an unlooked-for Redeemer draws near. This sense of misery, this yearning after deliverance, was, in fact, what made these demoniacs objects and subjects for Christ’s healing power. T.—There lay a profound truth at the bottom of the demoniac’s consciousness that his feelings, inclinations, and words did not spring from his rational, God-allied nature (his true I), but from a foreign power belonging to the kingdom of the devil. And this truth offered the necessary point of contact for Christ’s spiritual influence, to aid the soul which longed to be delivered from its distraction and its ignominious bondage. The appearance of Christ affected him profoundly; the warring powers within him partly urged him toward the Saviour, and partly held him back; attracted as he was, he could not bear the presence of Jesus. There is something in him which resists and dreads the divine power. Losing his proper identity in that of the evil spirits that possess him, he personates them, and recognizing, with terror, the Son of God as the future judge, he exclaims, in anguish, “Why hast thou come hither before the final doom, to make us feel thy power, and torment us?” N.—Before the time. Here was such a reference to the final sentence which Christ was to pass on these evil spirits at the end of the world (Jude 6) as could not be dictated by lunacy. D.—Thou Son of the most high God. This is one of the most remarkable points in our Lord’s dealings with the evil spirits, the testimony they bear to him. Hell is before earth in acknowledging her Lord. Fear has a  The Demoniac from the Tombs. quicker perception than love, or even than the sense of need. "The devils also believe and tremble." S. 9. They conceived themselves, in fact, as possessed of two natures, viz., their real proper being (the true I), and the evil spirit which subjugated the other; and thus it happened that they spoke in the person of the evil spirit, with which they felt themselves blended into one, even in instincts and propensities utterly repugnant to their true nature. The sense of inward discord and distraction might rise to such a height as to induce the belief that they were possessed by a number of spirits, to whom they were compelled to lend their utterance. The demoniac, still blending his own identity with that of the evil spirits, answers, Legion; it is a whole legion of evil spirits that dwell in him. N.—The presence of Roman armies in Palestine had rendered him familiar with that title of multitude, and as though six thousand evil spirits were in him he answers by the Latin word which had now become so familiar to every Jew. F. 10. Deep. Abyss. Not the Sea of Galilee, nor yet Gehenna, or the Lake of Fire, which is the place of future torment prepared for the devil and his angels. The abyss seems to describe the place of gloom into which the devils were driven after their expulsion from heaven, from which they are allowed to emerge from time to time, as far as their chain—God's permission—suffers. W. 11,12. Herd of swine. Swine and dogs were the ideal of uncleanness. Swine were eaten and even offered in sacrifice by the Canaanites, and though the Jews did not keep swine, they were largely kept by others for the heathen market. The population of the districts beyond Jordan were largely foreign and heathen, and created a demand for the flesh of swine. The herds, fed on the hills and wastes, seem often to have become half wild. G.—The devils besought. Here comes out the very essence of evil in its truest manifestation, that it defeats itself, being as inevitably scourged in the granting of its requests as in their refusal; that it is stupid, blind, self-contradicting, and suicidal; that it can only destroy, and will rather involve itself in the common ruin than not destroy. T. 13. Perished in the waters. Deprived of the abode they preferred, debarred from men, swine would serve their turn. But even the swine—animals created to look unclean, for a type to humanity of the very form and fashion of its greed—could not endure their presence. The man had cut himself with stones in his misery; the swine in theirs rushed into the waters of the lake and were drowned. McD.—The reality of these diabolical possessions, on the one hand, and the manifestly superior power of Christ to dispossess and control the evil spirits, on the other, were placed above suspicion of fraud; for “it was self-evident that a herd of swine could not be confederates in any fraud.” J. G. B. In regard, too, of the loss incurred by the owners, there is no more reason why this should have been made an object of cavil than every murrain that causes cattle to die, or inundation that destroys the fruits of the field, or other natural calamity with which God chastens his children, punishes, or seeks to make contrite the hearts of his enemies. T.—The destruction of the swine is not for a moment to be thought of in the matter, as if that were an act repugnant to the merciful character of our Lord’s miracles. It finds its parallel in the cursing of the fig-tree; and we may well think that if God has appointed so many animals to be daily slaughtered for the sustenance of men’s bodies, he may also be pleased to destroy animal life when he sees fit, for the liberation or instruction of their souls. Besides, if the confessedly far greater evil of the possession of men by evil spirits, and all the misery thereupon attendant, was permitted in God’s inscrutable purposes, surely much more this lesser one. Whether there may have been special reasons in this case, such as the contempt of the Mosaic law by the keepers of the swine, we have no means of judging; but it is at least possible. A. 19. Go home to thy friends, and tell them.** The reasons for enjoining silence on the part of those healed among the Jews—namely, the stirring up of the priestly party to take measures for his arrest before his hour had come, or the fomenting of a revolution in his favor by the excitable Jewish people—did not apply in this case of one living in a wholly Gentile region. Therefore our Lord bade him carry the glad tidings to his friends. J. G. B.—And so the demoniac of Gergesa became the first great missionary to the region of Decapolis, bearing in his own person the confirmation of his words. F. While he calls upon some to leave home and family to follow him, he bids this man to follow first the purely human feelings which had been reinstated in their natural rights within him; to return, sane and calm, to the family which he had abandoned as a maniac; and to glorify God among them, by telling them how Christ had wrought the mighty change, and giving them a living proof of it in his own person. The simple story of the restored man’s experience was adapted to lead them to contemplate Christ, no longer on the side of his power, but of his love and holiness. N.—20. Not in his own house alone, nor among his own friends alone, but throughout the whole Gentile district of Decapolis he published abroad the great things that Jesus had done for him. H.—Under the name of Decapolis—“the ten cities”—Philadelphia, Gadara, Hippos, Damascus, Raphana, Dio, Pella, Gerasa, and Kanatha, were confederated, under direct Roman government, with Scythopolis, on the west side of the Jordan, in a league of peace and war against native robber bands and the Bedouin hordes; and this made them virtually a distinct state. Antipas, apparently, had only so much of the district as did not belong to these cities. G. ## Section 60.—Matthew’s Feast. Old and New Garments and Bottles. Mk. 14 And at that time king Herod, the tetrarch, heard of the fame of Jesus, and of all that was done by him; (for his name was spread abroad). And he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. Others said, that Elias had appeared; and others, that it is a prophet, or that one of the old prophets was risen again. But when Herod heard, he said unto his servants, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. And he desired to see him. 21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee, and when the daughter of Herodias came in, and danced before them, and pleased Herod, and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. 23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? 25 And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she being instructed of her mother came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me here, by and by, in a charger, the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him at meat, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought, and to be given her. And he went and beheaded John in the prison; and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel; and the damsel brought it and gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his body, and buried it in a tomb, and went and told Jesus. THERE is a certain fitness, Augustine observes, such as we may trace running through the whole of the Baptist's history, in the fact that the immediate occasion of his martyrdom was not his witness for Jesus as the Christ, or aught in immediate connection with his Lord; but rather his assertion of the holiness of the law: "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife!" He who was the last and noblest personification of the law fitly sealed with his own blood his zeal for its holiness. At the same time he, and others who like him resisted unto blood, inasmuch as they died for the truth, did in fact die for Christ, who is the Truth; they were his martyrs as really as those who were called by his name, and shed their blood more immediately for his testimony. And on deaths like this of the Baptist, when the servants of God seem given into the hands of the wicked, who do unto them whatsoever they list, he often takes occasion to remark how different to the eye of sense the dealings of God with some of his servants, from his dealings with others. Those he gloriously delivers; these he appears to abandon to their foes; the three children are brought forth altogether unscathed from the fiery furnace; the Maccabean martyrs perish in the flames; Peter is delivered from the sword of Herod, from that sword which had just been stained with James's blood; one John the malice of an emperor fails to hurt, and he is plunged unharmed into the boiling oil; another falls a victim to a wicked woman's spite, and his life is given away at a wanton dancing girl's request. But shall we therefore conclude that those God delivered, and these he did not deliver? Would such language rightly express the facts of the case? Should we not rather say those were delivered openly, and in the face of the world—these as really delivered; however their deliverance did not as manifestly appear, but like so much besides, is at present seen and apprehended only by the eye of faith? T. 14. Herod Antipas had been, while at Rome, the guest of his brother Herod Philip—not the tetrarch of that name, but a son of Herod the Great and Mariamne, daughter of Simon the Boëthusian, who, having been disinherited by his father, was living at Rome as a private person. Here Antipas became entangled by the snares of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; and he repaid the hospitality he had received by carrying her off. Everything combined to make the act as detestable as it was ungrateful and treacherous. Herodias, being the daughter of Aristobulus, was not only the sister-in-law but also the niece of Antipas; she had already borne to her husband a daughter, who was now grown up. Antipas had himself long been married to the daughter of Aretas, emir of Arabia, and neither he nor Herodias was young enough to plead even the poor excuse of youthful passion. A small fragment of the Stemma Herodum will make these relationships more clear: | m. Mariamne, d. of Simon. | Herod "Philip." m. Herodias. | Salome. | m. Malthace (a Samaritan). | Herod Antipas. Archelaus. m. d. of Aretas. m. Herodias. | m. Cleopatra. | Philip, tetr. of Iturea. m. Salome. | m. Mariamne, d. of Hyrcanus. | Aristobulus. | Herodias. Herod Agrippa L | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | It was said, that John was risen. That such thoughts must have been very rife is shown by the fact that when the army of Herod Antipas was disgracefully routed by Aretas, the people looked on it as a retribution for the murder of John. F. (Imprisonment of John, see Section 21.) 25. Instructed. Instigated by her mother. P. S.—Herodias had a passion to gratify, stronger perhaps than any other, when it takes full possession of the human heart, and that was revenge. She had been mortally injured, as she conceived, by the Baptist, who had attempted to break her present infamous connection with Herod; and accordingly gave way to her resentment. P.—Give me here. The bleeding trophy is to be brought to her—it is to be brought to her there—not in a napkin, not held by the hair, but in a dish; so that she—that young girl—may receive it into her own hands, and take it where she pleased, without danger of soiling her rich dress with a prophet's blood. This is frightful. It was done, nevertheless. K. By and by; or, immediately. She desired this might be done quickly, fearing lest Herod should change his mind. Josephus informs us that John was imprisoned in the castle of Macharus, a fortress at the extremity of Perea, his territory adjoining that of Aretas, king of Arabia. Herod had married his daughter, but had put her away to take Herodias, to avenge which Aretas had declared war against him. It is then almost certain that Herod with his forces now lay at Macharus, where his leading men and officers attended him, and where his birthday was kept. Hence he sent a sentinel to behead John, which could be done, and was done immediately. Soon after Herod engaged Aretas, but was defeated with great slaughter. He never prospered after beheading John, but died in exile. B.—According to J. 6:4, the Passover was now at hand, viz., the third during our Lord's ministry. John therefore had lain in prison not far from a year and six months; and was beheaded about three years after entering upon his public ministry. R. 26-28. And so, at the asking of a worthless girl, in spite of the wretched king's undissembled grief and reluctance, the minister of death is sent to the prison, the greatest of the sons of men is foully slain, and the holy lips which had uttered the message of God's Spirit to Israel are given into the hands of the wanton, are passed about for the gaze of the revellers, and finally delivered up to the criminal wife herself to insult and cast out. And the end of the glorious career of the forerunner of the world's King is to fall as it were by a chance blow, victim to the spite of a worthless woman. A.— The Baptist had not turned back, on any occasion, from his perilous duty—he had kept his Nazarite ritual, both in body and spirit, sustaining the one upon the simplest meat, and the other upon the hardest conditions. The Almighty heard the voice which he spoke always for his well-beloved Son; He saw that he spoke truth, and held his integrity steadfast unto the end. And, perceiving in his servant such noble and excellent qualities, He resolved to perfect him for a high place in heaven, and so directed his footsteps to the fiery furnace of a court, that the temper of his truth and piety might be purified manifold. And in the fiery furnace He walked with his servant, so that his spirit was not harmed; and having thus annealed his nature to the utmost which this earth could do, He took him hastily away, and placed him among the glorified in heaven. Irving. # Section 66.—The Twelve return. Cross the Lake. Five Thousand fed. Plain of Butaiha. J. 22 AFTER these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he 23 tarried with them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim, 24 because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. 25 Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews, about 26 purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men 27 come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given 28 him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but 29 that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bride- 30 groom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. 31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speak- 32 eth of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and 33 heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received 34 his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent, 35 speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The 36 Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him. L. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by John for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, 20 and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up Mk. 17 John in prison. For Herod himself had sent forth, and laid hold upon John, and 18 bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake: for he had married her. For 19 John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. There- fore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him: M. 5 and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. THE first thought which suggests itself is, that a magnificent career is cut short too soon. At the very outset of ripe and experienced manhood, the whole thing ends in failure. John's day of active usefulness is over; at thirty years of age his work is done; and what permanent effect have all his labors left? The crowds that listened to his voice, awed into silence by Jordan's side, we hear of them no more. Was all indeed failure? No, it was sublimest victory. John's work was no failure; he left behind him no sect to which he had given his name, but his disciples passed into the service of Christ, and were absorbed in the Christian Church. Words from John had made impressions, and men forgot in after-years where the impressions first came from, but the day of judgment will not forget. John laid the foundations of a temple, and others built upon it. There is a lesson for us in all that, if we will learn it. Work, true work, done honestly and manfully for Christ, never can be a failure. Your own work, which God has given you to do, whatever that is, let it be done truly. Leave eternity to show that it has not been in vain in the Lord. Let it but be work, it will tell. F. W. R. 22. After the occurrences connected with the first Passover, Jesus entered upon a wide preaching-tour, which (Peter states in Acts 10 : 37) extended "throughout all Judea." The word "tarried," elsewhere translated continued or abode, intimates a prolonged tour, occupying about eight or nine months. This seems to have been his only ministry in the rural territory of Judea. J. G. B.—Judea extended on the south to the edge of the wilderness at Beersheba; to the lowlands of the Philistine plain on the west; to the line of the Jordan and the Dead Sea on the east; and on the north to the frontier of Samaria, twenty-five miles from Jerusalem. Jesus found willing hearers and many disciples in the cities and towns of Galilee, but he made little impression on Judea. He "tarried" from time to time at different points, he himself preaching and teaching, and his disciples baptizing the converts gained. (See next section, verse 2.) It was not fitting that Jesus should himself administer the rite which admitted citizens to his spiritual kingdom. The material baptism was but the symbol, and might well be left to his disciples, himself retaining the far grander ministry of the dispensation of the Spirit, which cleansed the moral nature. 23. In this opening period John still continued his great preparatory work. He had crossed from the eastern to the western side of Jordan, and was baptizing at Enon, near Salim—a place the position of which is not positively known. He had apparently expected Jesus to begin his work as the Messiah, by an open assumption of the title. The idea of a great national movement, with Jesus at its head, was natural to him; nor does he seem to have realized that the sublimest self-proclamation our Lord could make was by the still small voice of his divine life and words. John was waiting for a signal to retire, which had not yet been given. Nor was it a superfluous work to continue to point the multitudes to the Lamb of God, and thus prepare them, by the weight of a testimony so revered, for accepting him to whom he thus directed them. 25,26. There arose a question.** A Jew [not "the Jews"], who had apparently attended the ministry of both John and Jesus, had shown the common bias of his race by getting into a discussion with some of John's disciples, about the value of their master's baptism, as a means of purification, as compared with that of Jesus. A theological controversy between Jews, as between Christians, is dangerous to the temper, and, indeed, the rabbis denounced quietness and composure in such matters as a sign of religious indifference. Warmth and bitterness were assumed to prove zeal for the law. Hence, no doubt, there was abundant heat and wrangling on an occasion like this, the whole resulting in a feeling of irritation and jealousy on the part of the champions of John, against One who had thus been set up as his rival. In this spirit they returned to their master. 27-30. The grand humility of John—inaccessible to a jealous thought—was contented to be a mere voice, sending men away from himself to his great successor. His greatness could not have been shown more strikingly than in his reply. G.—In this, his last testimony respecting Christ, the former legal preaching of the Baptist completely passes into the purest gospel. Especially sweet and touchingly beautiful are his words in verses 29, 30. C. B.—He saw Jesus able to loose every evil, to unfold every mystery, to detect every snare, to brighten every darkness, to guide into all truth, and to form to all goodness, and to no hands could he leave the concerns of religion, and the spiritual interests of those to whom he had ministered, but in those of Christ. In the splendor of his grace and truth, John was happy to be darkened, and in such fame he was content to be forgotten. Had his honors been ten thousand times brighter than they were, he would have laid them all at Christ's feet. John in his ministry was not like the evening star, sinking into the darkness of night, but like the morning star, lost to our view in the brightness of day. Bel-frage. 30. I must decrease.** In uttering these words the Baptist probably had a presentiment that the end of his career was at hand. When he returned to the other side of the river, Herod Antipas, who ruled in Perea, succeeded in laying hold of him. The rigid censor of morals, who had no respect for persons where the holy law of God was concerned, had offended the tetrarch; and, by order of the latter, he was conveyed as a prisoner to the border fortress of Macharus. N.—Ten miles southward from the northeast angle of the Dead Sea, on one side of a ravine which breaks the high coast range of rocky precipices, was the fortress of Macharus, where John was imprisoned and beheaded. J. G. B.—This castle, known as "the diadem," from its crown-like seat on the lofty rocks, and as "the black tower," lay on the east side of the Dead Sea, almost on a line with Bethlehem. It was the southern stronghold of Perea, as the Macedonian colony of Pella was the northern. G. 31-34. John's final testimony upon this occasion to the character and office of Jesus is as striking as the involuntary display that he makes of his own character, going much beyond what he had said before, and containing much that bears a singular likeness to what Jesus said of himself to Nicodemus: "He that cometh from above," etc. H.—He who in faith receives the witness of Jesus is a living letter of acknowledgment testifying to the truthfulness of God who gave this Jesus to be the life of sinners; the believer's joy and perfect satisfaction is, so to speak, a seal of confirmation to that great charter of God which God has set before the world in the person of his only-begotten Son, in whom all his promises are yea and amen. 35. Observe the names which he gives to Christ, and by which he distinguishes him from himself who is "a man." He calls him the bridegroom—him that cometh from above, from heaven—him who has been sent from God, anointed with the Holy Ghost without measure. But here he calls him by the highest name of all—the Son. That name John had heard in the voice from the Father, which, while the Holy Ghost was descending on the baptized Jesus, called down from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." R. B. 35,36. Such thoughts filled John's heart with tender adoration, which embodied itself in closing words of wondrous sublimity. "You may well believe on him," said he, "for the Father has given all things into his hand—eternal life and outer darkness. He has not only the divine anointing of the Messiah, but the awful power. To be saved by the works of the law is, moreover, hopeless: faith in him is the one salvation. It is momentous, therefore, that you receive him, for to reject him is to perish. Blessed is he who believes in him; he has, even now, the beginnings in his soul of the divine life, which survives death and never dies. Woe to him who will not hear his voice! He shall never see life; but the wrath of God will burn against him abidingly!" G. Believe, and thou art saved; thou hast life, and shalt never see death. He who has not life now in faith, his eyes never will see it. Would that all Christians really knew these three things! First, what they were without Christ—lost; what they are through Christ for them—righteous; what they become through Christ in them—holy. For then should we have peace, and, as blessed possessors of eternal life, we should await, with longing indeed, but without disquiet, the appearance of that which as yet we are not—to be crowned with the crown of manifested glory. Abideth. The wrath of God does not now first come on the unbeliever, but remains on him, who, being the child, by nature, of wrath, despises to become by grace, through Christ, a child of love. The unbeliever is condemned. R. B.—The contrast here is striking: The one has already a life that will endure forever; the other not only has it not now, but shall never have it—never see it. B.—This statement is strictly absolute and final; it denies unqualifiedly; no form of statement possible to human speech can be stronger. It shuts off all questions of limitation. If the unbelieving sinner shall not see life, his die is cast beyond hope of reversing it. The blessedness of life with God, and with all the pure-hearted above, he can never enjoy. H. C. 31-36. Whether these verses were spoken by John the Baptist, or by John the Evangelist, is not clear; but in either case the lesson is instructive. If the former spoke them, then they form an attestation from the lips of the preacher of repentance, to the impotency of repentance without faith to secure salvation; and if the latter, they are as strong an attestation from the preacher of love to the reality of the divine judgments. In the one case, it is the preacher of repentance, who bids men to believe; in the other, it is the preacher of love expatiating on the fearfulness of the wrath of God; and we may be sure it is in substance the attestation of both. J. A. L. 19, 20. Herod's own wife was the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia; but he persuaded Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, to forsake her husband and live with him, on condition that he should put away his own wife. This involved him in a war with Aretas, who totally defeated him. From the effects of this defeat he was never able to recover himself. B.—Mk. 17. Josephus differs from the gospels as to Herod's reasons for imprisoning John; according to the latter, it was done because John had reproved him for carrying off and marrying his brother Philip's wife; according to the former, the tetrarch was induced by fear of political disturbances. Josephus gave the ostensible and the Evangelists the real and secret reason that impelled Herod. As the Baptist did not claim to be Messiah, and exhorted the people to fidelity in the several relations of life, Herod could have had no political fears except such, indeed, as might arise from John's honest boldness in reproving his sins. N.—18. Not lawful. Because the wife of Herod Antipas was still living, the husband of Herodias was still living, and Herodias and Herod Antipas were relatives within the degrees of consanguinity, within which marriage was forbidden by Lev. 18: 11. L. A. 20. Herod, though in his palace, surrounded with his royal guards, feared him. He knew the Baptist was stronger than he, for truth is mighty, and mightily prevaleth: and being already conscious of his offendings, and having enough to do to keep down the voices of crime and transgression within him, he feared this righteous man, whose words gave such edge to his self-accusations, such point to his remorse. Unarmed, the Baptist daunted him more than an army of men, an embattled city, or a fenced tower, or any other source of physical and outward force. Irving.—John, though defenceless, had a kingly divinity of truth and goodness, that for a time hedged him round from death. Herod's uneasy conscience, and natural indisposition to violence, and the slow, cruel delays of Eastern justice, left John alive. He was even allowed to have intercourse with some of his people, whose love braved personal danger, and brought them to his prison to visit him. G. Observed him. The Greek verb is elsewhere rendered preserved and kept. He guarded John from his wife's malice, and at the same time kept him in prison, and so silenced his public rebuke. L. A. —How thorough-going was the fidelity of the Baptist to his royal hearer, and how strong must have been the workings of conscience in that slave of passion, when, notwithstanding such plainness, he "did many things and heard John gladly!" But this only shows how far Herodias must have wrought upon him, as Jezebel upon Ahab, that he should at length agree to what his awakened conscience kept him long from executing. B. (Read Section 65.) ## Section 22.—To a Woman of Samaria declares himself the Messiah. Sychar, or Shechem. Mk.30 And the apostles, when they were returned, gathered themselves together unto Jesus, 31 and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And when Jesus heard he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much 32 as to eat. And he took them, and departed thence by ship privately, and went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias, and went aside into a desert place belonging 33 to the city called Bethsaida. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. J. 2 And a great multitude when they knew it followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 3, 4 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a Mk.34 great company come unto him, he was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And he received them, and began to teach them many things, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. 35 And when the day was now far spent, when it was evening, the twelve disciples came 36 to him, and said, This is a desert place, and the time is now far past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and buy 37 themselves victuals; for they have nothing to eat. But Jesus answered, and said unto J. 5 them, They need not depart, give ye them to eat. And he saith unto Philip, Whence 6 shall we buy bread that these may eat? (And this he said to prove him: for he himself 7 knew what he would do.) Philip answered him, Two hundred penny-worth of bread Mk.37 is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little. And they say unto him, 38 Shall we go and buy two hundred penny-worth of bread, and give them to eat? He J. 8 saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, one of 9 his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they among so many? We have no more; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. He said, Bring them hither to me. Mk. 39 Now there was much grass in the place. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies on the green grass. And they did so, and sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties in a company. Then he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them; and when he had given thanks he brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the multitude; and likewise the two fishes he divided among them all. And the disciples distributed to the multitude that were set down, as much as they would. And they did all eat, and were all filled. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves and of the fishes, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world. Mk. 45 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go before him to the other side unto Bethsaida, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again, and went himself alone up into a mountain to pray. THE day is wearing away; this is a desert place; there are hungry perishing multitudes around us, and Christ is saying to us all, Give ye them to eat. Say not, We cannot, we have nothing to give. Go to your duty, every one, and trust yourselves to him; for he will give you all supply, just as fast as you need it. Take upon you readily, have it as a law to be always doing great works, that is, works that are great to you; and this in the faith that God so clearly justifies, that your abilities will be as your works. Make large adventures. Trust God for great things. With your loaves and two fishes, he will show you a way to feed thousands. H. B. Mk. 30. He seems to have selected the place of meeting after this first missionary tour was completed. "The apostles," we are told, "gathered themselves together, and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught." How delightful this confidence! They told him of their failures and of their successes; of their wisdom and of their folly; of their reliance and of their unbelief. We seem to see Christ listening with affectionate earnestness to the recital of their adventures; and interposing from time to time a word of encouragement or of caution, as the character and narrative of each might demand. The heart of each was unveiled, and the words spoken were eminently in season. The fatigues of their journey were none of them remembered, as each received from the Saviour the smile of his approval. J. A. 31. When Jesus heard. While the twelve are absent preaching in the name of Christ, Herod causes John the Baptist to be beheaded in the castle of Macherus at the southern extremity of Perea, near the Dead Sea. In consequence of the preaching of the apostles, Herod hears the fame of Jesus; is conscience-smitten, and declares him to be John, risen from the dead. The disciples of John come and tell Jesus; and the twelve also return with the same intelligence; upon which Jesus retires to the northeastern coast of the lake, not far from the northern Bethsaida or Julias. All these events seem to have taken place near together. R. Come ye apart and rest. In our day, a waking rest of travel, change of scene, new society, is permitted, and when it is a privilege assumed by faithful men, to recruit them for their works of duty, they have it by God's sanction, and even as a part of the sound economy of life. The true blessing of rest is on us only when we carry a good mind with us, able to look back on works of industry and faithfulness, suspended for a time, that we may do them more effectually. Going in such a frame, we shall rest awhile as none but such can rest. Nature will dress herself in beauty to our eye, calm thoughts will fan us with their cooling breath, and the joy of the Lord will be strength to our wasted brain and body. H. B. 32. Tiberias was quite a modern town when our Lord frequented this region, having been built and named by Herod about the time of his advent. Seventy years afterward, Josephus found it an important city, and no other in Galilee is so often mentioned by him. Almost every other city was destroyed by Vespasian and Titus, but this was spared, and rewarded for its adherence to the Romans by being made the capital of the province. John, writing many years after these events, would naturally mention both the city and the lake, and call the latter by its then most familiar name, Tiberias. But the other apostles wrote before these events had taken place, and therefore do not speak of Tiberias at all. W. M. T.—It ultimately became the favorite resort and refuge of the scattered Jews not long after the destruction of Jerusalem. For three centuries the Sanhedrim held its assemblies within its walls; it contained schools and a university for the higher education of Jewish youths; and learned rabbins pursued their studies in it, comparatively free from molestation. The rabbi Jonathan wrote here the Jerusalem Talmud. It is to this day one of the four holy cities of the Jews, along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, in which prayers are offered up for the world twice every day, without which, it is believed, it would return to its primeval chaos. Jews gather to it especially from Spain and Barbary, from Poland and Russia, in order to be buried within its hallowed precincts; for next to the valley of Jehoshaphat and the sides of Olivet, it is the highest privilege for a Jew to have a grave here. No wonder, when it is one of their most cherished expectations that the Messiah, when he comes, shall emerge from the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and first reveal himself in Tiberias; after which he shall establish his world-empire up in the mountain-city of Safed. A. Thomson. Bethsaida. At the northeastern corner of  Looking a little east of north from above the modern Tiberias. The desert plain of Butaiha rises from the middle of the farther lake line, at the right of the Jordan's entrance. Snow-crowned Hermon in the far distance. the lake, a little beyond the point where the Jordan enters it, was a second Bethsaida, or "Fish-house," once, like its western namesake, a small village, but recently enlarged and beautified by Philip, tetrarch of Iturea, and called, for the sake of distinction, Bethsaida Julias. F.—The tetrarch Philip, who raised the village of Bethsaida (on the east side) to the dignity of a city, distinguished it from the village of the same name on the west side, by adding the name Julias, from the emperor's daughter. It is not strange that the name, meaning a place of fish, a fishing-town, should be applied to two places on different sides of a lake abounding in fish. N. J. 4. A great multitude followed him, and around the mountain upon which he had retired with the disciples were soon gathered crowds of Jews who were on their way up to Jerusalem to the feast of the Passover. R. B.—Mk. 34. Ascending the hill-side, and gathering the vast throng before him, he "spake unto them of the kingdom of God." The day was spent in this arduous labor, but the people still lingered. They had been fed with the bread of truth, and as they sat and stood round him, they forgot their bodily wants in the beauty and power of his words. G. J. 5. To prove him. Philip was of a thoughtful, anxious disposition, not like Peter, impetuous and soon rushing to a believing conclusion; for that reason the Lord, seeking in love to train the minds of his disciples, addresses himself to him in particular. R. B.—God tests us benevolently, to prove and exercise our faith; the devil tempts malevolently, to weaken and extinguish it. Q.—Mk. 39. “Make the men,” he said, “sit down by fifties in a company”—an order indicative of our Lord’s design that there might be no confusion and that the attention of all might be directed to what he was about to do. L. 16. He chose here as elsewhere—might we not say as everywhere?—to veil the workings of his omnipotence—to hide, as it were, the working of his hand and power, mingling it with that of human hands and earthly elements. H.—As the widow’s oil increased, not in the vessel, but by pouring out; as, here, the barley bread multiplied, not in the whole loaf, but by breaking and distributing; and as the grain bringeth increase, not when it lieth on a heap in the garner, but when scattered upon the land: so spiritual graces are best improved, not by keeping them together, but by distributing them abroad. Sanderson.—Jesus never wrought a miracle except to meet a want, to heal a malady, to satisfy hunger, or in some shape to contribute to the happiness of mankind. . . . It needs as much of Deity to translate spring into harvest, as to transform a few barley loaves into food for so many thousands. J. C. 17. Were all filled. Those whom he professes to feed must needs have enough. The measure of his bounty cannot but run over. Will he feast his auditors in the wilderness? if they have not dainties, they shall have plenty; “They were all satisfied.” Neither yet, O Saviour, is thy hand closed. Not according to our meanness, but according to thy state, are we fed. We are full of thy goodness; oh, let our hearts run over with thanks! Bp. H.—Thus he, all whose works were signs, did in this miracle proclaim himself the true bread of the world, that should assuage the hunger of men, the inexhaustible source of all life, in whom there should be enough and to spare for all the spiritual needs of hungering souls in all ages. T. J. 12. When all were abundantly satisfied, Jesus, not only to show his disciples the extent and reality of what had been done, but also to teach them the memorable lesson that wastefulness is wholly alien to the divine economy, bade them gather up the fragments that remained, that nothing might be lost. F.—It is a common, but a Christian proverb, “Waste not, want not,” and he that wastes needlessly deserves to want. And he that has plenty ought not to waste; for the Lord of all plenty, the Maker, Creator, and Proprietor of all, would not allow one fragment to fall that could be useful to a single human being. J. C.—God loveth a bountiful, not a wasteful hand. Sandys. 13. Twelve baskets. Probably each apostle took a basket in which to gather; hence the twelve. This union of careful savingness with creative power is a feature so peculiar that it impresses, beyond all mistake, a heavenly character on the narrative. Such things are not invented! O.—Baskets were taken by Jews on journeying, to carry their provisions, etc., that they might not have to depend on Gentiles and so incur the risk of ceremonial pollution. B.—All the Evangelists alike here use kophinoi for the common vicker-baskets, in which these fragments were collected; and the word spurides, or “rope-baskets,” when they speak of the feeding of the four thousand. F.—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. T. Mk. 45. This was the Bethsaida on the west, which is always styled simply “Bethsaida,” as if it was well known, while the other on the east is “the city called Bethsaida.” J. M.—46. To make him a king. The effect on the multitude was in keeping with the ideas of the time. Murmurs ran through the excited throng, that Jesus must be the expected prophet—the Messiah. Like Moses, he had fed Israel by a miracle, in the wilderness, which the rabbis said the Messiah would do. They had no higher idea of the Messianic kingdom than the outward and political, and would hasten its advent by forcing him, if possible, to proclaim himself king, and thus open the longed-for war with the hated Romans, in which God would appear on their behalf. While visions of national splendor dazzled the thoughts of his countrymen, the ideal of greatness for himself and them lay with Jesus in humiliation. Hiding his glory in outward lowliness, and never seeking honor from men, he had, throughout, identified his will with that of God, with a self-restraint which showed the grandest force of will. He would not use force, and they were bent on it. His refusal to carry out their plan made opposition inevitable, and it necessarily grew deeper each day as that refusal became more clearly final. That he had declined to be led by them to the throne of David in their way, was, in reality, a step toward the cross. G.—This climax of his miracle-working power produced one, also, in their opinions. “He that can do such a miracle can be no other than Messiah; we must do homage to him as theocratic king, and urge him to establish his kingdom among us.” Plans of this sort Christ had to evade; and he returned alone to the mountain. N.—Into a mountain. A remarkable feature of the lake must have been the concentration of varied life and activity in a basin so closely surrounded with desert solitudes. It was those “desert places,” thus close at hand, on the table-lands, or in the ravines of the eastern and western ranges, which seem to be classed under the common name of “the mountain” that gave the opportunities of retirement for rest or prayer. A. P. S.—To pray. Thus it is that our Lord’s was an angelical life (as Leighton calls it), devoted both to contemplation and to activity. And we need in this respect to copy him. Contemplation we require, that our troubled spirits may be quieted; that truth may produce its appropriate impression upon our hearts; and then activity, that we may spend the strength gained by prayer in beneficent consecration. True piety ought ever to be energetic and practical; it ought also to be meditative and secluded. Days spent among the multitude need nights of calmness and devotion. J. A. # Section 67—The Night-storm on Galilee. Christ walks on the Sea. J. 16 AND when even was come, his disciples went down unto the sea, and entered into a 17 ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and the ship 18 was in the midst of the sea, and Jesus alone on the land was not come to them. And Mk.48 the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them; and the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves. And about the fourth watch of the night, when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, Jesus cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would 49 have passed by them. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, and draw- 50 ing nigh unto the ship, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out for fear. (For they all saw him and were troubled.) And immediately he talked with them, and saith M. 28 unto them, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, 29 Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, 31 saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Then he 32 went up unto them into the ship, and they willingly received him. And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased; and immediately the ship was at the land, 33 whither they went. Then they that were in the ship were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves; for their heart was hardened. And they came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. Mk.53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to 54 the shore. And when they were come out of the ship, and when the men of that 55 place had knowledge of him, straightway they sent out into all the country round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he 56 was: and brought unto him all that were diseased. And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch, if it were but the border of his garment; and as many as touched him were made perfectly whole. EVERY one of us is no other than a little bark rowing against the wind, in a tempestuous sea, encompassed with the darkness of the night, and destitute of all help and succor. He who is not afraid in this condition, sees not the danger of it; whoever sees it, and does not pray, knows nothing of his own weakness. Christ leaves us sometimes to ourselves, on purpose that we may know ourselves, and the need we have of him; but he never loses sight of us. Q.—Peter is here the image of all the faithful, in the seasons of their weakness and fear. So long as they are strong in faith, they are able to tread under foot all the most turbulent agitations of an unquiet world; but when they lose heart and fear, when instead of “looking unto Jesus,” they look at the stormy winds and waters, then these prevail against them, and they begin to sink, and were it not for Christ’s sustaining hand, which is stretched out in answer to their cry, they would be wholly overwhelmed. T. Sure and sweet is the revelation of Christ to the believer in the time of darkness and sorrow. Many a storm has he passed through; but every one has been glorified by the presence of the Redeemer. Many more may await him, but he need not fear. His trust is in One who treads the wildest billows into a sea of glass, and who hushes the roar of the tempest into the murmuring of the evening zephyr. One more night of trial must come to all ere the voyage of life is ended. We are sailing right into the darkness of the unknown sea of death. Yet we will not fear. Our deliverer will come to us even there. Beautiful will be his feet upon the sullen waves; sweet will be the sound of his voice through the gloom, saying to us: “It is I; be not afraid;” and then the morning of eternity will break in beauty over the purple shores of the Canaan that we love. Z. E. J. 16, 17. From the region of the northern Bethsaida or Julias, the disciples embark for Bethsaida of Galilee (Mk. 6 : 45); or for Capernaum, according to J. 6 : 17. They land on the plain of Gennesaret (Mk. 6 : 53). The next day the multitudes follow in boats to Capernaum seeking for Jesus, and find him there (J. 6 : 24, 25, 29). It follows, as a necessary conclusion, that Capernaum was on or near the plain of Gennesaret; most probably at its northeastern extremity. R. (Section 189.)—In J. 6 : 16, it is said that “when even was come the disciples went down unto the sea.” In the other gospels, however, evening is spoken of as having already come, or being near, before the multitude was fed. The explanation is that while John has followed the usual Greek mode of speaking, the others make use of the Hebrew, or rather the Pharisaic, way of reckoning the day. By this, there were two evenings: the first corresponding to our afternoon, from three to six, the other from six to nine, after which came “the darkness.” G.—A ship. When the Sea of Galilee was fringed by towns and villas, trees and corn-fields, then the water was covered by little vessels sailing about in hundreds. It is not easy to ascertain what was the size of the largest of these vessels; but probably, as the distances were short, and the ports were shallow, the boats were not larger than they are now, say about thirty feet long and seven feet beam. J. M. Alone on the land. The darkness deepens; the tempest rises; midnight comes with its gusts and gloom. There—somewhere on that mountain, sheltered or exposed—there, for five or six hours, till the fourth watch of the night—Jesus holds his secret and close fellowship with heaven. H. 18. A great wind.** To understand the causes of these sudden and violent tempests, we must reremember that the lake lies low—six hundred feet lower than the ocean; that the vast and naked plateaus of the Jaulan rise to a great height, spreading backward 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 this lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the cold winds from the mountains. No wonder the disciples toiled and rowed hard all that night; and how natural their amazement and terror at the sight of Jesus walking on the waves! The faith of Peter in desiring and daring to set foot on such a sea is most striking and impressive; more so, indeed, than its failure after he made the attempt. W. M. T. Mk. 48. Five and twenty or thirty furlongs, scarcely more than half of their way, the lake being forty or forty-five furlongs in breadth. T.—We may reckon the furlong or stadion (by the best authorized computation) at 202 yards, so that twenty-seven furlongs and a half, the mean of the distances given, would be about three miles. J. M.—He saw them. He knew where the tempest-tossed bark was. His knowledge directed him; his love constrained him; their need invited him. He had seen them from the mount of fellowship with God. An. 49. Saw him walking on the sea.** What Job celebrates as the distinguishing prerogative of God, “Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea”—what Agur challenges as God’s unapproachable prerogative, to “gather the wind in his fists, and bind the waters in a garment”—this is here done in flesh by the Son of man. B.—There surely can be no question in the mind of an unprejudiced reader that it is John’s intention to relate a miracle; nor again, that there could be in the minds of the disciples no doubt about that miracle—no chance of a mistake as to what they saw. They were afraid: but, upon being reassured by his voice, they were willing to take him into the ship: and upon their doing so, the ship in a comparatively short time was at the land to which they had been going, viz., by the storm ceasing, and the ship making smooth way. A.—Walking upon the sea was thought so impracticable, that the picture of two feet walking on the sea was an Egyptian hieroglyphic for an impossible thing. D. 50. It is I.** So soon as they had made proof that without him they could do nothing, he was with them once more. For it had been his purpose in all this to discipline and lead them up to higher things than they had learned before. When he has tried them to the uttermost, he appears beside them, thus teaching them for all their after-life, in all coming storms of temptation, that he is near them, a very present help in the needful time of trouble. T.—There is something in those two little words, “Tis I” (Gr. “I am”), which from the mouth that spake it and the circumstances in which it was uttered passes the power of language to express. B.—Oh, if we feel, often and often, that the water-floods threaten to drown us, and the deep to swallow up our faith, may it again and again be granted us to hear amid the storm and the darkness those two sweetest of the Saviour’s utterances—“Fear not. Only believe.” “It is I. Be not afraid.” F. M. 28. Rather do the words mean: “Since it is thou, command me to come unto thee.” He feels rightly that Christ’s command must go before his coming. In that “Bid me,” the fault lay. He would go before the other disciples. But Christ does not reply, “Come to me”—only “Come;” that is, “Come, if thou wilt; make the experiment, if thou desirest.” T. 30. A doubt is too heavy for any one to carry who would walk the waters; and Peter’s doubt had sunk him into the deep, but that the Lord had mercy upon him. K.—“Save me!” It was the cry of weakness, of wild alarm, yet it had in it one grain of gold. It was a cry to Jesus, as to the only one that now could help; some true faith mingling now with all the fear. H.—Short prayers are long enough. There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped out, but they were enough for his purpose. Not length, but strength, is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many a long address might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter. Spurgeon. 31. Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him.** It was not Peter’s laying hold of Christ, it was Christ’s laying hold of him, that bore him up. And in our extremity it is not our hold of Jesus, but his of us, on which our trust resteth. Our hand is weak, but his is strong; ours so readily relaxes—too often lets go its hold; but his—none can pluck out of it, and none that are in it can perish. H.—Wherefore doubt? This rebuke was not administered while Peter was sinking—not till Christ had him by the hand, both reinvigorating his faith and with it enabling him again to walk upon the crested wave. B.—The energy of faith was palsied for action; but the earnestness of faith was revived for trusting. Jesus, who mingled tenderness with rebuke, recognized the reality and sincerity of his faith, while he reproved him for its feebleness; for “little faith” is a different thing from faithlessness. The essence of faith is an unfaltering faith in Christ, and its strength lies in its simplicity as an undivided act. J. P. T. 32. The occurrences here related were calculated to make such an impression upon the disciples, that they would be able to receive in faith his discourse on eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and to look forward to a future understanding of it, although at the time a great part might appear unintelligible to them. That which did not appear as if it could be sufficient food to satisfy so many, he had made sufficient; and now when they knew him to be far from them, and themselves to be far from the end of their voyage, he had miraculously approached them, and had brought them to the land whither they were going. Hofman. 33. Worshipped him.** This new illustration of the superhuman power of their Master was so transcendent, that their wonder passed into worship. The impression, like many before, might soon lose its force; but for the moment they were so awed that, approaching him in lowliest reverence, they paid him homage in the words—“Of a truth thou art the Son of God.” G. The eternal future is clear only in Christ. When the powers of the world to come lay their arrest on a man, when time dwindles, when eternity opens in its awful proportions, it is God’s purpose that there should be no place for a man to flee to but Christ. He darkens all the sky save where he appears, and leaves the soul with Christ alone. And when at last a man is forced to quit his hold of all the known, and venture forth into that void, who can give the soul a footing in the empty place, and bring it safe to the shore of a new world? There is but One. The ship is tossed until the morning watch, but there can be no calm around, nor peace within, till He appear. God has willed that morning should break only at his coming, and calm fall in the track of his footsteps. He "who treadeth the waves of the sea"—who has his throne in the upper calm, and his feet on the lower storms—is still walking the waters of death for the help of them who love his appearing. The waters may rise even to the soul, the gloom of death-shade gather over it, and the heart may so fail as to cry out for fear in presence of the Deliverer. But the ear that has learned to recognize his voice will hear the words of the Son of man, "It is I; be not afraid"—words that assure us of a kindred nature, and a gracious purpose. Then shall we receive him gladly, and be immediately at that land whither we are going—"We shall behold his face in righteousness, and shall be satisfied when we awake with his likeness." Ker. ## Section 68.—Christ the Bread of Life. Capernaum. Mk. 1 THEN came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came 2 from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, 3 that is to say, with unwashen hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, and of brazen vessels, and tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to, but transgress, the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they M. 3 eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the command- Mk. 8 ment of God by your tradition? For, laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things 9 ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye M. 4 may keep your own tradition. For God commanded by Moses, saying, Honour thy father 5 and thy mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his Mk.12 mother, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his 13 mother; making the word of God of none effect by your tradition, which ye have de- M. 7 livered: and many such like things do ye. Ye hypocrites, well hath Esaias prophesied 8 of you, saying, as it is written, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, 9 and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mk.14 And when he had called all the people, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every 15 one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but the things which come out of him: that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a 16 man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, then came his disciples, M. 12 and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard 13 this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath 14 not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. 15 And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then his disciples asked him concerning the parable; and Peter said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16 And Jesus said unto them, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not per- Mk.18 ceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth at the mouth into the man, it can- 19 not defile him; because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and is cast out 20 into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man: for those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth 21 from the heart; and they defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, 22 proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, covetousness, wicked- ness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, false witness, blasphemies, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. OUTWARD obedience is invaluable, when it is the fruit of a holy heart; but all the teaching of our Lord shows that the work must begin within. Obedience is the child of Love. Prophecy, alms, and martyrdom are nothing without this inward principle. No perfection of exterior service can make up for a want of the life of God in the soul. The reformation of things outward, and the performance of good acts, unless from a principle of regard to God, are only like hanging fruits on the branches of a sapless tree, dead to the very root. So Christ taught. So the gospel everywhere affirms. J. W. A. Mk. 3. Except they wash their hands, eat not. The Jews attached more importance to the traditional exposition than to the Scripture text itself. The duty of washing before meat is not inculcated in the law, but only in the tradition 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, preferred dying of thirst to eating without washing his hands. A. 5. The tradition of the elders.** The Jews distinguished between the written law and the traditional law, or “law upon the lip;” and the latter was asserted, by its more extravagant votaries, to have been orally delivered by God to Moses, and orally transmitted by him through a succession of elders. On it is founded the Talmud (or “doctrine”), which consists of the Mishna (or “repetition”) of the law, and the Gemara, or “supplement” to it; and so extravagant did the reverence for the Talmud become, that it was said to be, in relation to the law, as wine to water; to read the Scriptures was a matter of indifference, but to read the Mishna was meritorious, and to read the Gemara would be to receive the richest recompense. And it was this system of revered commentary and pious custom which Jesus now completely discountenanced. F. M. 5. As they had specified an instance in which the traditions of the elders had been violated by his disciples, he in turn specifies an instance in which they, by their traditions, had nullified a commandment of God. No human duty was of clearer obligation than that by which a child was bound to honor and help his father and mother. The command enforcing the duty stood among the precepts of the Decalogue. But the elders had found out a way of reading it by which the selfishness or ill-will of a child might find room for exercise, under a religious garb. All that one, who desired to evade the obligation of assisting his parents, had to do, was to say “Corban” over that property on which his parents might be supposed to have a claim—to declare it to be consecrated, bound over to the Lord—and he was free. H.—It was then not lawful for him to succor his parent. And, what was most strange, he was not held to be bound by his words to devote his estate to sacred uses; but, not to relieve the parent, he was inviolably bound. J. L.—So it was that these traditionalists among the Jews quenched the instincts of nature, gave place to evil passions, and broke one of the first and plainest of the divine commands, all under a pretence of piety. H. 8. Their heart is far from me.** Even in the light of the Old Testament it was known that piety of heart was indispensable to a true fulfilment of the law. Christ himself appealed to a passage in the Old Testament (Hos. 6 : 6) in proof of this; and even the well-disposed scribe admitted it. N.—Often in the prophetic word its threats and promises are for all times of the Church: the particular event then foretold being but one fulfilment of those deeper and more general declarations of God, which shall be ever having their successive illustrations in his dealings with men. A. Mk. 14. No further answer will our Lord give to the Pharisees than this severe retort. But first to the multitude, and afterward to his disciples, he will say a word or two of that wherein all real defilement consists—not in the outward, but in the inward. H.—The foregoing dialogue, though in the people’s hearing, was between Jesus and the Pharisaic cavillers, whose object was to disparage him with the people. But Jesus, having put them down, turns to the multitude who, at this time, were prepared to drink in everything he said, and with admirable plainness, pithiness, and brevity, lays down the great principle of real pollution, by which a world of bondage and uneasiness of conscience would be dissipated in a moment, and the sense of sin be reserved for deviations from the holy and eternal law of God. B.—Here Christ displays the same conscious, lofty superiority so often manifested in his disputes with the Pharisees; instead of softening down the offensive doctrine, he presents it more and more forcibly in proportion as they take offence. N. 15. Nothing from without a man can defile.** Nothing that is and remains external to man, and enters only into his body, not into his heart to become part of his character, can defile. The Pharisees feared defilement from their food; of this defilement our Lord speaks. L. A.—Words clear enough to us, but grand beyond thought when uttered, for they were the knell of caste, of national divisions and hatreds, and of the religious worth of external observances as such; and the inauguration of a universal religion of spirit and truth! Nothing external, they proclaimed, made clean or unclean, holy or unholy. Purity and impurity were words applicable only to the soul and its utterances and acts. The charter of spiritual religion: the abrogation of the supremacy of forms and formula forever, was at last proclaimed; the leaven of religious freedom cast into the life of humanity, in the end to leaven it throughout! G. M. 13. The reply of Jesus was an expression of calm indifference to earthly judgment, a reference of all worth to the sole judgment of God as shown in the slow ripening of events. F.—All merely human growths—everything not planted by God—must fall; the whole Pharisaic system shall come to the ground. Let not their talk trouble you; blind are they, and those that follow them; both leaders and led are going on to destruction. N. —14. Let them alone. This seems at first a singular counsel respecting the teachers of error. It is, however, different from, Let the error alone, or, Let the pupils of error alone. Christ very rarely entered into direct controversy with false teachers. In no single instance did he invite to or provoke a controversy with them. He devoted himself to the affirmative work of preaching the truth, and, for the most part, let the preachers of error alone. And God has rooted up their plants. Christ is, in this respect, an example to the modern Christian teacher in dealing with modern antagonisms to Christianity. Fall into the ditch. Christ's disciples had been assailed for eating with unwashed hands, because this was in the eyes of the Pharisees an uncleanness. Christ's response to his disciples embodies the idea that the guidance of the Pharisees will lead directly to the foulest uncleanness. L. A. 15. The disciples were still too much ruled by Jewish views to apprehend correctly the full force of Christ's figurative language. The form of expression was simple enough in itself; it was the strange thought which made it difficult. It was only at a later period that even Peter could learn, and that, too, by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, that everything is pure, for men, which comes pure from the Creator's hand. "Do ye not yet understand," said he, "that what enters a man's mouth from without cannot defile the interior life? It is the product of the heart, it is that which comes from within, that makes a man unclean." N.— 21. Evil thoughts—like one tiny rill of evil, and then the burst of all that black overwhelming torrent! F. THE Pharisees had refined the law into a microscopic casuistry which prescribed for every isolated act, but Jesus brought it into the compass of a living principle in the soul. A lifetime was hardly enough to learn the rabbinical precepts respecting offerings, but Jesus virtually abrogated them all by the short utterance that "mercy was better than sacrifice." The schools had added to the simple distinctions of the law between clean and unclean beasts, endless distinctions respecting different parts of each, and the necessary rites; the simple rule of Jesus was—It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes from the heart. The rabbis contended after what uses vessels should be purified in running, after what in drawn water, and how wooden and metal dishes were to be minutely discriminated. Jesus waived aside this trifling and deadly pedantry, and told his hearers to take care to have what was within clean, and then the outside would be clean also. Even the Sabbath laws, with their countless enactments, were as briefly condensed. "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day." "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Such teaching was unheard of in Israel. It was revolutionary in the grandest sense. G. ## Section 71.—The Syrophenician Mother's Faith. Heals One Deaf and Dumb. Borders of Phenicia. Decapolis. Mk. 24 AND from thence Jesus arose and departed into the borders or coasts of Tyre and Sidon; and entered into an house, and would have no man know it; but he could not be hid. For behold, a woman of Canaan, out of the same coasts, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came, and fell at his feet: and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed 26 with a devil. (The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation,) and she besought M. 23 him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth 24 after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house 25, 26 of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But Jesus answered and said unto her, Let the children first be filled; for it is not meet to take 27 the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs, which fall from 28 their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: for this saying, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Go thy way: the devil is gone Mk.30 out of thy daughter. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. 31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Gali- 32 lee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand 33 upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, 34 and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith 35 unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and 36 the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal 37 they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. WHY was it that in this woman's case, to use the words of an old divine, Christ "stayed long, wrest- ling with her faith, and shaking and trying whether it were fast-rooted" or no? Doubtless because he knew that it would stand the proof, and that she would come out victorious from this sore trial; and not only so, but with a stronger, higher, purer faith than if she had borne away her blessing at once. Now she has learned that men ought always to pray and not to faint; that, with God, to delay a boon is not therefore to deny it. She won the strength which Jacob had won before, from his night-long struggle with the angel. Here is the same persevering struggle on the one side, and the same persevering refusal on the other; the stronger is at last overcome by the weaker. God himself yields to the might of faith and prayer; for a later prophet, interpreting that mysterious struggle, tells us the weapons which the patriarch wielded: "He wept and made supplication unto him," connecting with this the fact that "he had power over the angel and prevailed." The two histories, indeed, only stand out in their full resem- blance when we keep in mind that the angel there, the angel of the covenant, was no other than that Word who, now incarnate, "blest" this woman at last, as he had blest Jacob at Peniel—in each case re- warding a faith which had said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Yet, when we thus speak of man overcoming God, we must never for an instant lose sight of this, that the power whereby he over- comes the resistance of God, is itself a power supplied by God. T. This Syrophenician woman is still, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, the model supplicant. Her very coming to Jesus was an act of heroic faith; for she came not only without invitation or promise, but in the face of fearful discouragements. Somehow she believed beforehand in his love to her, a poor Gentile mother; and this was great faith indeed. And her faith grew stronger, and shone more brightly through the progress of a trial which would have utterly extinguished that of any ordinary believer. It is faith alone which brings us into that living sympathy with God in which lies the possibility and prevailing power of prayer. Z. E. JESUS retires from Galilee, first to the region of Tyre and Sidon; then he returns to the Decapolis; and goes afterward to the district of Cesarea Philippi, now Banias. All these were districts not un- der the jurisdiction of Herod, whose domain in- cluded only Galilee and Perea. R. Mk. 24. The borders of Tyre and Sidon. (See map, p. 270.) It is not probable that our blessed Lord actually overpassed the limits of the Jewish land; and the true meaning is, that he came into the confines of that heathen land. T.—He had proclaimed the supreme truth that God was the great Father of all mankind, and that the human race round the world were brethren in his great household. But pity for his own nation—the Israel of the old covenant—forbade his going forth, for the time, to all races. It would at once have sealed the fate of his people, for what was offered to the heathen would have been instantly rejected by the fanatical Jew. G. 26. This woman was by birth a Canaanite, and a Syrophenician; by position a Roman subject; by culture and language a Greek; and her appeal for mercy to the Messiah of the chosen people might well look like the first-fruits of that harvest in which the good seed should spring up hereafter in Tyre and Sidon, Carthage, Greece, and Rome. F.—Phenician was the general name given to a race whose colonies were widely spread in very ancient times. One division of this race occupied the country from which they were driven out by the Israelites; and as that country bordered upon Syria, they were called Syrophenicians by the Greeks and Romans. It was to this tribe that the woman belonged. It is a pure and simple case of one belonging to the great world of heathendom coming to Jesus. H. M. 23. Answered her not a word. He knows with whom he has to do, and he has different ways for souls differently disposed. To the feeble he makes advances, and accommodates himself to their infirmities; the strong, it pleases him to make to wait, to provoke to holy combat, in order to exercise their courage, and, at the same time, to display before the eyes of men and angels the beautiful spectacle of their victory. Thus he strengthened the faith of the woman of Canaan, while he instructed his disciples so much the more. “What coldness in his language!” you say. Yes, but what love in his heart! A. M.—Send her away. The twelve learned, at last, that even heathen “dogs” were not to be sent away unheard. G. 25. Lord, help me!** Sent to me, or not, here thou art, oh! Saviour of the unfortunate! Called, or not, here am I, a wretched mother! Thou must hear me, thou must cure my daughter, thou must drive away this demon; I will not let thee go, until thou hast delivered me! A. M.—Her words are few, but quantity is compensated by intensity of feeling and truth of conviction. Tears and cries, not words and periods, for him who hears not with human ears; who regards not the tongue, but listens to the beating of the heart. W. A. B. 26. Dogs.** She knew that, in comparing the Jews to the children of God’s family, and the heathen to the dogs without, he simply used the comparison and statement common among his people, as expressing the relation between them, without meaning to give personal offence. K.—To the Jew, and, in general, to all the nations of the East, the dog was an unclean animal, the type of profane and persecuting impiety, as the swine, with which he was associated, was the type of an inordinate and sensual impiety. A. M. 27. Such an answer might well have struck a chill into her soul; and had he not foreseen that hers was the rare trust which can see mercy and acceptance even in apparent rejection, he would not so have answered her. But 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: Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs. F.—She, like the centurion, and under still more unfavorable circumstances, was mighty in faith; and, from the very word which seemed to make most against her, she drew an argument in her own favor. She entangled the Lord, himself most willing thus to be so entangled, in his own speech. Upon these words Luther, who has dwelt on all the circumstances of this little history with a peculiar love, and seems never weary of extolling the mighty faith of this woman, exclaims: “Like her, thou must give God right in all he says against thee, and yet must not stand off from praying, till thou overcomest as she overcame, till thou hast turned the very charges made against thee into arguments and proofs of thy need—till thou too hast taken Christ in his own words.” She consents to Christ’s declaration, not immediately to make exception against the conclusion which she draws from it, but to show how in that very declaration is involved the granting of her petition. T.—With a presence of mind that we should admire, if our attention was not absorbed by a spectacle far more beautiful, that of her faith, she arms herself against the Lord with the very weapon with which he had just pierced her: “A single crumb of that bread with which thou satisfieest the desires of thy chosen people, a single word, a single look, and my daughter shall be healed!” A. M.—To us it requires some reflection to see the exquisite fitness of this rejoinder, and to understand the strength of the faith that could stand up under such reiterated discouragement. But Jesus felt it all in one moment; and he was all the while, not merely hearing her words, but looking upon her heart. His voice altered, his countenance relaxed, and she beheld the King in all the beauty of his benignity and tenderness. K. 28. For this saying.** The words of the woman of Canaan open the heavens, triumph over the Lord, drive away the devil, and accomplish whatever she wishes. It was because these were the words of faith. Faith gives us some mysterious share in the omnipotence of God himself. If it is written: "With God, all things are possible," it is also written: "All things are possible to him that believeth." Fear not that pride may be engendered by this glorious power; it is exercised only in humility; it escapes when the heart is inflated; the woman of Canaan is all-powerful at the moment when she abases herself most profoundly. A. M.—The time is not passed when he comes down to wrestle with men, to be a seeming opponent to them in the great conflicts of the soul, and not surrender his blessing until it has sometimes been wrung from him by agonies of importunity; but all the while he wrestles on their side, and draws out their strength that it may lay hold of his, and so prevail. Ker.—It is voluntarily, and without prejudice to his sovereign power, that the Lord is overcome, or rather that he suffers himself to be overcome, in the contest into which he enters with us. It is he himself who has established this double rule, that unbelief should receive nothing, and that faith shall obtain all things. A. M. O woman, great is thy faith! Many things besides had there been to commend in her—her strong maternal love, her earnestness, her perseverance, her deep humility. Over all these the Saviour passes, or rather he traces them all up to their common root—her faith in him, her trust in front of all difficulties, in opposition even to his own words and acts; her trust in his good-will to her, in his disposition to pity and help. Two instances only are recorded in which Jesus passed such an approving judgment; and it is remarkable that they are those of two Gentiles—the Roman centurion and the Syrophenician woman. H.—It is precisely this sense of unworthiness and unconditional submission to God, when revealed in his omnipotence and mercy; it is precisely faith, in this peculiarly Christian sense, which is made, throughout the New Testament, the condition of all manifestations of the grace of God. . . . The transaction affords another lesson. The Christian may comfort himself under the hardest trials and severest struggles—nay, even when his most ardent prayers appear to be unheard and unanswered—with the consoling belief that behind the veil of harshness the Father's love conceals itself. N. Mk. 31. Decapolis. The name given to a large and undefined region which lay around ten cities, to which peculiar privileges were granted by the Romans after their conquest of Syria. All of these, with a single exception, lay to the east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. H.—It was a confederacy of ten free cities, in a district which, on their return from exile, the Jews had never been able to recover, and which was therefore mainly occupied by Gentiles, who formed a separate section of the Roman province. F. 33. Put his fingers. Afflicted as this man was, all other avenues of communication, save by sight and feeling, were of necessity precluded. Christ by these signs would awaken his faith, and stir up in him the expectation of a blessing. Took him aside. His purpose in this was, that apart from the tumult and interruptions of the crowd, in solitude and silence, the man might be more recipient of deep and lasting impressions; even as the same Lord does now oftentimes lead a soul apart when he would speak with it, or heal it; sets it in the solitude of a sick chamber, or in loneliness of spirit, or takes away from it earthly companions and friends. He takes it aside, as this deaf and dumb out of the multitude, that in the hush of the world's din it may listen to him; as on a great scale he took his elect people aside into the wilderness, when he would first open their spiritual ear, and speak unto them his law. T. 34. He sighed. Why did he sigh? In a few moments, this imprisoned mind will be rejoicing in the full restoration and liberty of its action. And certainly there was no occasion for sadness in the faith of the friends who brought the man to the Healer's feet. For nothing in all the offices of friendship is more precious to him than its intercessions. Why, then, should he sigh? There can be but one answer. In all common sights Christ saw more than our common eyes can see. To him everything, whether in nature or in man, was set into divine connections and bore some spiritual meaning. His thought passes from the one case of wretchedness before him to the vast accumulations of physical sickness and anguish, which sometimes make the earth itself look like a hospital. He sees that, back in its deep root and secret origin, not only death but disease comes by sin; that as sure as there is agony, God's good law must somewhere have been broken. In the groan of every ailing body the Saviour heard an echo of the retributive lamentation of the whole groaning and travailing creation in its pain, crying out for his cross, and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. What wonder if he sighed with it? All this suffering, these stripes, he must take up, in the wonderful capacity and fulness of his reconciling work, into his loving and glorious person. More than once, these premonitions of the Garden and Calvary fell upon him; as he came to the burial-place at Bethany, as he was on the eve of working those very miracles where his perfect mastery over every kind of evil seemed to be proved, he was sad at heart, he sighed, and he wept. And this expression of his sadness shows how perfectly Christ was man. Beholding only the displays of his miracle-working omnipotence, seeing the winds and the sea, the sick and the dead, obey him, vigorous life flushing again through the paleness and stiffness of death just as light and motion did through the universe on the morning of the first creation, we might fix our attention only on his supernatural majesty, and so lose the tender sense of his human oneness with ourselves. But the sound of this sigh—such as only a human breast could heave—the sight of tears such as only a nature fashioned in all points like our own could shed—this brings him to our side. We look into those moistened eyes, and believe him. We lean on that sighing breast, and are at peace with him. Jesus sighs, and thereby the sighing soul of man is invigorated. F. D. H. After the sigh came the utterance Ephphatha, a word belonging to that dialect of the old Hebrew language called the Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic, which was then current in Judea. It has recently been established by a great variety of proof, that in the days of our Saviour the Jews knew and spoke two languages; all the grown-up educated population using the Greek as well as the Aramaic tongue. Assuming that Greek was the language ordinarily employed by our Saviour, it would very naturally occur that occasionally he reverted to the old dialect, and that when he did so the words that he used should have been preserved and interpreted. H. Be opened. It is because he proceeds instantly from sighing for the sick man to acting for him, that we know sympathy is not meant to waste itself in mere feeling, but to stimulate our active energies for useful service. All sorrow, all faith, all work are reconciled in him. For he sighs, he looks up to heaven, and then he opens the ears of the deaf, and loosens their tongues, for his praise. Give no place to that irreligious sorrow which does not look up to heaven, but only sighs on earth. Grief has two comforters, two angels that sit in the empty tomb: the prayer of faith, and work, for suffering men. F. D. H. 36. Charged them that they should tell no man. The probable reasons for these injunctions of secrecy were, his wish to avoid as much as possible the opposition of the Pharisees, which might have caused attempts upon his life before the purposes for which he came into the world were accomplished; and also to prevent any sedition or tumult among the people, arising from their mistaken notions of the Messiah as a temporal king and deliverer; by which means his enemies would have obtained the advantage they desired. Stanhope. 37. He hath done all things well. Everywhere, under all circumstances, he is animated by the same spirit, he sheds the same light, he proclaims the same law. He fulfils every duty to God, to man, and to himself, with perfect ease and freedom, and exhibits an entire conformity to the law, in the spirit as well as the letter. His life is one unbroken service of God in active and passive obedience to his holy will; one grand act of absolute love to God and love to man; of personal self-consecration to the glory of his heavenly Father, and the salvation of a fallen race. In the language of the people who were “beyond measure astonished at his works” we must say, the more we study his life: “He did all things well.” F. G. We are daily passing through changes of our earthly history, some of bitterness, some of sweetness; some expected, some unexpected. We feel at times a difficulty in judging of these, for many of them seem so much against us; but knowing that here we see in part and know in part, remembering the love and the wisdom under whose direction all these things are happening, we put away the suggestions of unbelief, and let Faith speak out in her firmest, gladdest tone, “He hath done all things well;” and, “What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.” But when wandering by the banks of the river of the water of life, or along the jewelled walls of the New Jerusalem, we recall our past life, and, with far fresher memory than now, pass from scene to scene, remembering time’s prosperities or its adversities, its joys and sorrows; our calms and our storms, our weariness and our rest; hope blighted, hope fulfilled, disappointment, bereavement, perplexity—all the windings of our earthly route; and finding in what glory they have landed us; how blessedly they have, each of them, great and small, wrought out our holiness, our progress, and our endless recompense—then shall we know that “He hath done all things well.” An. ## Section 72.—Multitudes healed. Four Thousand fed. East Side of the Lake. M. 29 And he went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came 30 unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many oth- 31 ers, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them; insomuch that the multi- tude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. Mk. 1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called 2 his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, 3 because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting to their own houses, lest they faint in the way: for divers 4 of them came from far. And his disciples answered, and say unto him, From whence should we have so much bread here in the wilderness, as to satisfy so great a multitude? 5 And Jesus asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few 6 little fishes. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples to set 7 before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small 8 fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them: so they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the broken meat that was left, seven baskets M. 38 full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. 39. And he sent away the multitude; and straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the coasts of Magdala, into the parts of Dalmanutha. In the profound yet unconscious wisdom, in the serene purity, in the tenderness, the forbearance, the persevering love, the combined magnanimity and lowliness of that faultless life of Jesus, we "behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord." As we follow in his mission of unwearied beneficence, that gentle compassionate being in whom sorrow ever found its best consoler, and penitence its pure yet pitying friend; as we note how, wherever he came, the cry of the wretched awaited him—wherever he went, the blessings of them that were ready to perish followed his steps; how the hungry blessed him for food, the homeless for shelter, the heavy-laden for rest; how, one touch from his hand and the frozen blood of the leper flowed with the warm pulse of health—one word from his lips, and the eyes of the blind gleamed back their gratitude upon him; how, too, far deeper ills than these—the pangs of conscious guilt, the woes of the troubled conscience, the incurable wound of remorse, the inner maladies that oftenest baffle mortal skill, found ever in him their most tender yet most potent healer; and finally, as we observe in the agent of all this wondrous working a simplicity, a self-forgetfulness, a certain calm unobtrusiveness, that in his mightiest acts bespeaks no effort and courts no observation or applause; as we witness all this prodigality of goodness and majestic ease of power, does not the mind involuntarily ascend to that Being whose name is Almighty Love—does not the exclamation rise spontaneously to the lip, "Surely God is here?" C. It is implied that those with whom our Lord associated on these shores were accustomed to out- door life. They meet on the mountain to hear him preach; they follow him into a desert place to be fed; they spend whole days there without any ap- parent provision for either shelter, sleep, or food; they are found in the open courts of houses or on the shore of the lake at all times. Now all the specifications are here, just as they should be—the mountain, the desert place, the shore, the open court, the climate so warm as to lead the people into the open air, the present habits of the people— everything in exact accord with the gospel narra- tives. The inhabitants not only go forth into the country as represented in the New Testament, but they remain there, and sleep in the open air, if occasion require, without the slightest inconvenience. Instructions addressed to such a people, assembled in the open country or on the seaside, would naturally, almost necessarily, abound in illustrations drawn from country life and from surrounding objects. No others would so seize upon their attention, be so readily comprehended, or so tenaciously remembered. Accordingly, we hear the divine Teacher exclaim at Shechem, "Lift up your eyes to the fields, already white to the harvest. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the fields." Thus, too, he speaks of the vineyards; of the good branches purged; of the dry ones gathered for the fire; of the penny-a-day laborers standing in the market waiting to be hired, and of their receiving their wages at the close of each day. Such things as these we now see constantly, daily, and to the minutest shade of verbal accuracy. All these allusions are perfectly natural and appropriate to the country, the people, the Teacher, the age, and every other circumstance mentioned or implied in the evangelical narratives. We have the originals still before us. The teachings and illustrations of our Lord would have been out of place in any other country except this. They could not have been uttered anywhere else. W. M. T. The events which follow describe a period of apparent retirement, spent partly in Galilee, partly north of Galilee in the districts about Cesarea Philippi. This period, up to his departure from Galilee to fulfil the ministry more fully described by John, is devoted chiefly to instructing his disciples respecting the kingdom of God. L. A. 2. Three days they had now been with him, and, as many of them came from a distance, their food was exhausted. Jesus pitied them, and seeing their faith, and unwilling that they should faint by the way, once more spread for his people a table in the wilderness. F. 4. Their question here hardly indicates a doubt; it is elicited by Christ's previous question, and is such as they might readily have proposed, if they wished merely to leave all to Christ without suggesting, as they never did throughout all his ministry, the performance of a miracle. L. A. 6. His miracles in bread and in wine were far less grand and less beautiful than the works of the Father they represented, in making the corn to grow in the valleys, and the grapes to drink the sunlight on the hill-sides of the world, with all their infintudes of tender gradation and delicate mystery of birth. But the Son of the Father be praised, who, as it were, condensed these mysteries before us, and let us see the precious gifts coming at once from gracious hands—hands that love could kiss and nails could wound. McD.—It is as instructive as it is remarkable, that on only two occasions did our Lord create food; and miraculously provide money on only one—leaving the law of God not only to its righteous but beneficent course, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Guthrie. (Compare Section 66, Feeding of 5,000.) M. 39. Dalmanutha. Just before reaching Mejdel (Magdala) we crossed a little open valley, with a few corn-fields and gardens straggling among the ruins of a village, and some large and more ancient foundations by several copious fountains, probably identified with Dalmanutha. H. B. T. (See illustration and map, Section 26.) ## Section 73.—Accuses Pharisees, and cautions Disciples. Magdala. Plain of Butaiha. Mk. 1 THEN came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came 2 from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, 3 that is to say, with unwashen hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, and of brazen vessels, and tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to, but transgress, the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they M. 3 eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the command- Mk. 8 ment of God by your tradition? For, laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things 9 ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye M. 4 may keep your own tradition. For God commanded by Moses, saying, Honour thy father 5 and thy mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his Mk.12 mother, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his 13 mother; making the word of God of none effect by your tradition, which ye have de- M. 7 livered: and many such like things do ye. Ye hypocrites, well hath Esaias prophesied 8 of you, saying, as it is written, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, 9 and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mk.14 And when he had called all the people, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every 15 one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but the things which come out of him: that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a 16 man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, then came his disciples, M. 12 and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard 13 this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath 14 not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. 15 And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then his disciples asked him concerning the parable; and Peter said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16 And Jesus said unto them, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not per- Mk.18 ceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth at the mouth into the man, it can- 19 not defile him; because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and is cast out 20 into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man: for those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth 21 from the heart; and they defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, 22 proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, covetousness, wicked- ness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, false witness, blasphemies, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. OUTWARD obedience is invaluable, when it is the fruit of a holy heart; but all the teaching of our Lord shows that the work must begin within. Obedience is the child of Love. Prophecy, alms, and martyrdom are nothing without this inward principle. No perfection of exterior service can make up for a want of the life of God in the soul. The reformation of things outward, and the performance of good acts, unless from a principle of regard to God, are only like hanging fruits on the branches of a sapless tree, dead to the very root. So Christ taught. So the gospel everywhere affirms. J. W. A. Mk. 3. Except they wash their hands, eat not. The Jews attached more importance to the traditional exposition than to the Scripture text itself. The duty of washing before meat is not inculcated in the law, but only in the tradition 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, preferred dying of thirst to eating without washing his hands. A. 5. The tradition of the elders.** The Jews distinguished between the written law and the traditional law, or “law upon the lip;” and the latter was asserted, by its more extravagant votaries, to have been orally delivered by God to Moses, and orally transmitted by him through a succession of elders. On it is founded the Talmud (or “doctrine”), which consists of the Mishna (or “repetition”) of the law, and the Gemara, or “supplement” to it; and so extravagant did the reverence for the Talmud become, that it was said to be, in relation to the law, as wine to water; to read the Scriptures was a matter of indifference, but to read the Mishna was meritorious, and to read the Gemara would be to receive the richest recompense. And it was this system of revered commentary and pious custom which Jesus now completely discountenanced. F. M. 5. As they had specified an instance in which the traditions of the elders had been violated by his disciples, he in turn specifies an instance in which they, by their traditions, had nullified a commandment of God. No human duty was of clearer obligation than that by which a child was bound to honor and help his father and mother. The command enforcing the duty stood among the precepts of the Decalogue. But the elders had found out a way of reading it by which the selfishness or ill-will of a child might find room for exercise, under a religious garb. All that one, who desired to evade the obligation of assisting his parents, had to do, was to say “Corban” over that property on which his parents might be supposed to have a claim—to declare it to be consecrated, bound over to the Lord—and he was free. H.—It was then not lawful for him to succor his parent. And, what was most strange, he was not held to be bound by his words to devote his estate to sacred uses; but, not to relieve the parent, he was inviolably bound. J. L.—So it was that these traditionalists among the Jews quenched the instincts of nature, gave place to evil passions, and broke one of the first and plainest of the divine commands, all under a pretence of piety. H. 8. Their heart is far from me.** Even in the light of the Old Testament it was known that piety of heart was indispensable to a true fulfilment of the law. Christ himself appealed to a passage in the Old Testament (Hos. 6 : 6) in proof of this; and even the well-disposed scribe admitted it. N.—Often in the prophetic word its threats and promises are for all times of the Church: the particular event then foretold being but one fulfilment of those deeper and more general declarations of God, which shall be ever having their successive illustrations in his dealings with men. A. Mk. 14. No further answer will our Lord give to the Pharisees than this severe retort. But first to the multitude, and afterward to his disciples, he will say a word or two of that wherein all real defilement consists—not in the outward, but in the inward. H.—The foregoing dialogue, though in the people’s hearing, was between Jesus and the Pharisaic cavillers, whose object was to disparage him with the people. But Jesus, having put them down, turns to the multitude who, at this time, were prepared to drink in everything he said, and with admirable plainness, pithiness, and brevity, lays down the great principle of real pollution, by which a world of bondage and uneasiness of conscience would be dissipated in a moment, and the sense of sin be reserved for deviations from the holy and eternal law of God. B.—Here Christ displays the same conscious, lofty superiority so often manifested in his disputes with the Pharisees; instead of softening down the offensive doctrine, he presents it more and more forcibly in proportion as they take offence. N. 15. Nothing from without a man can defile.** Nothing that is and remains external to man, and enters only into his body, not into his heart to become part of his character, can defile. The Pharisees feared defilement from their food; of this defilement our Lord speaks. L. A.—Words clear enough to us, but grand beyond thought when uttered, for they were the knell of caste, of national divisions and hatreds, and of the religious worth of external observances as such; and the inauguration of a universal religion of spirit and truth! Nothing external, they proclaimed, made clean or unclean, holy or unholy. Purity and impurity were words applicable only to the soul and its utterances and acts. The charter of spiritual religion: the abrogation of the supremacy of forms and formula forever, was at last proclaimed; the leaven of religious freedom cast into the life of humanity, in the end to leaven it throughout! G. M. 13. The reply of Jesus was an expression of calm indifference to earthly judgment, a reference of all worth to the sole judgment of God as shown in the slow ripening of events. F.—All merely human growths—everything not planted by God—must fall; the whole Pharisaic system shall come to the ground. Let not their talk trouble you; blind are they, and those that follow them; both leaders and led are going on to destruction. N. —14. Let them alone. This seems at first a singular counsel respecting the teachers of error. It is, however, different from, Let the error alone, or, Let the pupils of error alone. Christ very rarely entered into direct controversy with false teachers. In no single instance did he invite to or provoke a controversy with them. He devoted himself to the affirmative work of preaching the truth, and, for the most part, let the preachers of error alone. And God has rooted up their plants. Christ is, in this respect, an example to the modern Christian teacher in dealing with modern antagonisms to Christianity. Fall into the ditch. Christ's disciples had been assailed for eating with unwashed hands, because this was in the eyes of the Pharisees an uncleanness. Christ's response to his disciples embodies the idea that the guidance of the Pharisees will lead directly to the foulest uncleanness. L. A. 15. The disciples were still too much ruled by Jewish views to apprehend correctly the full force of Christ's figurative language. The form of expression was simple enough in itself; it was the strange thought which made it difficult. It was only at a later period that even Peter could learn, and that, too, by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, that everything is pure, for men, which comes pure from the Creator's hand. "Do ye not yet understand," said he, "that what enters a man's mouth from without cannot defile the interior life? It is the product of the heart, it is that which comes from within, that makes a man unclean." N.— 21. Evil thoughts—like one tiny rill of evil, and then the burst of all that black overwhelming torrent! F. THE Pharisees had refined the law into a microscopic casuistry which prescribed for every isolated act, but Jesus brought it into the compass of a living principle in the soul. A lifetime was hardly enough to learn the rabbinical precepts respecting offerings, but Jesus virtually abrogated them all by the short utterance that "mercy was better than sacrifice." The schools had added to the simple distinctions of the law between clean and unclean beasts, endless distinctions respecting different parts of each, and the necessary rites; the simple rule of Jesus was—It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes from the heart. The rabbis contended after what uses vessels should be purified in running, after what in drawn water, and how wooden and metal dishes were to be minutely discriminated. Jesus waived aside this trifling and deadly pedantry, and told his hearers to take care to have what was within clean, and then the outside would be clean also. Even the Sabbath laws, with their countless enactments, were as briefly condensed. "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day." "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Such teaching was unheard of in Israel. It was revolutionary in the grandest sense. G. ## Section 71.—The Syrophenician Mother's Faith. Heals One Deaf and Dumb. Borders of Phenicia. Decapolis. Mk. 24 AND from thence Jesus arose and departed into the borders or coasts of Tyre and Sidon; and entered into an house, and would have no man know it; but he could not be hid. For behold, a woman of Canaan, out of the same coasts, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came, and fell at his feet: and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed 26 with a devil. (The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation,) and she besought M. 23 him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth 24 after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house 25, 26 of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But Jesus answered and said unto her, Let the children first be filled; for it is not meet to take 27 the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs, which fall from 28 their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: for this saying, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Go thy way: the devil is gone Mk.30 out of thy daughter. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. 31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Gali- 32 lee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand 33 upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, 34 and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith 35 unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and 36 the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal 37 they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. WHY was it that in this woman's case, to use the words of an old divine, Christ "stayed long, wrest- ling with her faith, and shaking and trying whether it were fast-rooted" or no? Doubtless because he knew that it would stand the proof, and that she would come out victorious from this sore trial; and not only so, but with a stronger, higher, purer faith than if she had borne away her blessing at once. Now she has learned that men ought always to pray and not to faint; that, with God, to delay a boon is not therefore to deny it. She won the strength which Jacob had won before, from his night-long struggle with the angel. Here is the same persevering struggle on the one side, and the same persevering refusal on the other; the stronger is at last overcome by the weaker. God himself yields to the might of faith and prayer; for a later prophet, interpreting that mysterious struggle, tells us the weapons which the patriarch wielded: "He wept and made supplication unto him," connecting with this the fact that "he had power over the angel and prevailed." The two histories, indeed, only stand out in their full resem- blance when we keep in mind that the angel there, the angel of the covenant, was no other than that Word who, now incarnate, "blest" this woman at last, as he had blest Jacob at Peniel—in each case re- warding a faith which had said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." Yet, when we thus speak of man overcoming God, we must never for an instant lose sight of this, that the power whereby he over- comes the resistance of God, is itself a power supplied by God. T. This Syrophenician woman is still, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, the model supplicant. Her very coming to Jesus was an act of heroic faith; for she came not only without invitation or promise, but in the face of fearful discouragements. Somehow she believed beforehand in his love to her, a poor Gentile mother; and this was great faith indeed. And her faith grew stronger, and shone more brightly through the progress of a trial which would have utterly extinguished that of any ordinary believer. It is faith alone which brings us into that living sympathy with God in which lies the possibility and prevailing power of prayer. Z. E. JESUS retires from Galilee, first to the region of Tyre and Sidon; then he returns to the Decapolis; and goes afterward to the district of Cesarea Philippi, now Banias. All these were districts not un- der the jurisdiction of Herod, whose domain in- cluded only Galilee and Perea. R. Mk. 24. The borders of Tyre and Sidon. (See map, p. 270.) It is not probable that our blessed Lord actually overpassed the limits of the Jewish land; and the true meaning is, that he came into the confines of that heathen land. T.—He had proclaimed the supreme truth that God was the great Father of all mankind, and that the human race round the world were brethren in his great household. But pity for his own nation—the Israel of the old covenant—forbade his going forth, for the time, to all races. It would at once have sealed the fate of his people, for what was offered to the heathen would have been instantly rejected by the fanatical Jew. G. 26. This woman was by birth a Canaanite, and a Syrophenician; by position a Roman subject; by culture and language a Greek; and her appeal for mercy to the Messiah of the chosen people might well look like the first-fruits of that harvest in which the good seed should spring up hereafter in Tyre and Sidon, Carthage, Greece, and Rome. F.—Phenician was the general name given to a race whose colonies were widely spread in very ancient times. One division of this race occupied the country from which they were driven out by the Israelites; and as that country bordered upon Syria, they were called Syrophenicians by the Greeks and Romans. It was to this tribe that the woman belonged. It is a pure and simple case of one belonging to the great world of heathendom coming to Jesus. H. M. 23. Answered her not a word. He knows with whom he has to do, and he has different ways for souls differently disposed. To the feeble he makes advances, and accommodates himself to their infirmities; the strong, it pleases him to make to wait, to provoke to holy combat, in order to exercise their courage, and, at the same time, to display before the eyes of men and angels the beautiful spectacle of their victory. Thus he strengthened the faith of the woman of Canaan, while he instructed his disciples so much the more. “What coldness in his language!” you say. Yes, but what love in his heart! A. M.—Send her away. The twelve learned, at last, that even heathen “dogs” were not to be sent away unheard. G. 25. Lord, help me!** Sent to me, or not, here thou art, oh! Saviour of the unfortunate! Called, or not, here am I, a wretched mother! Thou must hear me, thou must cure my daughter, thou must drive away this demon; I will not let thee go, until thou hast delivered me! A. M.—Her words are few, but quantity is compensated by intensity of feeling and truth of conviction. Tears and cries, not words and periods, for him who hears not with human ears; who regards not the tongue, but listens to the beating of the heart. W. A. B. 26. Dogs.** She knew that, in comparing the Jews to the children of God’s family, and the heathen to the dogs without, he simply used the comparison and statement common among his people, as expressing the relation between them, without meaning to give personal offence. K.—To the Jew, and, in general, to all the nations of the East, the dog was an unclean animal, the type of profane and persecuting impiety, as the swine, with which he was associated, was the type of an inordinate and sensual impiety. A. M. 27. Such an answer might well have struck a chill into her soul; and had he not foreseen that hers was the rare trust which can see mercy and acceptance even in apparent rejection, he would not so have answered her. But 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: Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs. F.—She, like the centurion, and under still more unfavorable circumstances, was mighty in faith; and, from the very word which seemed to make most against her, she drew an argument in her own favor. She entangled the Lord, himself most willing thus to be so entangled, in his own speech. Upon these words Luther, who has dwelt on all the circumstances of this little history with a peculiar love, and seems never weary of extolling the mighty faith of this woman, exclaims: “Like her, thou must give God right in all he says against thee, and yet must not stand off from praying, till thou overcomest as she overcame, till thou hast turned the very charges made against thee into arguments and proofs of thy need—till thou too hast taken Christ in his own words.” She consents to Christ’s declaration, not immediately to make exception against the conclusion which she draws from it, but to show how in that very declaration is involved the granting of her petition. T.—With a presence of mind that we should admire, if our attention was not absorbed by a spectacle far more beautiful, that of her faith, she arms herself against the Lord with the very weapon with which he had just pierced her: “A single crumb of that bread with which thou satisfieest the desires of thy chosen people, a single word, a single look, and my daughter shall be healed!” A. M.—To us it requires some reflection to see the exquisite fitness of this rejoinder, and to understand the strength of the faith that could stand up under such reiterated discouragement. But Jesus felt it all in one moment; and he was all the while, not merely hearing her words, but looking upon her heart. His voice altered, his countenance relaxed, and she beheld the King in all the beauty of his benignity and tenderness. K. 28. For this saying.** The words of the woman of Canaan open the heavens, triumph over the Lord, drive away the devil, and accomplish whatever she wishes. It was because these were the words of faith. Faith gives us some mysterious share in the omnipotence of God himself. If it is written: "With God, all things are possible," it is also written: "All things are possible to him that believeth." Fear not that pride may be engendered by this glorious power; it is exercised only in humility; it escapes when the heart is inflated; the woman of Canaan is all-powerful at the moment when she abases herself most profoundly. A. M.—The time is not passed when he comes down to wrestle with men, to be a seeming opponent to them in the great conflicts of the soul, and not surrender his blessing until it has sometimes been wrung from him by agonies of importunity; but all the while he wrestles on their side, and draws out their strength that it may lay hold of his, and so prevail. Ker.—It is voluntarily, and without prejudice to his sovereign power, that the Lord is overcome, or rather that he suffers himself to be overcome, in the contest into which he enters with us. It is he himself who has established this double rule, that unbelief should receive nothing, and that faith shall obtain all things. A. M. O woman, great is thy faith! Many things besides had there been to commend in her—her strong maternal love, her earnestness, her perseverance, her deep humility. Over all these the Saviour passes, or rather he traces them all up to their common root—her faith in him, her trust in front of all difficulties, in opposition even to his own words and acts; her trust in his good-will to her, in his disposition to pity and help. Two instances only are recorded in which Jesus passed such an approving judgment; and it is remarkable that they are those of two Gentiles—the Roman centurion and the Syrophenician woman. H.—It is precisely this sense of unworthiness and unconditional submission to God, when revealed in his omnipotence and mercy; it is precisely faith, in this peculiarly Christian sense, which is made, throughout the New Testament, the condition of all manifestations of the grace of God. . . . The transaction affords another lesson. The Christian may comfort himself under the hardest trials and severest struggles—nay, even when his most ardent prayers appear to be unheard and unanswered—with the consoling belief that behind the veil of harshness the Father's love conceals itself. N. Mk. 31. Decapolis. The name given to a large and undefined region which lay around ten cities, to which peculiar privileges were granted by the Romans after their conquest of Syria. All of these, with a single exception, lay to the east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. H.—It was a confederacy of ten free cities, in a district which, on their return from exile, the Jews had never been able to recover, and which was therefore mainly occupied by Gentiles, who formed a separate section of the Roman province. F. 33. Put his fingers. Afflicted as this man was, all other avenues of communication, save by sight and feeling, were of necessity precluded. Christ by these signs would awaken his faith, and stir up in him the expectation of a blessing. Took him aside. His purpose in this was, that apart from the tumult and interruptions of the crowd, in solitude and silence, the man might be more recipient of deep and lasting impressions; even as the same Lord does now oftentimes lead a soul apart when he would speak with it, or heal it; sets it in the solitude of a sick chamber, or in loneliness of spirit, or takes away from it earthly companions and friends. He takes it aside, as this deaf and dumb out of the multitude, that in the hush of the world's din it may listen to him; as on a great scale he took his elect people aside into the wilderness, when he would first open their spiritual ear, and speak unto them his law. T. 34. He sighed. Why did he sigh? In a few moments, this imprisoned mind will be rejoicing in the full restoration and liberty of its action. And certainly there was no occasion for sadness in the faith of the friends who brought the man to the Healer's feet. For nothing in all the offices of friendship is more precious to him than its intercessions. Why, then, should he sigh? There can be but one answer. In all common sights Christ saw more than our common eyes can see. To him everything, whether in nature or in man, was set into divine connections and bore some spiritual meaning. His thought passes from the one case of wretchedness before him to the vast accumulations of physical sickness and anguish, which sometimes make the earth itself look like a hospital. He sees that, back in its deep root and secret origin, not only death but disease comes by sin; that as sure as there is agony, God's good law must somewhere have been broken. In the groan of every ailing body the Saviour heard an echo of the retributive lamentation of the whole groaning and travailing creation in its pain, crying out for his cross, and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. What wonder if he sighed with it? All this suffering, these stripes, he must take up, in the wonderful capacity and fulness of his reconciling work, into his loving and glorious person. More than once, these premonitions of the Garden and Calvary fell upon him; as he came to the burial-place at Bethany, as he was on the eve of working those very miracles where his perfect mastery over every kind of evil seemed to be proved, he was sad at heart, he sighed, and he wept. And this expression of his sadness shows how perfectly Christ was man. Beholding only the displays of his miracle-working omnipotence, seeing the winds and the sea, the sick and the dead, obey him, vigorous life flushing again through the paleness and stiffness of death just as light and motion did through the universe on the morning of the first creation, we might fix our attention only on his supernatural majesty, and so lose the tender sense of his human oneness with ourselves. But the sound of this sigh—such as only a human breast could heave—the sight of tears such as only a nature fashioned in all points like our own could shed—this brings him to our side. We look into those moistened eyes, and believe him. We lean on that sighing breast, and are at peace with him. Jesus sighs, and thereby the sighing soul of man is invigorated. F. D. H. After the sigh came the utterance Ephphatha, a word belonging to that dialect of the old Hebrew language called the Aramaic, or Syro-Chaldaic, which was then current in Judea. It has recently been established by a great variety of proof, that in the days of our Saviour the Jews knew and spoke two languages; all the grown-up educated population using the Greek as well as the Aramaic tongue. Assuming that Greek was the language ordinarily employed by our Saviour, it would very naturally occur that occasionally he reverted to the old dialect, and that when he did so the words that he used should have been preserved and interpreted. H. Be opened. It is because he proceeds instantly from sighing for the sick man to acting for him, that we know sympathy is not meant to waste itself in mere feeling, but to stimulate our active energies for useful service. All sorrow, all faith, all work are reconciled in him. For he sighs, he looks up to heaven, and then he opens the ears of the deaf, and loosens their tongues, for his praise. Give no place to that irreligious sorrow which does not look up to heaven, but only sighs on earth. Grief has two comforters, two angels that sit in the empty tomb: the prayer of faith, and work, for suffering men. F. D. H. 36. Charged them that they should tell no man. The probable reasons for these injunctions of secrecy were, his wish to avoid as much as possible the opposition of the Pharisees, which might have caused attempts upon his life before the purposes for which he came into the world were accomplished; and also to prevent any sedition or tumult among the people, arising from their mistaken notions of the Messiah as a temporal king and deliverer; by which means his enemies would have obtained the advantage they desired. Stanhope. 37. He hath done all things well. Everywhere, under all circumstances, he is animated by the same spirit, he sheds the same light, he proclaims the same law. He fulfils every duty to God, to man, and to himself, with perfect ease and freedom, and exhibits an entire conformity to the law, in the spirit as well as the letter. His life is one unbroken service of God in active and passive obedience to his holy will; one grand act of absolute love to God and love to man; of personal self-consecration to the glory of his heavenly Father, and the salvation of a fallen race. In the language of the people who were “beyond measure astonished at his works” we must say, the more we study his life: “He did all things well.” F. G. We are daily passing through changes of our earthly history, some of bitterness, some of sweetness; some expected, some unexpected. We feel at times a difficulty in judging of these, for many of them seem so much against us; but knowing that here we see in part and know in part, remembering the love and the wisdom under whose direction all these things are happening, we put away the suggestions of unbelief, and let Faith speak out in her firmest, gladdest tone, “He hath done all things well;” and, “What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.” But when wandering by the banks of the river of the water of life, or along the jewelled walls of the New Jerusalem, we recall our past life, and, with far fresher memory than now, pass from scene to scene, remembering time’s prosperities or its adversities, its joys and sorrows; our calms and our storms, our weariness and our rest; hope blighted, hope fulfilled, disappointment, bereavement, perplexity—all the windings of our earthly route; and finding in what glory they have landed us; how blessedly they have, each of them, great and small, wrought out our holiness, our progress, and our endless recompense—then shall we know that “He hath done all things well.” An. ## Section 72.—Multitudes healed. Four Thousand fed. East Side of the Lake. M. 29 And he went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came 30 unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many oth- 31 ers, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them; insomuch that the multi- tude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. Mk. 1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called 2 his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, 3 because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting to their own houses, lest they faint in the way: for divers 4 of them came from far. And his disciples answered, and say unto him, From whence should we have so much bread here in the wilderness, as to satisfy so great a multitude? 5 And Jesus asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few 6 little fishes. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples to set 7 before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small 8 fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them: so they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of the broken meat that was left, seven baskets M. 38 full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. 39. And he sent away the multitude; and straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the coasts of Magdala, into the parts of Dalmanutha. In the profound yet unconscious wisdom, in the serene purity, in the tenderness, the forbearance, the persevering love, the combined magnanimity and lowliness of that faultless life of Jesus, we "behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord." As we follow in his mission of unwearied beneficence, that gentle compassionate being in whom sorrow ever found its best consoler, and penitence its pure yet pitying friend; as we note how, wherever he came, the cry of the wretched awaited him—wherever he went, the blessings of them that were ready to perish followed his steps; how the hungry blessed him for food, the homeless for shelter, the heavy-laden for rest; how, one touch from his hand and the frozen blood of the leper flowed with the warm pulse of health—one word from his lips, and the eyes of the blind gleamed back their gratitude upon him; how, too, far deeper ills than these—the pangs of conscious guilt, the woes of the troubled conscience, the incurable wound of remorse, the inner maladies that oftenest baffle mortal skill, found ever in him their most tender yet most potent healer; and finally, as we observe in the agent of all this wondrous working a simplicity, a self-forgetfulness, a certain calm unobtrusiveness, that in his mightiest acts bespeaks no effort and courts no observation or applause; as we witness all this prodigality of goodness and majestic ease of power, does not the mind involuntarily ascend to that Being whose name is Almighty Love—does not the exclamation rise spontaneously to the lip, "Surely God is here?" C. It is implied that those with whom our Lord associated on these shores were accustomed to out- door life. They meet on the mountain to hear him preach; they follow him into a desert place to be fed; they spend whole days there without any ap- parent provision for either shelter, sleep, or food; they are found in the open courts of houses or on the shore of the lake at all times. Now all the specifications are here, just as they should be—the mountain, the desert place, the shore, the open court, the climate so warm as to lead the people into the open air, the present habits of the people— everything in exact accord with the gospel narra- tives. The inhabitants not only go forth into the country as represented in the New Testament, but they remain there, and sleep in the open air, if occasion require, without the slightest inconvenience. Instructions addressed to such a people, assembled in the open country or on the seaside, would naturally, almost necessarily, abound in illustrations drawn from country life and from surrounding objects. No others would so seize upon their attention, be so readily comprehended, or so tenaciously remembered. Accordingly, we hear the divine Teacher exclaim at Shechem, "Lift up your eyes to the fields, already white to the harvest. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the fields." Thus, too, he speaks of the vineyards; of the good branches purged; of the dry ones gathered for the fire; of the penny-a-day laborers standing in the market waiting to be hired, and of their receiving their wages at the close of each day. Such things as these we now see constantly, daily, and to the minutest shade of verbal accuracy. All these allusions are perfectly natural and appropriate to the country, the people, the Teacher, the age, and every other circumstance mentioned or implied in the evangelical narratives. We have the originals still before us. The teachings and illustrations of our Lord would have been out of place in any other country except this. They could not have been uttered anywhere else. W. M. T. The events which follow describe a period of apparent retirement, spent partly in Galilee, partly north of Galilee in the districts about Cesarea Philippi. This period, up to his departure from Galilee to fulfil the ministry more fully described by John, is devoted chiefly to instructing his disciples respecting the kingdom of God. L. A. 2. Three days they had now been with him, and, as many of them came from a distance, their food was exhausted. Jesus pitied them, and seeing their faith, and unwilling that they should faint by the way, once more spread for his people a table in the wilderness. F. 4. Their question here hardly indicates a doubt; it is elicited by Christ's previous question, and is such as they might readily have proposed, if they wished merely to leave all to Christ without suggesting, as they never did throughout all his ministry, the performance of a miracle. L. A. 6. His miracles in bread and in wine were far less grand and less beautiful than the works of the Father they represented, in making the corn to grow in the valleys, and the grapes to drink the sunlight on the hill-sides of the world, with all their infintudes of tender gradation and delicate mystery of birth. But the Son of the Father be praised, who, as it were, condensed these mysteries before us, and let us see the precious gifts coming at once from gracious hands—hands that love could kiss and nails could wound. McD.—It is as instructive as it is remarkable, that on only two occasions did our Lord create food; and miraculously provide money on only one—leaving the law of God not only to its righteous but beneficent course, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Guthrie. (Compare Section 66, Feeding of 5,000.) M. 39. Dalmanutha. Just before reaching Mejdel (Magdala) we crossed a little open valley, with a few corn-fields and gardens straggling among the ruins of a village, and some large and more ancient foundations by several copious fountains, probably identified with Dalmanutha. H. B. T. (See illustration and map, Section 26.) ## Section 73.—Accuses Pharisees, and cautions Disciples. Magdala. Plain of Butaiha. M. 1 THE Pharisees also with the Sadducees came forth, and began to question with him; 2 and, tempting him, desired that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for 3 the sky is red; and in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not Mk.12 discern the signs of the times? And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this wicked and adulterous generation seek after a sign? Verily, I say unto you, 13 there shall no sign be given to this generation, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and entering into the ship again, departed to the other side. 14 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take 15 bread; neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. Then Jesus charged them, saying, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is 16 because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 17 Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having 18 eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments 19 took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven loaves among the four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 20 M. 11 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. He sighed deeply in his spirit. Everywhere as he looked he saw that soul that had sprung a pure, holy, happy thing from his hands, now filled with selfishness and pride, and envy and impurity, and all ungodliness—that soul that had been destined for the companionship of God and angels, now ripening for the blackness of darkness forever! And can we doubt that his was an anguish at the sight into which no finite mind can enter? He could feel for external sufferings. He looked up to heaven and sighed for the deaf. He wept, and groaned in spirit for the dead. But what were external suffering and death to this? To him the world was strewn with a more awful than material desolation—with the wreck of spiritual grandeur, the memorials of lost and ruined souls. C. 1. The multitude having been fed [on the eastern shore] and sent away, Jesus had sailed across the lake, landing on its western shore [at Magdala] between Tiberias and Capernaum. He had scarcely reappeared in the neighborhood in which most of his wonderful works had been wrought, when, once again, in their old spirit of contemptuous challenge, the Pharisees demand that he would show them a sign from heaven. Now, however, for the first time, the Sadducees appear by their side, leaguing themselves with the Pharisees in a joint rejection of Christ—in slighting all that he had already said and done—in counting it insufficient to substantiate any claim on his part to be their Messiah, and in demanding the exhibition of some great wonder in the heavens. H.— The Pharisees were accompanied with their rivals and enemies the Sadducees, that skeptical sect, half-religious, half-political, to which at this time belonged the two high-oriests, as well as the members of the reigning family. Every section of the ruling classes—the Pharisees, formidable from their religious weight among the people; the Sadducees, few in number but powerful from wealth and position; the Herodians, representing the influence of the Romans, and of their nominees the tetrarchs; the scribes and lawyers, bringing to bear the authority of their orthodoxy and their learning—were all united against him in one firm phalanx of conspiracy and opposition, and were determined above all things to hinder his preaching, and to alienate from him, as far as was practicable, the affections of the people among whom most of his mighty works were done. F. 3. Discern the times. The Jews had been, and were, most blind to the signs of the times, at all the great crises of their history; and particularly to the times in which they were then living. The sceptre had departed from Judah, the law-giver no longer came forth from between his feet: yet they discerned none of these things. A.— Christ's question is, Cannot ye discern the signs or tokens of the time appointed, by symbol and prophet in the O. T., for the coming of the Messiah?—in the overthrow of the throne of Herod and the subjection of Israel to Rome, in the degradation, political and moral, of the realm, in the coming of John the Baptist in the spirit of Elijah, and in the miracles wrought for the blessing of the people in fulfilment of such prophecies as that of Isaiah 61: 1-3. L. A. Mk. 12. Why seek a sign? No "sign" could avail where there was no sympathy. The truth he came to proclaim appealed to the heart, and must be its own evidence, winning its way by its own divine beauty into humble and ready breasts. External proofs could only establish external facts. G.—A third time Jesus repels them with an allusion to the great “sign” of his resurrection. H. M. 13. He left them.** He did not press his mercies on those who rejected them. As in afterdays his nation were suffered to prefer their robber and murderer to the Lord of life, so now the Galileans were suffered to keep their Pharisees and lose their Christ. He left them as he had left the Gadarenes—rejected, not suffered to rest even in his home; with heavy heart, solemnly and sadly he left them—left them then and there—left them, to revisit, indeed, once more their neighborhood, but never again to return publicly—never again to work miracles, to teach or preach. F. 15. The Pharisees were the formalists of the first century, the Sadducees the rationalists, the Herodians the unprincipled and worldly politicians. The leaven against which Christ warns his disciples is that of formalism and pretence, of sneering unbelief, and of the craft and cunning of worldliness. L. A.—Leaven. It is from the penetrating and diffusive power of leaven that the comparison, for good or bad, is derived. The Herodians were more a political than a religious sect, the dependents and supporters of the dynasty of Herod. These, though directly opposed to the Pharisees, were yet united with them in their persecution of our Lord. And their leaven was the same—hypocrisy. A. 19,20. Baskets . . . twelve . . . seven.** Profuse as were our Lord’s miracles, we see from this that they were not wrought at random, but that he carefully noted their minutest details, and desired that this should be done by those who witnessed, as doubtless by all who read the record of them. Even the different kinds of baskets used at the two miraculous feedings—so carefully noted in the two narratives—are here also referred to; the one smaller, of which there were twelve, the other much larger, of which there were seven. B. M. 12. The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Religious error commonly wears the semblance of truth; often begins in the distortion or perversion of some particular truth to the neglect of other truths in their systematic and harmonious relations to the body of doctrine. Error in religious faith or practice is likened to leaven, because, being within the system, its tendency is to spread, to infect whatever it touches, and to cause fermentation. The Church of Christ has need to be on the lookout for signs of the two kinds of leaven indicated by our Lord—the Pharisaic leaven of formalism, the Sadducean leaven of rationalism. J. P. T. ## Section 74.—Heals a Blind Man. Peter’s Great Confession and Christ’s Reply. Bethsaida Julias. Cesarea Philippi. Mk. 22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town. 27 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the coasts and towns of Cesarea Philippi. And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him. And by the way he asked them, saying, Whom do men say, that I, the Son of man, am? And they answered, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or that one of the old prophets is risen again. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in 20 heaven. Then he straitly charged and commanded his disciples, that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. WE, in this distant age, acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, our Redeemer and Lord. With the thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands who in the ages past have loved him, and now praise him in heaven, with all the living of every kindred and people and tongue who now trust and serve him, we bow before him, and join the great confession: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Him we behold a sorrowful man in the dimness of a far-off age and land, burdened and smitten by the power of sin, suffering for us, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. Him we behold above the convulsions of the ages, the halo about his majestic head shining as the sun down all the tract of time, his voice speaking promise and peace amid the confusion of human affairs. Him we behold seated on the right hand of majesty on high, all power given unto him in heaven and on earth, and on his head are many crowns. Him we joyfully confess "King of kings and Lord of lords;" we offer the prayer which he has taught us: "Thy kingdom come;" we accept the command and the promise which he has given us: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you;" and, in the expectation that his kingdom shall fill the earth, we consecrate our lives to his service. And, entering into the joy of all the redeemed, with all who have tasted and sſen that the Lord is gracious, we offer him our homage: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing; for thou hast redeemed us to God out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." S. Harris. ABOVE Perea the tetrarchy of Philip reached to the slopes of Hermon on the north, and away to the desert on the east. It included the provinces of Gaulonitis, Iturea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Batanea. Gaulonitis—still known as Golan—reached from Cesarea Philippi, or Panias, on the slopes of Mount Hermon, to the south of the Sea of Galilee, stretching back twenty to thirty miles, in barren uplands of volcanic origin, to the green pastures of Batanea or Bashan; with the district of Iturea on its north, the lava plateau of Trachonitis on its east, and the equally waste tract of Auranitis, or the Hauran, on the south. Gaulonitis looked over toward Galilee from a range of hills running parallel with the Jordan, north and south. Besides Cesarea Philippi, at its extreme north, the province boasted the town of Bethsaida, rebuilt by Philip, and called after the daughter of Augustus. It lay in a green opening at the upper end of the Lake of Galilee. In the lifetime of Christ, a large Jewish population lived in all these districts, in the midst of much larger numbers of Syrians, Arabs, Greeks, and Phoenicians, under the rule of Philip, the son of Herod and of Cleopatra of Jerusalem. The best of Herod's sons, he retained not only the good-will of his family, but was held in high esteem by the Romans, and the Jews especially honored him as sprung from a daughter of Zion. During a reign of thirty-seven years, he was no less gentle to his subjects than peaceful toward his neighbors. His reign continued through the whole life of our Lord; but he is not mentioned in the gospels, though it is a noble tribute to him that Jesus once and again took refuge in his territories. G. From the eastern side of the Lake of Tiberias, Jesus went with his disciples up the course of the Jordan, staying at Bethsaida, where he healed a blind man, to Cesarea Philippi, near the sources of the river. This city, at the very extremity of the Holy Land, marking the northmost limit of our Saviour's travels, was the scene of some most memorable events; events designed to prepare the disciples for the consummation now rapidly approaching. Now the time was come for a full and intelligent profession of their faith. Mk. 22. Bethsaida. There were two places of this name: 1. The native place of Andrew, Peter, and Philip was on the west side of the lake. Dr. Robinson places it at 'Ain et-Tabigah, a short distance north of Khan Minyeh, which he identifies with Capernaum. 2. The town here mentioned was northeast of the lake. It was formerly a village, but rebuilt and adorned by Philip the tetrarch, and raised to the dignity of a town under the name of Julias, after the daughter of the emperor. S.—About two miles up from the entrance of the Jordan into the lake is the ford and the mound or "tell" of Bethsaida Julias. It is necessary to notice the distinctness of the two Beth-  saidas. Here, on the east side, our Lord fed the five thousand, and then sent the people away to the other side, toward the other Bethsaida. H. B. T. (See map, page 247.) 23. The Lord links on his power, as was frequent with him, to forms in use among men; working through these forms something higher than they could have produced. Thus he bade his disciples anoint the sick with oil—one of the most esteemed helps for healing in the East. Not the oil, but his Word was to heal, yet without the oil the disciples might have found it too hard to believe in the power which they were exerting—those who through their faith were to be healed, in the power which should heal them. 25. Not all at once are the old errors and confusions put to flight; not all at once do they see clearly: for a while there remains much of their old blindness; they see men but as trees walking. Yet in good time Christ finishes the work which he has begun; he lays his hands on them anew, and they see every man clearly. T. 27. Cesarea Philippi. A town, Baal-Gad—named from the Canaanite god of fortune—had occupied the site from immemorial antiquity, but Philip had rebuilt it splendidly, three years before Christ's birth, and, in accordance with the prevailing flattery of the emperor, had called it Cesarea in honor of Augustus. The worship of the shepherd god Pan, to whom a cave out of which burst the waters of the Jordan was sacred, had given its second name, Panias—now, Banias—to the place. It was one of the loveliest spots in the Holy Land, built on a terfilled with the ruins of a temple. From the cave, from the ruins, from every chink and cranny in the soil and rocks around, waters gush forth, which soon collect into a torrent, dash in sheets of foam down a rocky bed, and at length plunge over a precipice into a deep, dark ravine. This is one of the great fountains of the Jordan. . . . But a deeper and holier interest is attached to the spot. Beneath the shadow of that battlemented height, and along the banks of that stream, our Lord and his disciples wandered; and on one of those peaks above, Peter, James, and John obtained a glimpse of heaven's glory in the Transfiguration. J. L. P.  One Source of the Jordan. race of rock, part of the range of Hermon. From the hill on which the town stood—one of the lower spurs of Hermon—the view ranged over all northern Palestine, from the plains of Phenicia to the hills of Samaria. In the northwest rose the dark gigantic mountain-forms of Lebanon; to the south stretched out the rich table-land of the Hauran. From Hermon, not from Zion or the Mount of Olives, one beholds "the good land, the land of brooks, of waters, of fountains, of depths that spring out of the valleys and hills." G. We wandered for hours among the ruins of Cesarea Philippi, where hewn stones, massive foundations, and fragments of granite columns testify alike to former strength and grandeur. The site, unlike most others in Palestine, is not less remarkable for natural beauty than for classic and sacred associations. Here are rugged mountain and wooded vale, battlemented height and gushing stream, crumbling ruin and wide-spreading plain, all combined in one glorious picture. Behind the ruins rises a cliff of ruddy limestone. At its base is a dark cave, now nearly 29. Whom say ye that I am? He had never openly spoken of his Messiahship. John indeed had borne witness to him, and to those who could receive it he had indirectly intimated that he was the Son of God. But it was his will that the revelation should dawn gradually on the minds of his children; that it should spring more from the truths he spake, and the life he lived, than from the wonders which he wrought. It was in the Son of man that they were to recognize the Son of God. F. M. 16. Thou art the Christ of God. It was, indeed, an amazing utterance. The twelve had been the daily witnesses of the human simplicity and poverty of his life, his homelessness, his weary wanderings afoot, and all the circumstances of his constant humiliation, which might have counterbalanced the great memories which their privileged intimacy had afforded, and obscured their spiritual significance. Yet they had broken through the hereditary national prejudice of their race; they had disregarded the judgment of their spiritual rulers and leaders; risen above the utmost ideas of those around; and had seen in their lowly rejected Master the true Lord of the new kingdom of God. Nor is the fact less wonderful that the life and words of Jesus, seen thus closely, should have created such a lofty and holy conception of his spiritual greatness, amid all the counteractions of outward fact and daily familiarity. In spite of all, he was the Malka Meschicha—the King-Messiah—to those who had known him best. G.—This acknowledgment itself might have been made by Peter at an earlier period; but the way in which he made it at that critical moment, and the feeling which inspired it, showed that he had obtained a new intuition of Christ as the Son of God. It was for this that Christ called him "blessed," because the drawing of the Father had led him to the Son, and the Father had revealed himself to him in the Son. N. 17. Never did even the lips of Jesus utter more memorable words. It was his own testimony of himself. It was the promise that they who can acknowledge it are blessed. It was the revealed fact that they only can acknowledge it who are led thereto by the Spirit of God. It told mankind forever that only by heavenly grace can the full knowledge of that truth be obtained. It was the laying of the corner-stone of the Church of Christ, and the earliest occasion on which was uttered that memorable word, thereafter to be so intimately blended with the history of the world. F.—In the faith which thus expressed itself, Jesus saw the germ of all that living faith by which true believers of every age were to be animated—that faith which was to form the very life and strength of the community, the Church, which he was to gather out from among the nations—the fruit of God's own work within human souls. H. 18. This rock. Banias, the site of Cesarea Philippi, is one of the most grand and picturesque places in all Palestine. Immediately behind, Hermon, the highest peak of Anti-Libanus, rises to a height of ten thousand feet, densely wooded on its side, and its summit diademed with eternal snow, pure as the azure sky above it. A little way to the left of the village, there stands the majestic ruin of the castle of Banias, built on the rocky crest of a projecting spur of Hermon, which rises a thousand feet above the village, and it is itself several hundred feet higher. Is it possible to doubt that the eye of the great Master and his disciples was turned, while he spoke, to that castle upon its rocky base, filling up the whole view eastward, and that he doubled the impression of his sayings, as he so often did, by surrounding them with the framework and casting on them the coloring of a natural picture? A. Thomson. Thou art Peter, etc. The word petra, here translated rock, has the generic sense, a mass of rock, and is never used in the signification of petros (Peter), a single stone. It is employed here, not only to distinguish the word from petros, the proper name in thou art Peter, but as more consentaneous with the idea of foundation, which, in the case of edifices designed to be durable, was composed, if possible, of the living rock. J. J. O.—The end and aim of his question is not Peter but Christ. Here is the clew to the interpretation of our Lord's words to Peter, "On this Petra I will build my Church." And hence we are led to believe that the Rock is CHRIST. Again, in the O. T., as far as the word Rock is used figuratively as a foundation to build upon (as it is used here), it is used of God and of him alone. The language of the N. T. is similar. He who builds on Christ's words, builds on a rock (M. 7 : 24, 25). And Paul says (1 Cor. 3 : 11), "Other foundation can no man lay than that which lieth"—not, is laid, as the apostles are laid on the foundation, but which lieth by its own spontaneous act, as the foundation—JESUS CHRIST, i. e., he who is JESUS as man, and CHRIST as the Son of the living God; which is Peter's confession here. What He says is this: "I myself, now confessed by thee to be both God and man, am the Rock of the Church. This is the foundation on which it is built." And because Peter had confessed him as such, he says to Peter, "Thou hast confessed me, and I will now confess thee. Thou art a genuine Petros of me, the divine Petra. And whosoever would be a living stone, a Peter, must imitate thee in this thy true confession of me the living Rock; for upon this Rock, that is, on myself, believed and confessed to be both God and man, I will build my Church." W. The word petros, in its highest figurative sense of "a stone," when applied to Peter, can represent only one true believer, or faithful member of Christ's Church, that is, one out of the great multitude of true believers in Christ, who, as figurative stones, form altogether the glorious spiritual building of Christ's Church, and not the foundation on which that Church is built; because that figurative character cannot, consistently with truth, be applied to any other person than to God, or to Christ alone. A due consideration also of the second noun, petra, "a rock," will demonstrate that the supreme title of the rock, which, in other texts of Holy Scripture, is applied to Jehovah, or God, alone, most certainly was not intended by our Lord to be understood as applicable to his disciple Peter; but only to that true testimony which Peter had just before declared concerning the divine dignity of the Messiah—"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." G. T. The true interpretation is to be found in the Hebrew custom of giving significant names, not solely, or even chiefly, to describe qualities in the persons who bore them, but to commemorate truths in which they were concerned. It is simply absurd to insist on finding in the words, "Thou art Peter," the necessary antecedent to "on this rock will I build my Church." The true connection is this: "Thou art rightly called Peter," for thou hast uttered a confession which embodies the foundation of Christian truth, the divine nature and the true Messiahship of Jesus Christ; and upon this rock will I build my Church. The concurrent testimony, both of prophecy and of the New Testament, points to Christ himself as the Rock, and the only foundation of his Church; and surely it must be his strength, and not Peter's, which forms a basis too steadfast for the powers of destruction ("the gates of Hades") to prevail against! But still, in a secondary sense, the apostles are spoken of, together with the prophets, as the foundation on which the Church is built, but in subordination to "Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone;" and in this sense Peter himself was one of the first stones of the edifice, of which he himself calls all believers "living stones." His position in the Church is then illustrated by another figure (verse 19), which has been equally perverted; as if the servant who has charge of the keys of a house were almost on a level with the master himself. The event furnished the simple and natural interpretation, when, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was the first to admit a multitude of the believing Jews, and afterward, in the house of Cornelius, a number of Gentile proselytes, into the Christian Church. He did both as the organ of the other apostles, who shared his action in the first case, and confirmed it in the second; for to them Christ afterward gave the same privilege that he now gave to Peter. The only distinction between him and the other apostles is a priority in time, corresponding to the priority of his confession of Christ. S. We find Simon Peter, not only in the lists of the apostles, but also in their history, prominent on various occasions before the rest. Sometimes he speaks in their name; sometimes answers when all are addressed; sometimes our Lord addresses him as principal even among the three favored ones; sometimes he is addressed by others as representing the whole. He appears as the organ of the apostles after our Lord's ascension; the first speech, and apparently that which decided the council, is spoken by him. All this accords well with the bold and energetic character of Peter, and originated in the unerring discernment and appointment of our Lord himself, who saw in him a person adapted to take precedence of the rest in the founding of his Church. That, however, no such idea was current among the apostles as that he was destined to be the primate of the future Church is as clear as the facts above mentioned. For (1) no trace of such a preëminence is found in all the epistles of the other apostles; but when he is mentioned it is either, as in 1 Cor. 9: 5, as one of the apostles, one example among many, but in no wise the chief; or, as in Gal. 2: 7, 8, with a distinct account of a peculiar province of duty and preaching being allotted to him, viz., the apostleship of the circumcision, as distinguished from Paul, to whom was given the apostleship of the uncircumcision; or, as in Gal. 2: 9, as one of the principal pillars, together with James and John; or, as in Gal. 2: 11, as subject to rebuke from Paul as from an equal. And (2) wherever by our Lord himself the future constitution of his Church is alluded to, or by the apostles its actual constitution, no hint of any such primacy is given, but the apostles are spoken of as absolutely equal (Matt. 19: 27, 28; 20: 26, 28; Eph. 2: 20). Again (3), in the two epistles which we have from his own hand, there is nothing for, but everything against, such a supposition. He exhorts the presbyters as being their co-presbyter; describes himself as a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; addresses his second epistle to them that have obtained the like precious faith with ourselves, and makes not the slightest allusion to any preëminence over the other apostles. A. Three times after this the dispute arises among them which should be the greatest—a dispute which never could have arisen had Jesus already openly and distinctly assigned the primacy to Peter—and a dispute, we may add, which never would have been settled as Jesus in each case settled it, had any such primacy been ever intended to be conveyed by him. H.—Were it not a matter of history, it would have been deemed incredible that on so baseless a foundation should have been rested the fantastic claim that abnormal power should be conceded to the bishops of a Church which almost certainly Peter did not found, and in a city in which there is no indisputable proof that he ever set his foot. The immense arrogancies of sacerdotalism; the disgraceful abuses of the confessional; the imaginary power of absolving from oaths; the ambitious assumption of a right to crush and control the civil power; the extravagant usurpation of infallibility in wielding the dangerous weapons of anathema and excommunication; the colossal tyrannies of the Popedom, and the detestable cruelties of the Inquisition—all these abominations are, we may hope, henceforth and forever, things of the past. But the Church of Christ remains, of which Peter was a living stone. The powers of hell have not prevailed against it. F. This is the first occasion on which Jesus used that word—the church; and he named it in his own lifetime but once again. He did everything to lay the true and only foundation of that Church; but he did almost nothing with his own hand to erect or organize it. H.—The word church occurs but once besides in the gospels, and there in the same sense as here, viz., the congregation of the faithful; only there (M. 18: 17) it is one portion of that congregation, and here the whole. A. 19. All that was said here to Peter was said twice afterward by Christ to all the twelve and to all the Church. You have but to read M. 18: 18, 19, and J. 20: 19–23, to be fully satisfied that, put what interpretation you may upon the words spoken at Cesarea Philippi to Peter, they conveyed to him no power or privilege beyond that which Jesus conferred upon the entire college of the apostles, and in its collective capacity upon the Church. H.—In his Hebrew and Talmudical Exerciations, Lightfoot shows that the words “to loose and to bind” were first used in doctrine and in judgments concerning things allowed or not allowed in the law. Secondly, that to bind is the same with to forbid, or to declare forbidden. To think that Christ (he continues), when he used the common phrase, was not understood by his hearers, in the common and vulgar sense, shall I call it a matter of laughter, or of madness? To this, therefore, do these words amount: When the time was come wherein the Mosaic law, as to some part of it, was to be continued and to last forever, he granted Peter here, and to the rest of the apostles (chap. 18: 18), a power to abolish or confirm what they thought good; being taught this, and led by the Holy Spirit, as if he should say, “Whatsoever ye shall bind in the law of Moses, that is, forbid, it shall be forbidden, the divine authority confirming it; and whatsoever ye shall loose, that is, permit, or shall teach that it is permitted and lawful, shall be lawful and permitted.” Hence they bound, that is, forbade, circumcision to the believers; eating of things offered to idols, of things strangled, and of blood for a time, to the Gentiles; and that which they bound on earth was confirmed in heaven. They loosed, that is, allowed, purification to Paul, and to four other brethren, for the shunning of scandal (Acts 21: 24): and, in a word, by these words of Christ it was committed to them, the Holy Spirit directing, that they should make decrees concerning religion, as to the use and rejection of Mosaic rites and judgments, and that either for a time, or forever. G. T. 20. Tell no man.** Because the apostles were not as yet fully schooled in the doctrine of the true nature of Christ’s kingdom and office, and would not be so till the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them; also because Christ desired not to exasperate his enemies, but allow them longer time to consider the evidence of his works. W.—The prohibition was doubtless given with a view to prevent them from diffusing the expectations of Messiah which they then entertained, and thus leading the people to political undertakings in opposition to the objects of Christ. N. 16–19. The declaration of Peter being suppressed, the Church and Christianity became only vain words, the ministry only a usurpation, the sacraments a sacrilegious sport. The meaning, the truth of all these things is only in these words of Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Thou art the Christ, the anointed of the Lord, possessed of that threefold unction, which, under the ancient law, was shared between kings, priests, and prophets. Thou art the King of mankind; thou art the sovereign Prophet to whom the Spirit was given without measure; thou art the eternal Priest, offering to God in thy life and in thy death the reparation of which sacrifice is only the emblem. Thou art the Son of the living God, of that God who has manifested himself within the circle of time, has mingled his history with our history, and become a personal God, a true God. Thou art the Mediator, uniting in thyself all the fulness of divinity, and all the fulness of humanity, the living tie between God and man; in whom are reconciled the eternal Creator, and the creature formed in his image. Yes, thou art less than nothing for conscience and salvation, or thou art indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, or there is no Church—no hope, no future, no heaven, no God; and a little dust moistened with a few tears expresses the whole destiny of poor human nature. A. V. ## Section 75.—Peter rebuked, and Disciples urged to Self-denial. Cesarea Philippi. M. 21 And from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, and to teach them, how that he, the Son of man, must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. And he spake that saying openly. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee. Mk.33 But when he had turned about, and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. 34. And when he had called the people unto him, with his disciples also, he said unto them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 35 daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will 36 lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or be cast away? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be 38 ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his M. 27 Father's, and of the holy angels. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28 And he said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power, the Son of man coming in his kingdom. PETER, elated with his own spiritual insight and the blessing pronounced upon himself and his confession, with the impetuosity of his nature attempted to take his Lord to account for apparently contradicting that confession by announcing his sufferings and death. But Jesus thus linked his humanity to his divinity, his work of redemption upon earth to his glory as the Son of God. The kingdom of heaven would be opened through his sacrifice upon the cross, and ever after through the preaching of Christ crucified. The confession of Christ, the Son of God, must be coupled with the confession of Jesus, the suffering Redeemer. Hence his disciples must follow him in the spirit of self-renunciation—each for himself taking up his cross. The true life consists in spiritual union with Christ, in the culture of the soul in holiness, and in the realization of fellowship with God. This is the only blessedness. He who seeks his happiness in this world and its belongings will miss the inner life of the spirit, which is the life eternal. And when he quits the world, and the world itself passes away, all that he had gained of earth will avail nothing for the peace and salvation of his soul. The crucified Son of man shall one day manifest himself as the Son of God in the glory of his Father. They who would then be owned as in his kingdom must here confess and serve, with humility and sacrifice, their crucified Lord. J. P. T. M. 21. First, he simply proclaims, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand;" then he explains the principles and laws of that kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount; then in the parables by the sea, he sets forth in figures the nature of its progress and the obstacles it will encounter; but not until, by no direct word of his, but by gradual acquaintance with him, the disciples have come to the full faith that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, does he begin to foretell to them his cross. L. A.—Christ confirmed his apostles in their confession of his Messianic dignity. But he knew that their minds were still tinctured with the ordinary ideas and expectations of a visible kingdom to be founded by Messiah; and he, therefore, gradually taught them that it was by his own sufferings that the kingdom of God was to be established. N.—When their own faith was confirmed beyond all wavering by the mighty fact of his resurrection, when their hearts had been filled with the new Shechinah of God's Holy Spirit, then, but not till then, would the hour have come for them to go forth and teach all nations that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. But although they now knew him, they knew nothing as yet of the way in which it was his will to carry out his divine purposes. F. One coming unto his own, and by his own received not; walking in lowliness all his days; a man of many deeply-hidden griefs, misunderstood by the mass of the people, despised and rejected by their rulers, judged and condemned as a deceiver of the people, a vilifier of Moses, a blasphemer against God; crucified at last as a malefactor—it had never entered into their thoughts that such a one could be their Messiah. He might suffer somewhat, perhaps, at the hands of his own and Israel's enemies; possibly he might have to submit to death, the common lot of all men; but that he should suffer at the hands of the very people over whom he came to reign, and that by their hands he should be put to death—no throne erected, and no kingdom won—this was utterly contradictory to their conceptions and their belief. Yet all this was true; and from their earlier and false ideas the disciples had to be weaned. During all his previous converse with them he had carefully abstained from saying anything about his approaching sufferings and death. He had allowed them to take the natural impression which his teaching and miracle-working, and the whole tenor of his life and conversation, were fitted to make upon honest, devout-minded men. Their knowledge of him, their faith in him, he had left to grow, till now, as represented in the confession of Peter, it seemed strong enough to bear some pressure. They might now be told what it had been out of time to tell them earlier. H.—Therefore he began, calmly and deliberately, to reveal to them his intended journey to Jerusalem, his rejection by the leaders of his nation, the anguish and insult that awaited him, his violent death, his resurrection on the third day. F. Elders, chief priests, and scribes. The elders were leaders in the Jewish nation. Their office dates from the patriarchal era. Their age gave them their authority as counsellors and leaders; hence their name. These elders exercised certain not very well-defined political functions; were organized by Moses into a body; but existed as a recognized class of men before his time. From them were selected certain representatives of the lay element in the Sanhedrim, the supreme court of the Jewish nation in the time of Christ. The chief priests were the heads of the priestly courses; the scribes were the Jewish rabbis, the writers and teachers of the law. Christ's language here represents the Sanhedrim, which was composed of these three classes, laymen, priests, and teachers, and constituted the tribunal before which he was tried, and by which he was condemned to death. L. A. Mk. 33. As the Saviour had just before exalted Peter so highly, when he testified to that which had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by the Father in heaven, so now he reproved him as severely for an utterance inspired by a love too much debased by flesh and blood. N.—Christ saw with the lightning glance of his spirit in the words of Peter a suggestion not so much of his as of Satan's; as he had in the wilderness suggested more directly, that there was a shorter way to the kingdom of his glory than by the cross of his shame; and to him the words are properly and primarily addressed; although in reaching him enough glances off from them to constitute a most real rebuke for Peter. T.—In calling Peter an offence, Jesus compared him to a stone in the path over which the wayfarer stumbles. The comparison must have sunk deeply into the apostle's mind, for he too in his epistle warns his readers against some to whom, because they believe not, the headstone of the corcorner became "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." F. 34. He would seize the opportunity to proclaim once more that not in his own case alone, but in the case of all his true followers, self-denial, self-sacrifice, must be undergone. A number of the people, who had assembled at the sight of Jesus and his apostles passing by, he called to him, as if wishing to intimate that what he had now to say was meant for all—was to be taken up, repeated, and spread abroad, as addressed to the wide world of mankind. H. Will come. As soon as you begin to turn your feet in coming, you will feel the cross, but as soon as you feel the cross you will feel that it is eased for you. Pain will not vanish, but become a privilege. Self-denial will not be annihilated, but will be welcome. A new power will come. F. D. H. Deny himself. The essence of that repenting enjoined by the gospel is the change of mind to which reflection and compunction lead—a change of the whole mind in desire, feeling, thought, purpose, action, a change in the whole spirit and intent of life as toward God and his truth, and all that affects character; and inasmuch as the heart has yielded to carnal, selfish, worldly desires and aims, it must renounce this way of life as the first step toward the kingdom of God. Hence Christ insisted so much that if any man would become his disciple, he must begin by denying himself—must put self down in order to set up Christ as his king. J. P. T. Take up his cross daily. The thing imparted in this daily cross is self-denial, and with self-denial more or less of pain; of pain that has many alleviations, but that in few cases can ever be expected wholly to cease, and that no earnest pilgrim of Zion should ever wish to wholly cease. Think of all the fettered but impatient vices, the tolerated imperfections, the residues of old follies, the rash impulses of even the better nature, the self-deceits, the masked and plausible weaknesses, the self-excusings, the concealed reluctances, that beset even the holiest among us, and we will incline to the conviction, that where life is but too short for discipline we ought not to covet too much repose before the grave. Circumstantially the cross may vary, but its purpose is the same in all; and that purpose our Lord has here, with great precision, assigned. W. A. B. The point of duty for us, as for the Master, is not to seek the cross, but by the cross to seek the glory of the resurrection, which is found in no other path. The cross, for the cross, never; but the cross for the Lord, always; for no man can accept the crucified one without the cross, except he take the shadow for the substance. Christianity without the cross is Christianity without Christ. A. M.—Every one is to take up his cross: not the trouble of another man, but that which is sent for his own trial, and adapted to his own case. Many complain that they could have borne anything else but that present evil under which they are suffering! God knew that, and therefore sent it, to teach them patience, and to make them fly to him for help and support under the pressing sense of their own weakness. W. J.—After all, the self-made trial is a poor disciplinarian weapon. There is a subtle, masterly irritant and provoking point in the genuine natural trial, and in the natural crossness of events, which the artificial cannot manage; we can no more make our trials than we can make our feelings. In this way moderate deprivations are in some cases more difficult to bear than extreme ones. And so it is often the case that what we must do as simply right, is just the hardest thing to do. J. B. M. "It is difficult," said an old thinker in the things of faith, "and yet not difficult, to be a Christian; only be in earnest, and take not up the gospel as a trivial thing, but upon both thy shoulders. Make not light of thy load for Christ, and Christ will make it light for thee." Our faith is for the life that now is, or else it is no faith to fit us for the life to come; and it works out its hallowed alleviations for all the disquietude of these laboring and heavy-laden hearts, not by transforming the conditions of their lot, but, while leaving these just as they are, by bringing the inner man into such one-ness of life with the Master, that he, the great burden-bearer of all our humanity, shall be their perpetual passover and their peace. F. D. H. 36. What is a man profited? A question which comes the most home to every man's concern, of any that can possibly enter into his thoughts. It implies that the salvation of a man's soul is so infinitely more important to him, so beyond and above anything he can get or anything he can lose, anything he can enjoy or suffer on this side the grave, that nothing which the world offers can make up for the loss of it, or be a compensation when that is at stake. Paley.—There was one living who, scarcely in a figure, might be said to have the whole world. The Roman Emperor Tiberius was at that moment the most powerful of living men, the absolute, undisputed, deified ruler of all that was fairest and richest in the kingdoms of the earth. There was no control to his power, no limit to his wealth, no restraint upon his pleasures. What came of it all? He was, as Pliny calls him, confessedly "the most gloomy of mankind." And from the home of his hidden infamies, from the island where on a scale so splendid he had tried the experiment of what happiness can be achieved by pressing the world's most absolute authority, and the world's guiltiest indulgences, into the service of an exclusively selfish life, he wrote to his servile and corrupted senate, "What to write to you, Conscript Fathers, or how to write, or what not to write, may all the gods and goddesses destroy me worse than I feel that they are daily destroying me, if I know." F. 37. Exchange for his soul. For if a man once lose his soul, where shall he find an equivalent in value for it; that by which it can be redeemed or bought again? H.—It is of all things most certain that a soul living consciously in sin is living without God, and to be without God is to be without hope. This, too, is certain, that the longer a man thus lives the more does absence from God deepen the sense of dislike, and the more difficult and improbable will be his return. The thought of this may not trouble some very much at present, because they feel as if they can live without God in a very pleasurable way, and they do not see why they should ever have a greater necessity for him. They can put friendships and occupations in his room, and contrive to forget him. But when these pass, as pass they must, and perish like flowers on the edge of a gulf, the awful depth of the chasm will be seen. When fold after fold which now closes the eye of the soul is torn off, and it is compelled to look on eternal realities, how will it stand the gaze? This loss of God must then be felt to be that loss of the soul of which the Saviour speaks, when he asks, What shall a man give in exchange for it? And when he who made the soul, and loved it so much, puts the issue before us so solemnly, should it not bring us seriously to question ourselves, and to resolve to give place to nothing that will cloud our clear view of God, and never to betray Christ and the homage we owe him for the whole world? Ker. 38. What hinders many from a full embrace of Christ and all the blessings of his salvation, is a desire to go with the multitude; a shrinking, through shame, from anything that would separate them from the world. Upon the ears of such the solemn words of our Lord fall with power: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his glory." H.—Come in his glory. He clearly points out that the glory which they had expected to attend the present coming of the Messiah was reserved for a future time. K.—And as clearly indicates that their cross-bearing and self-denial was, like his own, but for a time, and to eventuate in "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." J. G. B.—The evident tendency of these words was to prepare the minds of his disciples for the treatment which both he and they were to undergo, and at the same time to raise their drooping spirits by setting before their eyes his own exaltation, and their glorious rewards in another life. P. M. 28. I find no satisfactory explanation of this prediction except in that mightiest judgment act of the Son of man, which the world has yet seen, the destruction of Jerusalem. This event, when the Lord spake, was some forty years distant, or more. To men of full age it was not then a mere nugatory prediction, that they should live to see this event, at once so terrible and so magnificent; as these words of Christ compel us to believe that, if only for one apostle, yet for more than one of the disciples then standing there, it was fulfilled. T.—This declaration refers, certainly not to the Transfiguration which follows (for the expression “some of them,” etc., indicates a distant event), but to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the full manifestation of the kingdom of Christ by the annihilation of the Jewish polity: which event, in this aspect as well as in all its attendant details, was a type and earnest of the final coming of Christ. This dreadful destruction was indeed judgment beginning at the house of God. A.—If, as all Scripture shows, “the kingdom of the Son of man” be understood in a sense primarily spiritual, then there can be no difficulty in understanding this prophecy in the sense that, ere all of them passed away, the foundations of that kingdom should have been established forever in the abolition of the old and the establishment of the new dispensation. Three of them were immediately to see him transfigured; all but one were to be witnesses of his resurrection; one at least—the beloved disciple—was to survive that capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple which were to render impossible any literal fulfilment of the Mosaic law. F. The World and the Soul.—The seat of life is the soul. There is the centre of all movement, the spring of power, the point of intense concern. All greatness proceeds thence. All well-directed anxieties converge thither. Blind as we become to the magnificent fact, whatever interests agitate markets and families and states—whatever influences play through street, shop, congress, the academy and college, no less than the church—terminate at last in the soul. For that, in the original design, however we as individuals pervert or come short of it, the farmer’s tillage rears and reaps the summer’s grain on all the quiet meadows and slopes; for that the arms of labor swing in ten thousand workshops; for that the printing-press is worked and types are cast; for that, at last, if the Sermon on the Mount is true, the lily blossoms and the sparrow flies. Institutions are founded, whether their founders remember it or not, statute-books are written, cities are built, new countries are colonized, factories occupy the streams, exploring expeditions animate the commercial map of the world, for the soul. It is not, after all, for the fortunes that are made, the fabrics woven, the speed attained, the money multiplied, the world’s fairs exhibited. These are only means to an end; and that end is man’s spiritual education. By far the deepest question you can ask respecting any of these mighty agencies is, What kind of souls is it helping to rear? what sort of characters is it fashioning? Is it leaving men with a larger or leaner humanity, with a purer or weaker piety? And the most momentous question any individual can put to himself, respecting all these forms of outward activity and acquisition, is this old evangelical and personal one: “What shall it profit a man, though he gain the whole world and lose his soul?” F. D. II. Oh! the untold world of agony contained in that expression—“a lost soul!” agony exactly in proportion to the nobleness of original powers. For it is a strange and mournful truth, that the qualities which calculate to shine are exactly those which minister to the worst ruin. God’s highest gifts—talent, beauty, feeling, imagination, power—they carry with them the possibility of the highest heaven and the lowest hell. It is the awful warning, and not the excuse of evil, that the light which leads astray is light from heaven. F. W. R. ## Section 76.—The Transfiguration. Spur of Mount Hermon. Mk. 1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judea, by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and great multitudes followed him; and as he was wont, he taught them again, and healed them there.L. 10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And behold, there 11 was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, 12 and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and 13 said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath-day. 15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the 16 sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, 17 these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. 18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like; and whereunto shall I resemble 19 it? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden, and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. 20, 21 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. “He went about doing good.” He wiped away many a tear; he made many human hearts glad; and many others connected with them felt the benignant and genial influence of his earthly ministry. He relieved and removed a great amount of physical suffering; he created and planted in the world a great amount of physical happiness. He devoted himself to the work of blessing man; and in both regions of his life, in his acts and in his words, in the healing spiritual truths which he imparted, and in the unnumbered material kindnesses which he bestowed, we discover one reigning motive—love of man, deep, enduring, redeeming love. Never passed before the imagination of man, and never but once alighted on this earth so heavenly a vision. Once, in all human history, we meet a being who never did an injury, and never resented one done to him, never uttered an untruth, never practised a deception, and never lost an opportunity of doing good; generous in the midst of the selfish, upright in the midst of the dishonest, pure in the midst of the sensual, and wise far above the wisest of earth's sages and prophets, loving and gentle, yet immovably resolute; and whose illimitable meekness and patience never once forsook him in a vexatious, ungrateful, and cruel world. Y. DESCRIPTIVE of a period of our Lord's life and ministry, which otherwise would have been an utter blank, as telling us what happened away both from Galilee and Judea during the five months that immediately preceded the crucifixion. Evidently the chief scene or theatre of our Lord's labors throughout the period was in the region of Perea, east of the Jordan. It is not likely that he had ever before gone so leisurely through this district. Certainly he had never visited it in the same manner. He came among this new population with all the prestige of his great Galilean name. He came sending messengers before his face—in all likelihood the seventy expending their brief but ardent activities upon this virgin soil. He came as he had come to the Galileans at the opening of his ministry, among whom many of the notices of what occurred here strikingly remind us. But while these coincidences as to events, and repetitions as to discourses, do occur, there occur along with them many things both in the spirit and actions of Christ appropriate exclusively to this particular epoch of his life. No allusions to the time or manner of his own death, no reference to his departure and return, no pressing upon his disciples of the great duty of waiting and watching for his second advent, no prophecies of the approaching overturn of the Jewish economy, came from the lips of Jesus during his sojourn in Galilee. But now all the reasons for reserve are nearly if not entirely gone. Jesus has set his face to go up to Jerusalem to die. He waits and works only a little longer in this remote region beyond Jordan, till the set time has come. Nothing that he can say or do here can have much effect in hastening or retarding the day of his decease. He may give free expression to those thoughts and sentiments which, now that it is drawing near, must be gathering around the great event. And there was a shortness, a decisiveness, a strength of utterance in all Christ's sayings of this period, whether addressed to friends or foes. His instructions, counsels, warnings to his own disciples, he expressed in the briefest, most emphatic terms. This section of our Lord's life and labors has been greatly overlooked—thrown, in fact, into the distance and obscurity which hangs over the region in which it was enacted. A careful study will guide to the conviction that in it Christ occupied a position intermediate between the one assumed in Galilee and the one taken up by him at Jerusalem in the days that immediately preceded his crucifixion. H. Mk. 1. The farther side of Jordan. The region east of the river Jordan, including Bashan and Gilead, because lying beyond the river Jordan, called Perea (beyond). In the time of Christ it was fertile and populous, and inhabited by a mixed population, partly Roman, partly Jewish. It is said that the Jordan valley alone contains the ruins of 127 villages. Most of the events and incidents in Luke (chaps. 10-18) occurred in this district. L. A. L. 14. The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation. These remarks he has neither the courage to address to Jesus himself, nor the candor to address to the poor healed woman, but preaches at them both by rebuking the multitude, who had no concern in the action at all, beyond the fact that they had been passive spectators of it! F.—Blaming them for coming to be healed, he indeed is thinking not of them, but means that rebuke to glance off on him who has put forth on this day his power to help and to save. 15. Every word of Christ's answer is significant. It is not a defence of his breaking the Sabbath, but a declaration that he has not broken it at all. T.—Their absorbing attachment to the Sabbath, the frenzy which filled them when he set at naught their Sabbatarian uncharities, rose from many circumstances. They were wedded to the religious system which had long prevailed among them, because it is easy to be a slave to the letter, and difficult to enter into the spirit; easy to obey a number of outward rules, difficult to enter intelligently and self-sacrificingly into the will of God; easy to entangle the soul in a network of petty observances, difficult to yield the obedience of an enlightened heart; easy to be haughtily exclusive, difficult to be humbly spiritual; easy to be an ascetic or a formalist, difficult to be pure, and loving, and wise, and free; easy to be a Pharisee, difficult to be a disciple; very easy to embrace a self-satisfying and sanctimonious system of rabbinical observances, very difficult to love God with all the heart, and all the might, and all the soul, and all the strength. F.—I have no heart to dwell on their absurd superstitions, their intense fanaticism, or their social and domestic institutions and manners, comprising an incredible and grotesque mélange of filth and finery, Pharisaic self-righteousness and Sadducean licentiousness. The following is a specimen of the puerilities enjoined and enforced by their learned rabbis: A Jew must not carry on the Sabbath even so much as a pocket-handkerchief, except within the walls of the city. If there are no walls it follows, according to their perverse logic, that he must not carry it at all! To avoid this difficulty, here in Safed, they resort to what is called erüv. Poles are set up at the end of the streets, and strings stretched from the one to the other. This string represents a wall, and a conscientious Jew may carry his handkerchief anywhere within these strings. I was once amused by a devout Israelite who was walking with me on his Sabbath. When we came to the end of the street the string was gone, and so by another fiction he was at liberty to go on without reference to what was in his pocket, because he had not passed the wall. The last time I was here they had abandoned this absurdity, probably to avoid the constant ridicule it brought upon them. W. M. T. 16. The “ought not” catechetically answers, with infinite condescension, the inconsiderate, proud, and unintelligent “ought” of verse 14. “Men ought” was the theme there; so now the “ought” is abundantly returned; “ought not she, according to the law of love, which specially ordains God’s works for the Sabbath, as man’s labor for the remaining days, to be loosed from this misery?” F. 19–21. The first of these parables sets forth the inherent power of the “kingdom of heaven.” Small and insignificant at first to outward sense—begun by a man ignominiously crucified, with a few illiterate followers, having no countenance or support from the ordinary forces of the world—it has yet daily become greater and greater, and at length it shall be for shelter to all the inhabitants of the earth. This parable assures us of the inherent power and outward glory and triumph of the Messiah’s kingdom on the earth. The parable of the leaven shows that, coextensive with this, there is proceeding an inward process of “penetrating and assimilating,” so that the dwellers under the shadow of the kingdom shall also have it “within them.” D. K. D. (Section 57.) ## Section 101.—Entrance into the Kingdom. Message to Herod. Perea. M. 3 THE Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful Mk. 3 for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, 4 What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of 5 divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the M. 4 hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept. And he said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning of the creation made them male and 5 female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall 6 cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorce-ment, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.Mk.10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray; but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked those that brought them.Mk.14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. And he departed thence. CHRIST is the most unworldly of beings, and yet there is no ascetic sourness or repugnance, no misanthropic distaste in his manner; as if he were bracing himself against the world to keep it off. The more closely he is drawn to other worlds, the more fresh and susceptible is he to the humanities of this. The little child is an image of gladness, which his heart leaps forth to embrace. The wedding and the feast and the funeral have all their cord of sympathy in his bosom. H. B. While we are striving to be strong in the faith, let us not despise the faith of the weakest; for there will come a day to us all when, in the giving way of the powers of nature, and the pouring in of the great water-floods, we shall grasp at something which may hold us up and carry us over. And then, not how much we have searched out and known, not how much we have prevailed, will help us, but how much we have lived on Christ, and heard in our souls of his own life-giving voice, and how much we have shown in the world of his meek and lowly example. A. M. 3. Lawful to put away his wife? A question of difficulty and danger, with which they here tempted him; for he was now under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. Herod had imprisoned John for declaring that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife. J. G. B.—4. Nothing is lawful to any man who doubts its lawfulness. Jesus, therefore, instead of answering them, directs them to the source where the true answer was to be found. Setting the primitive order side by side with the Mosaic institution—meeting their “Is it lawful?” with “Have ye not read?”—he reminds them that God, who at the beginning had made man male and female, had thereby signified his will that marriage should be the closest and most indissoluble of all relationships—transcending and even, if necessary, superseding all the rest. F. 6. Jesus sends them back to the original constitution of man as one pair, a male and a female; to their marriage, as such, by divine appointment; and to the purpose of God, expressed by the sacred historian, that in all time one man and one woman should by marriage become one flesh, i. e., so long as both are in the flesh. This being God's constitution, let not man break it up by causeless divorces. B.—He declared that marriage is, according to its idea, an indissoluble union, by which man and wife are joined into one whole, constituting but one life. As it was his work everywhere to lead back all human relations to their original intention, so he decided that the idea of marriage represented in Genesis, as originally the basis of its institution by God, should be realized in life. N. 8. This verse is a key to much of the Mosaic legislation, which only reflected so much of the divine will as could be enforced by civil government. L. A.—“Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts (your rude and carnal condition), suffered you to put away your wives (as state laws do not aim to realize moral ideas or to create a moral sense, but to bring about outward civilization, the laws being adapted to the standpoint of the nature); but from the beginning it was not so.” But Christianity, from its very nature, can make no such condescensions. It is her problem everywhere to realize the ideals of the creation; a task which the new life imparted by God makes possible to her. In fact, Christ’s decision in this particular case illustrates the entire relation of Judaism to Christianity; there, condescension to a rude condition of the natural man, which could not be removed by outward means; here, the restoration of that which was in the beginning. Judaism, in a word, stood midway between the original and the renewal. N.—The law of Moses went as far as it was practicable to go, in view of the debased condition of the people. To have attempted more would have been to accomplish nothing. It laid a degree of restraint upon lawless passion and caprice. It was a license in form, but a restriction in reality. *But it did not, and could not, embody the true idea of the conjugal relation, as that idea lay at the beginning in the Creator’s mind. The New Testament law on this subject was the fulfilment of the Levitical rule. G. P. F. 9. This statement swept away forever the conception of woman as a mere toy or slave of man, and based true relations of the sexes on the eternal foundation of truth, right, honor, and love. To ennoble the house and the family by raising woman to her true position was essential to the future stability of his kingdom, as one of purity and spiritual worth. By making marriage indissoluble he proclaimed the equal rights of woman and man within the limits of the family, and, in this, gave their charter of nobility to the mothers of the world. For her nobler position in the Christian era, compared with that granted her in antiquity, woman is indebted to Jesus Christ. G. Mk. 12. If a woman shall put away her husband. The practice of divorcing the husband, unwarranted by the law, had been, as Josephus informs us, introduced by Salome, sister of Herod the Great, who sent a bill of divorce to her husband; which example was afterward followed by others. By law it was the husband’s prerogative to dissolve the marriage. G. C.—M. 12. His decision was opposed not only to the old Hebrew notion that celibacy was per se ignominious, but also to the ascetic doctrine which made it per se a superior condition of life; a doctrine so widely diffused in later times. It involves his great principle, that the heart and disposition must be devoted to the interests of the kingdom of God, and for it must voluntarily modify all the relations of life as necessity may require. N. 13. Brought little children. He had the ideal childlike spirit, and delighted to see in little ones his own image. Purity, truthfulness, simplicity, docility, and loving dependence, made them his favorite types for his followers. The apostles needed the lessons their characteristics impressed; and though enforced before, he gladly took every opportunity of repeating them. G.—Mk. 14. Forbid them not.** He turned the rebuke of the disciples on themselves. He was as much displeased with them as they had been with the parents and children. F.—To refuse children access to his grace was to misrepresent his spirit, his mission, and his kingdom. In bringing the children at that moment, the mothers interrupted him in an important doctrinal discourse; yet Jesus suspended his teaching, and gave place to a sentiment, a symbol, a sacrament; for the blessing was of the nature of a sacrament. It signified that there was a place in his thought, in his heart, in his mission, in his Church, for children who were too young to understand his teaching. Myriads of children are in heaven, beholding the face of his Father; and the kingdom of grace and salvation upon earth is also for little children. It is pleasing to Christ that parents should bring their children to him in loving consecration, and that children should be embosomed within his Church. J. P. T. Of such is the kingdom of heaven. Then, beyond a doubt, in that kingdom shall all the little ones be found. For it is not as children of Christians, it is not as baptized, but it is as children, that of such is that kingdom. Untainted by duplicity, by impurity, by the schemes of ripened selfishness, in them the great redemption takes effect at once and unquestioned. A.—If all that Jesus meant had been that of suchlike, that is, of those who resemble little children, is the kingdom of heaven, we can see much less appropriateness in the rebuke of the disciples, and in the action of the Lord which followed immediately—his taking the little children up into his arms and blessing them. We accept, then, the expression as implying not simply that of suchlike, but of them, is the kingdom of heaven. It is not, however, upon any single saying of our Lord that we ground our belief that those who die in infancy are saved; it is upon the whole genius, spirit, and object of the great redemption. They will share in the benefit of that life which the second, the spiritual Head of our race, has brought in and dispenses. "Your little ones," said the Lord to ancient Israel, speaking of the entrance into the earthly land of promise—"Your little ones, and your children which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither." And of that better land into which for us Jesus as the forerunner has entered, shall we not believe that our little ones, who died before they had any knowledge between good and evil, shall go in thither, go to swell the number of the redeemed, go to raise it to a vast majority of the entire race, mitigating more than we can well reckon the great mystery of the existence here of so much sin, and suffering, and death? H. 15. Receive the kingdom as a little child. This single saying expressed the whole nature of the gospel proclaimed by Christ. It implied that he viewed the kingdom of God as an invisible and spiritual one, to enter which a certain disposition of heart was essential, viz., a childlike spirit, free from pride and self-will, receiving divine impressions in humble submission and conscious dependence; in a word, all the qualities of the child, suffering itself to be guided by the developed reason of the adult, are to be illustrated in the relations between man and God. Without this childlike spirit there can be no religious faith, no religious life. N.—16.** It is surely not to be conceived that all our Lord meant was to inform us that seeing grown people must become childlike in order to be capable of the kingdom of God, therefore they should not hinder infants from coming to him, and therefore he took up and blessed the infants themselves. Was it not just the grave mistake of the disciples that infants should not be brought to Christ, because only grown people could profit by him, which "much displeased" our Lord? And though he took the irresistible opportunity of lowering their pride of reason by informing them that, in order to enter the kingdom, "instead of the children first becoming like them, they must themselves become like the children," this was but by the way; and returning to the children themselves, he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them and blessed them, for no conceivable reason but to show that they were thereby made capable, as infants, of the kingdom of God. B. And he took them up in his arms. May the great Shepherd gather us all, us and our little ones, the fathers, the mothers, the children, into his immortal fold; out of the far country of a wilful and worldly and alienated life, into the Church on earth, into the larger Church, the household undivided and everlasting in heaven! F. D. H. ## Section 112.—The Rich Young Ruler. Peter's Selfish Question. Perea. Mk. 17 AND when he was gone forth into the way, behold, a certain ruler came running, and kneeled to him; and asked him, saying, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou knowest the commandments: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and thy mother, and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man answered and said unto him, Master, all these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Now when Jesus heard these things, beholding him he loved him, and said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing; if thou wilt be perfect, go thy way, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he was very sorrowful, and went away grieved; for he was very rich, and had great possessions. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looking upon them saith, With men this is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 27. Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed 28 thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging 29 the twelve tribes of Israel. And verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, or for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive an hundred-fold now in this present time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come shall inherit ever- 30 lasting life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. EARTHLY riches are a great obstacle to salvation, because it is hard to possess without loving them. Truth itself affirms this, yet scarce any one hears or believes it. A man is not rich, in the sense here intended, unless he loves riches; and he is properly enough poor in the midst of his treasures, when he uses them, not as a proprietor, but as the steward of God. A rich man is not properly one who only possesses great wealth, but one who is possessed thereby; not one who distributes it as being only a steward, but one who makes it the instrument of his own will, and places his supreme good and happiness therein. The wealth of such a man is like food incorporated and changed into the substance of his heart: to take away the former is to tear out the latter. He alone can do this who has the heart of the covetous person in his hand, and can take out his stony heart, and give him one of flesh. A man may be rich without riches: he may leave all, without having ever possessed anything. By the heart we cleave to earthly possessions; by renouncing them in our heart we disengage ourselves from them. We leave them, when we cease to desire and love them, because we possess them more by desire and love than by possession itself. We properly leave or forsake anything only when we do it by the Spirit, and for the sake of Christ, and in order to follow him; otherwise, whatever our hands let go, is retained by the desire of our hearts. Q. M. 17. That I may inherit eternal life. Jesus saw that he was putting all upon moral goodness; some higher virtue to be reached by his own effort entitling him to the eternal life. He saw that this idea regulated even his conception of Christ's own character, whom he looked upon rather as a preëminently virtuous man than one having any peculiar relationship to God. Checking him, therefore, at the very first—taking exception to the very form of his address, he says, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." H.—He does not decline the epithet good as such, but only in the superficial sense of the rich youth who regarded him simply as a distinguished rabbi and a good man; not as one with God. He did not say, I am not good; but no man is good—much less in comparison with God. P. S.—He could have had but one object—to raise the youth's ideas of Himself, as not to be classed merely with other "good masters," and declining to receive this title apart from the "One" who is essentially and only "good." This indeed is but distantly hinted; but unless this is seen in the background of our Lord's words, nothing worthy of him can be made out of them. B. 18. Jesus, as the youth wanted to do something, tells him merely of the second table, for, as has been well remarked, "Christ sends the proud to the law, and invites the humble to the gospel." F.—20. All these have I kept. There was no doubt great ignorance in this reply. He knew but little of any one of these precepts in the strictness, spirituality, and extent of its requirements, who could venture on any such assertion. Yet there was sincerity in the answer, and it pointed to a by-gone life of singular external propriety, and that the fruit not so much of constraint as of natural amiableness and conscientiousness. As he gave this answer, Jesus beholding him loved him. It was new and refreshing to the Saviour's eye to see such a specimen as this of truthfulness and purity among the rulers of the Jews. H.—Our own experience tells us of not a few on whom we have looked with wistful regret, that they should have all the setting of fairest human jewels, of loveliness and grace, while in the centre, the absence of the one thing needful, the pearl of price, revealed a profound and irreparable blank. The Lord Jesus Christ, who had an eye for all that is fair in God's creation, did not cast a chilling look on anything that is beautiful in human nature. He acknowledged it as good so far as it went, and sought to gain it for the divine and eternal. Ker. 21. Go, sell, and give.** Beneath the pleasing show of outward moralities Christ detected in the young ruler's breast a want of any true regard to God, any recognition of his paramount claims. His heart, his trust, his treasure, were in earthly, not in heavenly things. He needed a sharp lesson to teach him this, to lay bare the true state of things within. Christ at once thrusts the probe into the very heart of the wound. He embodies the claim which he knew the young ruler was unprepared to honor, in that form which struck directly at the idol of his heart, and required its instant and absolute dethronement. H.—Christ commands him to follow, just as he was, without delaying to care for his possessions; expressing, in this particular command, the general thought: "The one thing which thou lackest, and without which none can enter into eternal life, is the denial of thyself and of the world, making everything subordinate to the interests of the divine kingdom." He chose the particular form, instead of the general rule, in order to convince the rich man of his lack the more strikingly, by pointing out his weakest side; for he clung to his wealth with his whole heart; to teach him, from his own experience of his love of the world, how far he was from possessing that love which is the essence of obedience to the law. N. 22. He went away grieved.** It silenced, it saddened, it sent away. No answer was attempted. No new question was raised. The demand was made in such broad, unmitigated, unambiguous terms, that the young ruler, conscious that he had never felt before the extent or pressure of such a demand, and that he was utterly unprepared to meet it, turned away disappointed and dissatisfied. H.—When riches or heaven, on Christ's terms, were the alternative, the result showed to which side the balance inclined. Thus was he shown to lack the one all-comprehensive requirement of the law—the absolute subjection of the heart to God—and this want vitiated all his other obediences. B.—Religion cannot yield us the fulness of its blessing till it brings the heart under the completeness of its gentle captivity to Christ. Submission first; then peace, and joy, and love. "Jesus beholding him, loved him;" yet sent him away sorrowing. How tender, and yet how true! tender in the sad affection—true to the stern, unbending sacrifice of the cross! It is because he would have us completely happy that he requires a complete submission. "One thing" must not be left lacking. Whosoever would enter into the full strength and joy of a disciple must throw his whole heart upon the altar. F. D. H. Mk. 24. Jesus notices the surprise that his saying had created, and, aware of the false track along which his disciples' thoughts were running, proceeded to explain the real meaning of what he had just said. "Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!" It is not the having but the trusting that creates the difficulty. It is not the kind or quantity of the wealth possessed, but the kind or quantity of the attachment that is lavished upon it. The love of the penny may create as great impediment as the love of the pound. Nor is it our wealth alone that raises a mighty obstacle in the way of entering into the kingdom. It is anything else than God and Christ upon which the supreme affection of the spirit is bestowed. H.—The kingdom of glory is equally open to all true disciples of Christ, rich or poor; for it is not the condition we are placed in here, whether it be high or low, but the use we make of it, that will determine our condition in the life to come. Mann. M. 24. Easier for a camel. The camel being the largest animal with which the Jews were acquainted, its name became proverbial for denoting anything remarkably large; and "a camel's passing through a needle's eye" came, by consequence, as appears from some rabbinical writings, to express a thing absolutely impossible. G. C.—The explanation that the small side gate of a city, through which a laden camel could only crush with the utmost difficulty, was called a "needle's eye" is more plausible, but seems to need confirmation. F.—The similitude here used implies an absolute impossibility; yet, according to every rule of interpreting Oriental proverbs, it is intended only to express a great difficulty. These expressions of our Lord allude to the difficulty of embracing the gospel in his time, and apply properly to those who trust in riches; yet to all rich men they hold out this most important admonition, that their situation is at best a situation of difficulty and danger; that their riches furnish them with so many temptations to intemperance, pride, forgetfulness of God, and contempt of everything serious, and sacred, that they have peculiar need to take heed to their ways, to keep their hearts with all diligence, and, above all, to implore that assistance from above, which may enable them to overcome all the enemies with whom they have to contend. P. "With God all things are possible," is the same as saying, "All things are possible to him that believeth." This, which it is impossible for man to accomplish in his own strength, namely, such a making of himself poor in spirit, such a loosening of himself from the bands which bind him so fast to the world and to the creature, shall yet be possible for him in the strength of God. The impossible thing, which yet is possible with God, is not the saving of the rich man, but the making of the rich man poor, one of God's poor, and so an inheritor of his kingdom. T. 27. The young man had sought eternal life on the score of his own merits. Yet hardly had Peter seen the catastrophe, and heard the warning, than he comes putting in a claim of merit under cover of devotion to Christ, and saying, "Behold, we have forsaken all; what shall we have therefore?" Guthrie.—In the following parable Jesus warns them against any question of this sort, originating in greed for reward. It shows that the recompense to be received from the Lord will not be determined by the length of time during which we may have followed him, but rather by the character of our service, its affection and heartiness. Hence it is possible that the first in length of service may eventually prove the last in promotion and reward. No doubt all shall be blessed, for they have all labored, all been servants of the Lord. C. B. 29. Every one that hath forsaken. This promise of our Saviour extends to all his faithful servants in every age who part with anything which is dear to them for the sake of the gospel. Whoever gives up his pleasures, his interests, his fame, his favorite pursuits, his fondest wishes, and his strongest passions, for the sake of his duty, and in conformity to the will of his heavenly Father, may rest assured that he shall in no wise lose his reward. P.—Experience abundantly testifies to the fact, that in the Lord, and in fellowship with his disciples, we receive even here below compensation a hundred-fold for any sacrifice we may make. C. B. 27-30. First indeed the Lord answered the question, "What shall we have?" As they indeed and in sincerity had forsaken all for Christ's sake, he answers them fully—the reward shall be great. But having answered so, his discourse takes another turn, as is indicated in the words, "But many that are first shall be last;" and he will warn them now against giving place to that spirit out of which the question proceeded; for there was therein an invidious comparison of themselves with others, a certain attempt to bring in God as their debtor. In short, the spirit of the hireling spoke in that question, and it is against this spirit that the parable following is directed, which might justly be entitled, On the nature of rewards in the kingdom of God—the whole finding a most instructive commentary in Rom. 4 : 1-4, which passage supplies a real parallel with the present. T. ## Section 113.—The Laborers in the Vineyard. J. 12 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus 13 was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him.L. 29 And it came to pass on the next day, when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, when he was come to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, Jesus 30 sendeth forth two of his disciples, saying unto them, Go ye your way into the village over against you; in the which at your entering straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt tied with her whereon yet never man sat: loose them, and bring them hitherMk. 3 unto me. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? Thus say ye unto him, The 4 Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them hither. And the disciples that were sent went their way, and did as Jesus commanded them, and found the colt, even as he had said unto them, tied by the door without, in a place where two ways L. 33 met: and they loose him. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof that 34 stood there said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said unto them, even as 35 Jesus had commanded, The Lord hath need of him; and they let them go. And they brought the ass and the colt to Jesus, and they cast their garments upon the colt; and they set Jesus thereon.M. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 as it is written, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Fear not, behold, thy King cometh unto J. 16 thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. 17 The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and 18 raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. L. 36 And as he went, a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; and others cut down branches off the trees, and strewed them in the way. And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works that they had seen. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he, the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest! And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after him. THE next morning he took up his sorrowful journey again, and moved slowly toward the Temple. As the Passover, with its sacrifices, was just at hand, companies of pilgrims, driving sheep for the altar, would be seen in the highways, all gathering up from the four quarters, to the centre of the nation's faith. Among them goes the Lamb of God—the one sacrifice—final, perfect, and sufficient, whom these typical altars of thousands of years had heralded with their banners of smoke and flame. The day to see that marvellous fulfilled Scripture, that the Lamb should be slain in the fulness of ages and yet slain from the foundation of the world, is, at last, close by; "the hour" of which he so often spoke, as if all reckonings of days, in the knowledge of history, ran to and from that central point of time. But then he is not only Sacrifice and Priest; not only Prophet and Fulfilment; but another of his comprehensive characters is Kingship. So, in token of that royal office whereby he is to reign forever, he must enter the city of his sacrifice with kingly honors, in meekness, to die, yet in majesty, to triumph. F. D. H. J. 12. Much people that were come to the feast. Josephus estimates the numbers present on a Passover occasion at about three millions, little short of half the population of the two provinces. The number of lambs slain is stated to have been 256,500. H.—Heard that Jesus was coming. Jesus of Nazareth had now, for three years, assumed the character of a public teacher; his wonderful works were generally acknowledged; all considered him an extraordinary being; but whether he was the Messiah still hung in the balance. And now the Passover rapidly approached; the roads from all quarters were crowded with the assembling worshippers. Not only the great mass of the inhabitants of Palestine, but many foreign Jews thronged from every quarter—from Babylon, Arabia, Egypt, from Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, probably even from Gaul and Spain. Through all this concourse of the whole Jewish race, animated more or less profoundly with the same national and religious feelings, rumors about the appearance, the conduct, the pretensions, the language of Jesus, could not but have spread abroad, and be communicated with unchecked rapidity. H. M. L. 29. Bethphage and Bethany. Of Bethphage, "the house of figs," no trace has been discovered. Bethany has continued, beyond question. On the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, screened from sight of Jerusalem by the crest of the hill, stands the little mountain hamlet, containing little more than twenty houses, scattered irregularly in a labyrinth of narrow lanes and ruinous walls: a shrivelled and decaying place. H. B. T.  He determines to enter Jerusalem publicly, with such circumstance as would openly announce his claim to be the Messiah. G.—Jesus was now in circumstances to come forward in his Messianic character, as king, after having demonstrated, by his doctrine and walk, for three years, of what kind his kingdom was. The style in which he made his entrance was such as must have proved to every reflective spectator that he had no intention, at least at his first advent, to act the part of an earthly monarch, but only that of the King of hearts. C. B. 35. He had seldom if ever before used this mode of travelling, one not having any special dignity in our eyes, but one that highest dignitaries in the East, kings and princes, prophets and priests, might not unsuitably, upon the most important occasions, make use of. H.—M. 4, 5. As it is written. Five hundred years before, the prophet Zechariah had foretold that the King of Zion would one day appear “riding upon an ass.” At the time of the prophecy, there were no kings in Jerusalem. The kingdom had ceased at the captivity. J. 16. Remembered they had done these things. Long after the triumphant entry, the disciples found that they had been unconscious actors in a mighty accomplishment of Scripture. A thought for us all. During the greater part of our lives, many of God’s purposes on earth are being carried on through us and by us, without our being conscious of it. J. C. R. L. 36. A very great multitude. 37. 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, as was their wont at the feast of Tabernacles, 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. A. P. S.—And when the two streams of people met—those who had accompanied him from Bethany, and those who had come to meet him from Jerusalem—they left him riding in the midst, and some preceding, some following him, advanced, shouting “hosannas” and waving branches, to the gate of Jerusalem. At the descent of the Mount of Olives. There, through the clear atmosphere, rising out of the deep, umbrageous valleys which surrounded it, the city of ten thousand memories stood clear before him, and the morning sunlight, as it blazed on the marble pinnacles and gilded roofs of the Temple buildings, was reflected in a splendor which forced the spectator to avert his glance. F. 38. They hail him as their Messiah, their King. He does now what he never so fully did before: he accepts the title, he receives the homage. All is true, then, that they had been thinking and hoping. It is openly and avowedly as Christ their king that he is about to go into Jerusalem. Then let all the honors that they can give him be bestowed. It is but little of outward pomp or splendor they can throw around this regal procession. They cannot turn the narrow mountain-path into a broad and covered roadway for their king, but they can strip off their outer garments, and cast them as a carpet beneath his feet. They can cut down leafy branches from the olive-trees and strew them in his way. Royal standards they have none to carry, they have no emblazoned flags of victory to wave. No choice instruments of music are here, through which practised lips may pour the swelling notes of joy and triumph; but they can pluck the palm-tree branches (nature’s own emblems of victory) and wave them over his head, and they can raise their voices in hosannas round him. He allows all this, receives it all as seemly and due. Swelling in numbers, freer and more animated in its expressions, the procession moves on till the ridge of the hill is gained, and the city begins to open to the view. The mighty multitude breaks out into acclamations of praise; those going before and those following after vie with one another, and fill the air with their hosannas—applying to Jesus, and this entry into Jerusalem, passages that all understood to relate to the Messiah. H.—The transient popularity of Jesus arose from the enforced admiration of his commanding demeanor, and the notoriety of his wonderful works; but it was no doubt supported in the mass of the populace by a hope that even yet he would conform to the popular views of the Messiah’s character. Their present brief access of faith would not have stood long against the continued disappointment of that hope. And it was no doubt by working on the reaction of this powerful feeling that the Sanhedrim were able so suddenly to change the prevailing sentiment. H. M.—The angelic hymn which was earliest sung in heaven in honor of the Saviour’s birth, is reëchoed by the band of disciples as he approaches Jerusalem for the last time before the close of his work. B. F. W. 40. The stones would cry out. Hitherto the Lord had discouraged all demonstrations in his favor. On this one occasion he seems to yield his whole soul to the wide and deep acclaim with a mysterious satisfaction, regarding it as so necessary a part of the regal dignity in which as Messiah he for this last time entered the city, that if not offered by the vast multitude, it would have been wrung out of the stones rather than be withheld. B.—In the mouth of any other, even the greatest of men, these words would have been an unjustifiable self-exaltation; uttered by him, they showed the weighty import which he gave to his manifestation. Christ’s conduct in this respect, moreover, shows that such an entry into Jerusalem formed part of his plan. N. CHRIST undertakes a plan, universal in extent, perpetual in time; viz., to unite all nations in a kingdom of righteousness under God; laying his foundations in the hearts of the poor, as no great teacher had ever done before, and yet without creating ever a faction, or stirring one partisan feeling in his followers. He is never warped by the expectation of his friends; always in a balance of truth, swayed by no excesses, running to no oppositions or extremes; clear of all superstition, and equally clear of all liberalism; presenting the highest doctrines in the lowest and simplest forms; establishing a pure, universal morality, never before established; and, with all his intense devotion to the truth, never anxious, perceptibly, for the success of his doctrine. Finally, to sum up all in one, he grows more great and wise and sacred, the more he is known, and this, we say, is Jesus, the Christ; manifestly not human, not of our world. H. B. Receive Christ as the disciples received him, as the true God and eternal life. Sages of the earth, he is the key of your problems; troubled spirits, your peace; lovers of wealth, your true treasure; he is the word which solves the enigma of life and conquers the power of death. Without him, wandering through life between an unknown past and a gloomy future, by turns the sport of our passions and our reason, a prey to infinite desires which nothing can satisfy, reduced laboriously to construct poor imitations of happiness, tired of living and afraid to die; above all, afraid to be judged, we must approach, without guide or support, that frightful limit where the earth gives way under our feet. Looking, then, to the Finisher of our salvation, rejoicing in his advent, scattering at his feet tears and palms: these tears shall be wiped away by a divine hand; these palms shall become our crown in the city of peace, when, quenching our thirst at the fountain of all perfection and felicity, we shall repeat the acclamations of the ancient believers, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!" A. V. ## Section 119.—Weeps over the City. The Fig-tree cursed. Sunday and Monday. L. 41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou 42 hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 43 peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep 44 thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation.M. 10 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple. And when he was come 11 into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, 14 This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And the blind and the lame came 15 to him in the temple; and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and say- 16 ing, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hear- est thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? 17 And when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he left them and went out of the city into Bethany with the twelve: and he lodged there.Mk.12 Now on the morrow, in the morning as he returned from Bethany into the city, he was 13 hungry. And seeing a fig-tree afar off in the way, having leaves, he came to it, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing thereon but 14 leaves only; for the time of figs was not get. And Jesus answered and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward: no man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. And presently the fig-tree withered away. WHEN we conceive him surveying on the one hand the multitudes of giddy, thoughtless, infatuated beings around him, engrossed with the affairs of the passing hour, trifling with the grandest concerns in the universe—gay, sportive, careless, hurrying on to the verge of life; and then, on the other hand, turning to behold the dread futurity, the awful gulf of ruin flaming forth the wrath of the Almighty God against the impenitent—is there not in this an explanation that may well appall the sinner, of the compassion, the grief, the yearning expostulations of Jesus? It was an awful testimony to the grandeur of the event that was taking place when, at the death of Jesus, the sun in heaven was darkened, and the solid earth beneath was rent; but surely it testifies to a still more terrible catastrophe, when the face, not of the sun, but the sun's Creator, is overshadowed—when, not the material earth is moved, but the spirit of him who made it is rent with anguish. Surely it is impossible for imagination to conceive a more awful measure of the guilt and danger of sin than the grief of Jesus. C. THOUGH there are three paths from the mount to the Holy City, the triumphal entry was by that round the southern base of Olivet. Paths, like wells, are in the East the most unchanging of human institutions. It is little more than fifteen furlongs. Bethany stands in a shallow hollow, scooped out of the shoulder of the hill. The path follows this till the descent begins at a turn where the first view of the temple is caught. First appeared the castles and walls of the City of David; and immediately afterward the glittering roofs of the temple, and the gorgeous royal arcade of Herod, with its long range of battlements overhanging the southern edge of Moriah. H. B. T.—The triple temple of Jerusalem—the lower court standing on its magnificent terraces, the inner court raised on its platform in the centre, and the temple itself rising out of the group and crowning the whole—must have formed, when combined with the beauty of the situation, one of the most splendid architectural combinations of the ancient world. Fergusson. L. 41. As they approached the shoulder of the hill, where the road bends downward to the north, Jerusalem in its glory rose before them. The City of God, seated on her hills, shone at the moment in the morning sun. Straight before stretched the vast white walls and buildings of the temple, its courts, glittering with gold, rising one above the other; the steep sides of the hill of David crowned with lofty walls; the mighty castles towering above them; the sumptuous palace of Herod in its green parks, and the picturesque outlines of the streets. Over all rested the spell of a history of two thousand years; and the mystic Holy of Holies linked the seen to the invisible. The whole scene was overpowering to Jesus. He was crossing the ground on which, a generation later, the tenth Roman legion would be encamped, as part of the besieging force destined to lay all the splendor before him in ashes. Knowing the future as he did, his heart was filled with indescribable sadness. G. Forgetting his own momentary glory, he beheld only the mighty misery of the rebellious people. He knew what lay beneath that fair exterior; the queenly city, overflowing that very hour with streams of pilgrims, that Zion of the prophets, was an accursed city, which had not "known the day of her visitation." Glory and suffering are with him always inseparable, and in this triumphant King of Zion we behold the man of sorrows! De P.—He had dropped silent tears at the grave of Lazarus; here he wept aloud. All the shame of his mockery, all the anguish of his torture, was powerless, five days afterward, to extort from him a single groan, or to wet his eyelids with one trickling tear; but here, all the pity that was within him overmastered his human spirit. F. 42. "In this thy day, when, all his other messengers rejected, the Father has sent forth his own Son to thee—if thou in thy day hadst known the things belonging to thy peace spoken so often, so earnestly by him." The sentence is cut short. For a moment the bright vision rises of all that Jerusalem might have been had she but known the time of her visitation. The pause, the tears, the lament over the doomed city, must have produced a deep impression on those around. How little could they understand the meaning of what Christ said, or the source of the emotion he displayed! One thing was clearly shown: the absence of all anticipation on the part of Jesus of any present individual success and triumph. How impressively are we here taught that the day of grace, the opportunity of return to and reconciliation with God, has its fixed limits,  Mount of Olives. narrower often than the day of life! Apparently Jerusalem's day of grace extended for years beyond the time when he uttered the words of doom, and let fall the tears of sympathy. Miracles were wrought in her streets, exhortations and remonstrances addressed to her children; but to that all-seeing eye before which the secret things of God's spiritual kingdom lie open, the things belonging to her peace were from that time hid from her eyes. The door was shut, the doom was sealed. H. 43,44. Sternly, literally, terribly, within fifty years, was that prophecy fulfilled. F.—A trench—rampart: first of wood, and, when this was burnt, a built wall, four miles circuit, built in three days—so determined were they. This "cut off all hope of escape," and consigned the city to unparalleled horrors. B.—Who save he to whom the future was as the present could have spoken as Jesus did of the days when the enemy should cast a trench, and raise a mound, and compass it round, and keep it in on every side? Josephus tells us how to the very letter all this was fulfilled—how at an early stage of the four months' siege, Titus, the Roman general in command, summoned a council of war, at which three plans were discussed: to storm the city, or to repair and rebuild the engines that had been destroyed, or to blockade the city and starve it into surrender. The third was the method adopted, and by incredible labor, the whole army engaging in the work, a wall was raised, which compassed the city round and round, and hemmed it in on every side. H. Thy children within thee. While Titus was completing his preparations at Cesarea, almost the whole Jewish population left in the desolated country districts flocked to Jerusalem, to keep the Passover of A. D. 70, just one generation after that Passover at which they had refused their day of visitation and cut off the Messiah. Her children were still within her when, after an attempt to storm the city, the siege was converted into a blockade, and the fugitives, who fled from the unutterable horrors of famine and faction within the walls, perished between the lines, or were crucified in attitudes of cruel mockery to deter imitators. S.— Even with the ground. The Romans burnt the most extreme parts of the city, and dug up the foundations of the walls, reserving only three towers, and a part of the wall, as a memorial of their own valor, and for the better encampment of the soldiers. Afterward, we read in the Jewish Talmud, and in Maimonides, that Terentius Rufus, who was left to command the army, did with a plough-share tear up the foundation of the temple; thereby signally fulfilling the prophecy of Micah 3: 12. Eusebius too affirms that it was ploughed up by the Romans, and that he saw it lying in ruins. So literally were our Saviour's words accomplished, in the ruin and desolation of the city and of the temple! G. T.—Titus did not wish to sacrifice the temple—nay, he made every possible effort to save it—but he was forced to leave it in ashes. He did not intend to be cruel to the inhabitants, but the deadly fanaticism of their opposition so extinguished all desire to spare them, that he undertook the task of wellnigh exterminating the race—of crucifying them by hundreds, of exposing them in the amphitheatre by thousands, of selling them into slavery by myriads. Josephus tells us that, even immediately after the siege of Titus, no one, in the desert waste around him, would have recognized the beauty of Judea. F. (Read Section 185.) M. 15. Even in the temple itself, the children prolong the acclamations; and as the sick, the infirm, the afflicted with different maladies are restored at once to health or the use of their faculties, the same uncontrolled acclamations from the younger part of the multitude are renewed with increasing fervor. H. M.—Pleasant ever to the eye of Jesus was childhood with its charm of freshness, simplicity, buoyant freedom and open ardent love and trust, and sweet ever to his ear the strains of juvenile devotion, but never so pleasant as when he saw these bands of children clustering round him in the temple; never so sweet as when—no others left to do it—they lifted up their youthful voices in those hosannas, the last accents of earthly praise that fell upon his ear. H. 16. Have ye never read?** Psalm 8:2. This Psalm is frequently cited in the New Testament of Christ. In understanding such citations as this, we must bear in mind that the external fulfilment of a prophecy is often itself only a type and representation of that inner, deeper sense of the prophecy which belongs to the spiritual dealings of God. A.—He did not finish the passage, but left it to them to supply the words, “that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” N. A. We must imagine the agitation and tumult of the crowded city, or we shall be unable fully to enter into the beauty of the calm and unostentatious dignity with which Jesus pursues his course. He preserves the same equable composure in the triumphant procession into the temple, and in the hall of Pilate. At every step he feels himself more inextricably within the toils. Yet he moves onward with the self-command of a willing sacrifice, intimating that his death was necessary, to secure indescribable benefits for his followers and for mankind. Yet there is no needless exasperation of his enemies; he observes the utmost prudence, though so fully aware that his prudence can be of no avail; he never passes the night within the city. And it is only by the treachery of one of his followers that the Sanhedrim at length make themselves masters of his person. H. M. Mk. 13. A fig-tree having leaves. There is a kind of tree which bears a large green-colored fig that ripens very early. I have plucked them in May, from trees on Lebanon, a hundred and fifty miles north of Jerusalem, and where the trees are nearly a month later than in the south of Palestine; it does not, therefore, seem impossible but that the same kind might have had ripe figs at Easter, in the warm, sheltered ravines of Olivet. The reason why he might seek fruit from this particular tree at that early day, was the ostentatious 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 barren. W. M. T.—In walking along this same Bethany road we came upon just such a precocious fig-tree. It was, in all likelihood, the very road on which our Lord had travelled; 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 underneath it. We plucked a branch and brought it home with us. The large leaves had shrivelled, but the fruit was still sweet, two months afterward. A. Thomson. 13,14. The fig-tree was the type of the Jewish people (L. 13:6-9). They had the law, the temple, all rites of worship, the externals of righteousness; but bore none of its fruits. Andrews.—Yesterday, he had bewailed the foreseen desolation of Israel, as having been unfaithful to her covenant promises, and about to frustrate her covenant hopes. To-day, he teaches the same fact by symbols. The tree is Israel. He—the same who planted it in times of old—goes to it, expecting the fruit which its fair appearance warranted; but finding none, he pronounces judicially upon it the sentence of destruction. K.—They had a divine revelation to guide them, by which they were distinguished from all nations; they had the worship of God established among them; they had the appearance of sanctity and religion, but all was outside show, hypocrisy, and dissimulation, without any solid and substantial goodness: they had nothing besides leaves, and therefore, by a just judgment, that which they had was to be taken from them. Jortin. Our Lord had already spoken the parable of the fig-tree that bore no fruit. This miracle was but the acted parable. Here was an opportunity in their very path of enforcing, by a visible sign proceeding from himself, one of the most important truths he had striven to teach them. He condemned the tree to become in appearance that which it was in fact—a useless thing. McD.—Christ did not attribute moral responsibilities to the tree, when he smote it because of its unfruitfulness, but he did attribute to it a fitness for representing moral qualities. All our language concerning trees, a good tree, a bad tree, a tree which ought to bear, is exactly the same continual transfer to them of moral qualities, and a witness for the natural fitness of the Lord’s language—the language indeed of an act, rather than of words. He did not, like Moses and Elijah, make the assertion of God’s holiness and his hatred of evil at the cost of many lives, but only at the cost of a single unfeeling tree. His miracles of mercy were unnumbered, and on men; his miracle of judgment was but one, and on a tree. It was punished not for being without fruit, but for proclaiming by the voice of those leaves that it had such—not for being barren, but for being false. And this was the guilt of Israel, a guilt so much deeper than the guilt of the nations. The other trees had nothing, but they did not pretend to have anything; this tree had nothing, but it gave out that it had much. So was it severally with Gentile and with Jew. The Gentiles were bare of all fruits of righteousness, but they owned it; the Jews were bare, but they vaunted that they were full. T.—And as the fruitless tree, failing to realize the aim of its being, was destroyed, so the theocratic nation, for the same reason, was to be overtaken, after long forbearance, by the judgments of God, and shut out from his kingdom. N. The tree was a fit type of that premature outward show of devotion with which he was even now welcomed by the people, the fruit of whose “Hosannas” would soon be “Crucify him!” and it was on such a deceitful show that his sentence really fell. In any case, let us remember that he was the Lord of the creation; and this, his only miracle of destruction, furnished a most emphatic warning to the people who had often been described as trees of the Lord’s planting, but as often warned that they would be rooted up, if they bare no fruit worthy of repentance. S.—And should the great Creator desire to deal with any barren human spirit as he dealt with that barren fig-tree, what has he to do in order to punish it for its barrenness? He has but to desert that spirit, and call away after him as he goes all those powers and influences that had been at work there so long and so fruitlessly, to leave it finally and forever to itself. Poor, solitary, forsaken spirit, cut off from God, and cast adrift upon a wild and shoreless sea, with thine own vulture passions in thee, let loose from all restraint, to turn upon thee and torture thee, and prey upon thee forever! What darker, drearier hell than that? The soul breeding within it the worm that never dies; itself kindling the fire it cannot quench. H. ## Section 120.—Cleansing of the Temple. Lesson of the Withered Tree. Monday and Tuesday. Mk. 15 And they come to Jerusalem. And Jesus went into the temple of God and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves; and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called, of all nations, the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests, and the scribes, and the chief of the people heard, and sought how they might destroy him; and could not find what they might do: for they feared him, because all the people were very attentive to hear him, and were astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city. L. 37 And in the day-time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him. Mk. 20 And in the morning as they passed by, when the disciples saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig-tree withered away! And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering, saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig-tree; but also whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; it shall be done, and he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them; and all things ye 25 shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you 26 your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. THOUGH Jesus taught that prayer is influential as a direct appeal to our Father in heaven, he also announced certain conditions upon which prayer, to be efficacious, must proceed. The object prayed for must be in harmony with the divine wisdom as seeing, and the divine love as choosing always that which is best for the suppliant. Mere importunity ought not to procure for us anything which, upon the whole, is not for our good. Prayer must be offered in faith; not as an experimental essay with Providence, nor for the manipulation of our own feelings; but with the earnest conviction that the thing we pray for will be bestowed, if, on the whole, this is best for us, and if, under all the circumstances, this is wisely possible. In praying for temporal benefits we should have in view chiefly the spiritual benefit to be attained through freedom from worldly anxieties. By the virtue that is lodged in the prayer of faith, whosoever will may approximate himself to God in character. "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." J. P. T. 15,16. For the convenience of the Jews from a distance who wished to offer sacrifices, booths had been erected in the temple-court, in which everything necessary for the purpose was kept for sale, and money-changers were also allowed to take their stand there; but, as might have been expected from the existing corruption of the Jewish people, many foul abuses had grown up. The merchants and brokers made everything subservient to their avarice, and their noisy huckstering was a great disturbance to the worship of the temple. N.—The second cleansing of the courts of the temple appears to have taken the custodians of the holy place as much by surprise as did the first. They made no attempt to interrupt it, nor did they interfere with Jesus in the use to which he turned the courts that he had cleansed. He remained to keep guard over the place, not suffering any man to carry even a common vessel across the court, which the Jews had turned into a common thoroughfare. He remained for hours to occupy it unchallenged; the people flocked into it, and he taught them there. All this while the priests and the Levites, the rulers and the temple-guard, are looking on bewildered, their earlier antipathy kindled into a tenfold fervor of hate. H. 17. My house shall be called the house of prayer. All the sacrifices which were offered from the beginning of the world, all the incense of the tabernacle, all the smoke of the altar, were the vehicles of prayer, intercession, and atonement. Prayer ever was, and ever will be, the vital part of religion: without it there is no religion. The devotion of the congregation upon earth is preparatory to the felicity of heaven; and he must pray with Christians in this vale of tears, who would join in the worship of angels in the sanctuary above. An. As once near the beginning, so here at the close of his great work of life, the Son of God cleanses his Father's house, with holy and indignant zeal, of its secular profanations. What does the purifying mean? It means that every true, right work in this world must begin and end with the reverent acknowledgment of God our Father; it means that in every Christian life, of man or woman, youth or child, large and clean and unobstructed place must be made for prayer; it means that business must be marked off from worship with a fully drawn and definite line, not suffered under any pretext or apology to take more than its share of time or thought, or to intrude into the sanctuary, or to do what is just as bad—hold men out of the sanctuary. It means that neither outwardly, in sordid acts, nor inwardly, in selfish, exclusive, uncharitable dispositions, are we to make our Father's house a house of merchandise. F. D. H. 18. At the rebuke and the quotation, the baffled scribes and high-priests retire to mature their plans, to wait for the morrow, and see what it will bring forth. So closed the last day but one of the active ministry of Jesus. H. 20. Trees were made for men; they have no volition, and therefore cannot sin, and have no feeling of punishment. And this barren fig-tree, withered by Christ's word, bears fruit forever in the garden of Scripture by the warning it gives against hypocritical ostentation and luxuriant unfruitfulness. Our Lord was going to his crucifixion, and he therefore confirmed the minds of his disciples by this assurance of his power. W. 23. Say to this mountain, Be thou removed. It was a common saying among the Jews, when they intended to commend any of their doctors for dexterity in solving difficult questions, that he was a rooter up of mountains. In allusion to this adage, Christ tells his disciples that if they had faith they might say to a mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and it should be done; that is, in confirmation of the Christian faith, they should be able to do the most difficult things. Burder.—Shall not doubt. Whoever does not make a difference between great and lesser miracles, or hesitate because he thinks the miracle too great, but really believes that God can do it, and has commissioned him to do it, shall undoubtedly succeed. It shall be to him whatever he may say, i. e., command or predict in God's name and by his authority. J. A. A.—We accept it then as true to its whole extent, that at that time, and as to these men, there was no miracle of power needful or useful for the furtherance of their apostolic work, which their faith, had it been perfect, might not have enabled them to accomplish. Prayer, it has been said, moves the arm that moves the universe. But it is faith which gives to prayer the faculty of linking itself in this way with Omnipotence, and calling it to human aid. And so you find that Jesus couples faith and prayer together. Wonderful words, assigning an absolutely unlimited efficacy to faith and prayer—but words of truth and soberness, notwithstanding the compass of their embrace, if we remember that true faith will confide in God or Christ only for that as to which he invites and so warrants its confidence; and true prayer will ask for that alone which is agreeable to the will of God, and will promote the spiritual and eternal good of him upon whom it is bestowed. These are the conditions—natural and reasonable—which underlie all that Christ has said of the power of faith and prayer. H.—From the nature of the case put by our Lord—that they might wish a mountain removed—it is quite plain that what he designed to teach was the great lesson that no obstacle shall be able to stand before a confiding faith in God. And certainly when one thinks of the “mountains” that have already been “removed and cast into the sea” by the victorious faith of Christ's disciples—the towering paganisms of the old world which have fallen before the Church of Christ—we may well exclaim of all other obstacles whatever to the triumphs of the cross, “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” B. 24. What ye desire, ye shall have.** Longing desire prayeth always, though the tongue be silent. If thou art ever longing, thou art ever praying. When stayeth prayer? When desire groweth cold. Aug.—All things ye ask, believing, ye shall receive. Not, believing that ye shall receive what ye ask, but, believing in God as a faithful promise who will answer your prayer; it may be, by giving the thing asked, or by giving something else which he sees more desirable and better for you. The spirit in you, of faith, is the thing upon which the receiving turns. Without this, no receiving. With this, always a receiving, either the object asked, or something better. J. G. B.—Who, it may be said, ever received all the blessings he prayed for? But this is answered by asking again, Who ever, when he prayed, believed that he received what he asked for in the full meaning of our Saviour's words? For by such belief it should seem that he meant full trust in him, and entire submission to his will. Any person thoroughly willing to let God choose for him, would in reality always believe that he receives of God what he prays for. For he would be more sure of God's love and disposition to do the very best for him, than of his own love for himself. Therefore, how earnestly soever he may feel and utter any particular wish, it will always be tempered with this conviction that, however God may appear to deny him, yet the blessing he asks for will come somehow, in a way which God knows to be better. Keble.* 25,26. To prevent the obvious inference from the fulfilment of his malediction against the fig-tree, Jesus mingles with his promise of power to his apostles to perform acts as extraordinary, the strictest injunctions to the milder spirit inculcated by his precept and his example. These prayers were to be for the forgiveness, not for the providential destruction, of their enemies. H. M.—When praying, forgive. Our Lord has reference to the twelve apostles still; and after stating the necessity of faith and of believing prayer in working miracles, reminds them that the same moral dispositions were required in this as in all other prayer, particularly specifying that forgiving temper which he may have seen to be especially deficient in some of them. J. A. A.—The connection between the two is so constant, invariable, that neither can you ever find the humble, contrite heart, which sues for mercy at the throne of grace, without finding there also the meek and gentle spirit that goes forth forgivingly toward others; nor do you ever meet with such free, full, generous forgiveness of others, as from those who have themselves partaken of the pardoning grace of God. H. # Section 121.—His Authority questioned. The Two Sons. The Temple. Tuesday. Mk. 27 AND on one of those days they come again to Jerusalem: and when he was come into the temple, it came to pass, as he was walking, as he taught the people and preached the gospel, there came unto him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the L. 2 elders of the people: and spake unto him, saying, Tell us by what authority doest thou 3 these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, which, if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by 4 what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or 5 of men? answer me. And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From 6 heaven; he will say unto us, Why then believed ye him not? But if we shall say, Of men, we fear the people: all the people will stone us, for they all be persuaded 7 that John was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot 8 tell whence it was. And Jesus answering said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Mk. 1 And he began to speak unto them and to the people by parables. But what think ye? M. 28 A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day 29 in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and 30 went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I 31 go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans 32 and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. SIN may have its enormity measured in speculation without being bitterly repented of and forsaken. God and his ways may be justified without being loved. The plan of salvation through atoning blood may be saluted as a grand solution of a stupendous moral problem, without being made the stay of hope; welcomed as a relief to reason, but not applied as a healing power to the wounded heart. "The head can as easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood of Jesus, as with any other notion." As of the doctrines, so also of the duties of our religion. These duties may be objects merely of belief, arrayed in well-ordered systems, and acknowledged to be the proper code of life, without being actually reduced to practice. The study of God's word, the keeping of holy time, prayer and praise, a clean heart and a clean life, with self-denying exertions, in all feasible and hopeful ways, for the good of others, may all be clearly recognized as Christian duties, without being discharged. The most sacred duty may thus decay into a dogma, asking only to be believed. "I go, sir," answered the son in the parable, "but went not." R. D. H. 27. The teachings contained in Sections 121-127 were all given publicly in the temple on Tuesday. They constitute the close of Christ's public ministry. Tuesday, the 4th day of April, was by far the most eventful in the life of Christ, prior to his passion and death. When he first entered the temple, it was evident that systematic plans had been formed to silence him. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians united against him; assumed to be his disciples; mingled their questions with those of honest inquirers; endeavored to entrap him into answers that should arouse popular prejudice or embroil him with the Roman government. L. A. Chief priests, scribes, elders. Of these three sections of the Sanhedrim, the first was composed of priests (perhaps heads of the twenty-four classes, not deposed high-priests); the second, of expounders and transcribers of the law; the third, of the heads of the principal families of Israel. E.—The chief priests, the learned scribes, the leading rulers, representatives of all the constituent classes of the Sanhedrim, were there, to overawe him—whom they despised as the poor ignorant prophet of despicable Nazareth—with all that was venerable in age, eminent in wisdom, or imposing in authority in the great council of the nation. F.—The qualifications for membership of this court, as stated by Jewish writers, are curious. They must be religious, and learned in arts and languages. They must have some skill in physic, arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, and be acquainted with what belonged to magic, sorcery, and idolatry, that they may know how to judge of them. They must be without maim or blemish of body; men of years, but not extremely old, because such are commonly of too great severity; and they must be fathers of children, that they might be acquainted with tenderness and compassion. When Judea became a Roman province, the Sanhedrim either, as is more likely, assumed for the first time, or recovered, its station as a kind of senate or representative body of the nation; possessed itself of such subordinate functions of the government as were not actually administered by the Roman procurator. It is the Sanhedrim, under the name of the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people, who take the lead in all the transactions recorded in the gospels. Jesus Christ was led before the Sanhedrim, and by them denounced before the tribunal of Pilate. H. M. L. 2. They demanded of him his warrant for thus publicly assuming the functions of rabbi and prophet, for riding into Jerusalem amid the hosannas of attendant crowds, for purging the temple of the traffickers, at whose presence they connived. F.—Their question seems a fit and fair one. They are the constituted keepers of the temple, of the only public building of the city that the Romans have left entirely under Jewish control. There has been a manifest invasion of the territory committed to their guardianship, of the offices that they alone are held competent to discharge; for who is this that, being neither priest nor Levite, nor scribe nor elder, deals with the sacred place as if it were his own? H. 4. The Baptism of John, whence?** The Sanhedrim had heard two years before (J. 1 : 19) from the mouth of the Baptist an indirect answer to the very question they were now proposing; meet, then, was it that they should first declare the estimation in which they held him who had so answered them. E.—If they had recognized the divine mission of John, they must also have acknowledged the authority by which Jesus did these things, for John expressly declared that he was sent to testify of him, and bore witness to having seen the Holy Spirit descend and rest upon him. A. 7. We cannot tell.** It was ignorance in a sphere wherein ignorance was for them inexcusable. They, the appointed explainers of the law—they, the accepted teachers of the people—and yet to be compelled, against their real convictions, to say, and that before the multitude, that they could not tell whether a man of immense and sacred influence, a man who acknowledged the Scriptures which they explained, and carried into practice the customs which they reverenced—was a divinely-inspired messenger or a deluding impostor! F.—They could at least have told what they themselves believed. They could, but dared not; and so by this piece of cowardice and hypocrisy they forfeit the title to have any other or fuller satisfaction given them as to the nature and origin of that authority which Jesus exercised, beyond that which was already in their hands. H. 8. Neither tell I you.** An answer, not to their outward words, “We know not,” but to their inward thoughts, “We will not tell.” A.—He well knew—as the form of his answer showed—that their “do not know” was a “do not choose to say.” Since, however, their failure to answer clearly absolved him from any necessity to tell them further of an authority about which, by their own confession, they were incompetent to decide. F. Mk. 1. Our Lord now becomes himself the assailing party, and commences that series of parables, in which his adversaries might see themselves, the impurity of their hearts, their neglect of the charge laid upon them, their contempt of the privileges afforded them, the aggravated guilt of that outrage against himself which they were already meditating in their hearts. T.—In this series of parables and discourses of our Lord with his enemies, he develops, more completely than ever before, his hostility to their hypocrisy and iniquity—and so they are stirred up to compass his death. A. M. 28. A certain man had two sons. Here, as at L. 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 came in contact. In one are included all who have sought a righteousness through the law, and by the help of it have been kept in the main from open outbreakings of evil. In the second class are contained all who have thrown off the yoke, openly and boldly transgressed the laws of God, done evil with both hands earnestly. 31. The Lord immediately makes the application of the words which have been reluctantly wrung from them, “Verily, I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." When he says, they "go before you," or take the lead of you, he would indicate that the door of hope was not yet shut upon them—the others indeed had preceded them, but they might still follow, if they would. T.—True repentance saves the greatest sinners; a false righteousness does but blind and harden the worldly-wise the more. Men recover more easily from gross disorders than from a false righteousness and secret pride, which corrupt the whole life and lull the sinner asleep. Q. 32. Ye repented not, that ye might believe him. It was the treatment given to John and to his ministry that Jesus had been setting forth in the conduct of the two sons to their father. They, the chief priests and elders of the people, were the second son; and those publicans and harlots, who repented at the preaching of the Baptist, were the first. H.—When the Baptist came unto them "in the way of righteousness," and summoned to earnest repentance, to a revival of God's work in the hearts of the entire people, then many of those hitherto openly profane were baptized, confessing their sins; and like the son who at first contumaciously refused obedience to his father's bidding, "repented and went;" while, on the other hand, the real unrighteousness of the Pharisees, before concealed under a show of zeal for the law, was evidently declared: professing willingness to go, they yet "went not." T. In its modern application, the parable teaches, not that there is more hope for a flagrant sinner than for a virtuous man, but that the flagrant sinner who forsakes his sins enters the kingdom of heaven before the orthodox and moral man who clings to his sins. The first son is commended, not because of the daring wickedness of his reply, but because he regretted it and showed his regret by his action. The second son is not condemned for his answer, but in spite of it, and because, having promised obedience, he refused to render it. L. A. ## Section 122.—The Faithless Husbandmen. The Temple. Tuesday. M. 33 HEAR another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen; and went into a far country for a long time. And at the season, when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. But the husbandmen caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head; and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also, and cast him out. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some and killing some. Then the lord of the vineyard, having yet one son, his well-beloved, said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. Therefore he sent him also, last of all, unto them. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance, and it shall be ours. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? He shall come and miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And Jesus beheld them, and said, Did ye never read in the scriptures this that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the 44 fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45 And when the chief priests and the scribes and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he had spoken against them; and the same hour they sought to lay hands 46 on him; but they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. And they left him, and went their way. THE guilty consciences of the chief priests and Pharisees addressed, felt instinctively that in these parables he had pointed to them. The vineyard of God, separated from the wilderness of heathenism, was clearly Israel. The husbandmen were the priests, rabbis, and Pharisees, to whom he had left his vineyard, with the charge to tend it, and to render him duly its fruits. The servants sent were the prophets, from their first appearance in the distant past to John the Baptist. They had been despised, beaten, martyred. Only one could follow them—the last and highest representative of God, who should have commanded respect even from murderers—his only and well-beloved Son, the Messiah; who had come, not as the nation fancied, to bring them political glory and earthly prosperity, but to receive the fruits which, kept back for hundreds of years, could no longer be left unrendered. But Jesus, the Messiah, had long foreseen his fate. He had had it before his eyes every hour since his public entry to Jerusalem. He, the rightful heir of the vineyard, had been received by the husbandmen with jealous eyes and deadly purposes. The revolt he had come to end had grown rampant. It had risen from a refusal to render the fruits, to a rejection of their dependence and a daring resolution to take the vineyard into their own hands: to cast out God in casting out him whom he had sent. The fierce anger of God could not long delay. The rebels, smitten by his wrath, must perish. The vineyard must pass into other hands. But “the others” could only be the heathen whom Israel despised. Loyal to the Son whom Israel had rejected and slain, disciples and followers gathered from other nations, would be intrusted with the inheritance. Changing the figure, these would willingly accept, as the foundation and chief corner-stone of the new kingdom of God, him whom the first builders—of whom those now before him were the representatives—had rejected. Was there any doubt that God would transfer that kingdom to those thus loyal to his Son? G.—By the great Architect he had been laid of old in Zion, the chief foundation of the great spiritual edifice to be reared out of the ruins of the Fall. For many a generation he had been a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. All these wrongs of the past he passively had borne, and now in his own person he is to submit to reproach and suffering and death; but the hour that was to see him exalted because of this, and proclaimed to be the head of the corner, was to see him coming also in judgment. H. 33. He looks back to the treatment which these men’s forefathers had given to messenger after messenger of the Most High, and he looks forward to that which they, fit sons of such sires, were about to give himself; and bringing the past, the present, and the future into the picture, he tells of a vineyard, well fenced, well furnished, let out to husbandmen. H.—One of the few instances—perhaps the only one—in which an image of the Old Testament is almost exactly repeated in the discourses of Christ. A. P. S. The explanation of the hedging round the vineyard is suggested by passages like Ephes. 2:14, where the law is described as “the middle wall of partition” between the Jew and Gentile. By their circumscription through the law, the Jews became a people dwelling alone, and not reckoned among the nations. That law was a hedge at once of separation and of defence. Outwardly also Judea, through its geographical position, was hedged round—on the east by the river Jordan and the two lakes, on the south by the desert and mountainous country of Idumea, on the west by the sea, and by Anti-Libanus on the north—for so, observes Vitringa, had God in his counsels determined, who willed that Israel should dwell alone. T. Built a tower. These watch-towers are sometimes as high as forty or fifty feet. Those which I examined had a small door near the ground, and a level space on the top, where a man could sit and command a view of the plantation. Some of the towers near Hebron are so built as to serve as houses; and, during the vintage, it is said that the inhabitants take up their abode in them in such numbers as to leave the town almost deserted. H. B. H.—Let it out to husbandmen. These must be the spiritual leaders and teachers of the people, while the vineyard itself will then naturally signify the great body of the people, who were to be instructed and taught, to the end that, under diligent cultivation, they might bring forth fruits of righteousness, and so realize the idea of the kingdom of God. Mk. 5. The servants, that is, the prophets, and other more eminent ministers of God in his theocracy, were sent, being raised up at particular times, having particular missions. The patience of the householder is thus brought out and magnified that it may set forth the yet more wonderful forbearance and long-suffering of God: "Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate" (Jer. 44: 4). "Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets who testified against them, to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations" (Neh. 9: 26). The whole confession made in that chapter by the Levites is in itself an admirable commentary on this parable. T. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ Mk. 41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury; and he looked up, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and he saw the rich men casting in their gifts, and many 42 that were rich cast in much. And he saw also a certain poor widow; and she came and 43 threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all 44 they which have cast into the treasury: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury did cast in all that she had, even all her living.J. 20 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. 21 The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, 22 saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again, An- 23 drew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that 24 the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth 25 much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this 26 world, shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father 27 honour. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this 28 hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. 29 The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered. Others said, 30 An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, 31 but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this 32 world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33, 34 This he said, signifying what death he should die. The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man 35 must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon 36 you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. If I be lifted. It was mentioned as a contingency then. It is a reality now. Christ has been lifted up, and for eighteen centuries he has been drawing all men, men of all ranks and all lands unto himself. It is not merely Christ that is to draw men—not Christ with his heart of love and look of pity—not Christ in all the excellence of his character, not the wonder of his miracles, and the completeness of his daily works. It is Christ lifted up—Christ agonizing—bleeding, dying on Calvary. It was Christ on the cross that stayed nature in her course, that caused her to clothe herself in darkness, that made the rocks rend and the earth quake. Christ controlled nature always as her Lord, but it was not till he hung upon the cross that nature came to weep in sympathy with him, and send forth her cry of agony in response to his own. As it was Christ lifted up that caused such manifestations then in nature, so it is Christ lifted up that has exerted such wondrous influence since. When we feel the power of our sins, when we look bodily to death and its darkness, and to judgment and its terrors, it is Jesus on the cross that attracts us. It is the cross that concentrates within itself all the elements of power that can draw a ruined race. J. D. Mk. 41. His terrible denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees having been delivered, Jesus passes into a court of the temple called the Court of the Women. On one side of this court stood the thirteen large chests, with openings shaped like trumpets, into which the free-will offerings of the people were thrown. Over against them Jesus seats himself, watching the passers-by. . . . The strong emotions of righteous indignation passed out of his breast, he sits quietly down, all trace of anger gone from his countenance, and asks his disciples to notice the poor widow's act. H.—Beheld how the people. Was watching: The original indicates that he was purposely observing the people, studying their action and characters. Christ still keeps like watch in his Church. L. A.—As temple-offerings are needed still, for the service of Christ at home and abroad, so "looking down" now, as then "up," he "sees" who "cast in" and how much. Christ's standard of commendable offering is not our superfluity but our deficiency—not what will never be missed, but what costs us some real sacrifice, and just in proportion to the relative amount of that sacrifice. B.—God will not refuse the poor offerings of the poor; but he will not accept the poor offerings of the rich. Medley. 43,44. Hath cast in more.** He made use of this incident to impress them again with the truth, so often and variously illustrated by him, that it is the heart which fixes the character of actions; that the greatest gifts are valueless without pure motives; the smallest, worthy, with them. The same principle was set forth in his saying that great and small acts were alike in moral worth, if done in his name. N.—This widow's mite, which had noiselessly dropped into the alms-box, deserved more attention than the stones and ornaments of the temple. It was not a mite, but an invisible act of the mind which the alms had made visible. There was something great in this action, greater than the temple, with its stairs, its peristyles, its arches and colossal walls. A. V. The loving soul, which makes itself a willing sacrifice, is the true temple of God, the altar whence pure incense rises to heaven. Compared with this spiritual beauty, what are those sumptuous marble porticoes? Nothing could be a stronger expression of the broad contrast he had established between true religion and false. On the one hand was Pharisaism doing its good works to be seen of men, worshipping and serving only itself, under the show of the service of God; on the other hand, the religion of the heart, sweet and lowly charity. De P.—He wished to teach forever the great lesson that the essence of charity is self-denial; and the self-denial of this widow in her pauper condition was far greater than that of the wealthiest Pharisee who had contributed his gold. F.—She had found out how to render unto God the things that are God's, not stinting herself to those offerings which cost her nothing. As she drew back her empty hand, and went away to toil for more, what countless riches Christ poured into her everlasting keeping—"She hath cast in more than they all." New measurements, new standards of value, new reckonings of much and little, high and low, humble and exalted, strong and weak, the gospel brings. F. D. H. She has cast in more than they all together—more, not in money value, but in moral worth. And what else, by giving such world-wide circulation to her act and his sentence on it, did Jesus mean, than to give a world-wide circulation to the truth, that in his sight it is the motive which gives its true character to the act; that greatness consists not in the doing of great acts that every eye must see and every tongue may praise, but in doing what may be little things—so small that they shall escape all human notice, and so insignificant that none may think them worthy of praise; but doing them in a great spirit, for a great and noble and holy end? H.—Christ even now beholds, with no less attention, the visible hand and the invisible heart, both of the rich and poor. We must desire to be seen by no other eyes but those of Christ, if we desire to receive the invisible reward of charity, and not the empty reward of vanity. Not eminent actions are great in the sight of God; but those which are done with a true Christian heart—a heart thoroughly sensible of its own poverty, which offers to God whatever it is, whatever it does, and whatever it possesses, and yet always believes it scarce offers to him anything at all. Q.—Let none of the Lord's poor think they are shut out from the prizes of beneficence. The million that, silent, patient, loving, shine on in quiet deeps to God, but never to this world—for them waits the crown of heaven's gold, if not that of earth's. That God with whom they walk and work in holy secret, meek and solitary, with no note of man, with look to him only—in the light and love of that God they shall forever live, forever shine. Post. J. 21. We would see Jesus. Chaldeans from the East had sought his cradle; these Greeks from the West came to his cross. Who they were we know not. F.—These men, like many God-fearing Gentiles at that time, being weary of their idols, were seeking the true God, and at the great feasts worshipped at Jerusalem in the house of prayer appointed for all nations. R. B.—Just as the setting sun throws the most brilliant rays, illuminating the horizon far and wide, so the glory which beamed forth from the Lord, while standing on the threshold of death, was so marvellously beautiful, that a desire to see him was awakened even in the Gentiles who were from afar; just as he also, in the time of his early dawn, in his childhood, had, through the light of the wondrous star, drawn the wise men from Persia to his cradle, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles. Gerhard. 23. The hour is come.** Seldom it is that Christ gives us any glimpse of what was passing in his own spirit. With the greater interest we ponder over the few occasions in which the mantle round its inner shrine is partially uplifted. On the very eve of his agony and death, these Greeks, Gentiles, come desiring to see him. In their coming he sees the first-fruits of that rich harvest which the world in all its borders was to yield. The great future of the gospel ages brightens into its full glory before his eye. The time, he knows, is near—he takes this very message from these Greeks as the token of its approach—when the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile shall be broken down, wide over the earth the glad tidings of salvation in his name go forth, and men of all peoples, and tongues, and kindreds be gathered into that one fold, of which he is the Shepherd. But between the present and this great result there lay, now very near at hand, his own sufferings and death—the lifting of him upon that cross which is the great means of gathering all men unto him. H. The Son of man be glorified. The very appearance of these Greeks was to Christ a token that his glorification was at hand. But this glory could not be without suffering first. It seems as if there arose suddenly before his mind, in all its vastness and all its agony, that redeeming work for the whole human race which was now about to reach its consummation in death. J. S. H.—In his glorification are contained: first, the completion of his obedience, carried out even to the death of the cross; secondly, his exaltation to the glory which belonged to him as the Eternal Word, of which he emptied himself to earn it again for the human nature which he had taken unto himself; thirdly, the setting forth of his name as the Saviour of all for whom he has made atonement through his blood, and whom he gathers together into one in his Church through the gospel; so that now, since the accomplishment of his baptism of blood, the streams of the Holy Ghost, as living waters, are flowing forth from the glorified Head of the Church upon all and through all the members. R. B. 24. If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.** The analogy in the vegetable kingdom to illustrate this change from weakness to power is at once patent and beautiful. A grain of seed-wheat, kept dry, remains itself and itself only; but, laid in the warm, moist bosom of its mother earth, it dies; yet dying, it soon rises again to verdure, fruitage, glory. So would be the death of Jesus and its resulting consequences. H. C.—This entire sentence revealed, under a striking figure, the mighty foundation truth, the great principle of the gospel, that Christ's vicarious death (not his life, or miracles, or teaching, but his death) was to bring forth fruit to the praise of God, and to provide redemption for a lost world. A passage like this can never be explained by those who regard Christ's death as nothing more than a martyrdom or an example of self-denial. It was something far greater. It is the world's life. J. C. R.—Of the world's great spiritual harvest Jesus is the one seed-corn. He had the life in himself, and might have kept it forever there. But to turn it into the source of life to others he too must obey the law of life, propagating itself and spreading abroad through death. He too must die, that by dying he may bring forth much fruit. H.—Paul, in 1 Cor. 15, applies the simile of the grain of wheat, whose germ of life breaks forth from the enveloping substance which perishes in the earth, to the bodies of Christians. Christ is the First-fruits of the harvest of the resurrection; as on the third day he arose (on the very day, too, of the presentation of the first-fruits of the harvest), so at the last day will he rise again in millions of his members, and then the rich fruit of glory will be completely gathered in. R. B. 25. The death of the Redeemer stands by itself, the source of spiritual life to all united to him by faith. And yet there is a sense in which what was true of the head is true also of all the members. They too must take up their cross in turn, and in self-denial and self-sacrifice bear it; they must fill up what remains of his sufferings for his body the Church. H.—To Christ only, in the highest sense, belongs the joy of harvest. But he shares this joy with his true people. They, too, will be accompanied by many brethren, but on this condition, that they learn the law of self sacrifice. The penalty of self-seeking and self-indulgence is, that every selfish man “abideth alone.” J. S. H.—More than once did the Lord express, in the same words as he here emphatically repeats, the course of life which those must lead who would follow him. He who withholds the sacrifice of his own life from the living God shall lose what he loves more than God, and it will be made manifest that his love for his so-called life was in reality a hating of his true life; while life eternal is given, not only to martyrs who loved not their lives unto the death, but also to every true follower of Christ who acquiesces in his own will being broken, to every one who willingly stoops to bear the bitter but salutary cross. 26. The Lord himself interprets the simile which in its first sense applies to his own course of glorification—through sufferings to glory—as also applying to the course of glorification through which his servants are to pass. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.” Wherever Christ is, whether in suffering or in glory, whether here, in this vale of sorrow, or above, in the halls of bliss, there must and there will his servant also be. He follows the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, even to sitting down with him on his throne. R. B. 27,28. Between what took place visibly, audibly here within the temple, and what happened two days afterward in the solitude of the garden, the correspondence is too close to be overlooked. You have in each case the struggle, the prayer, the triumph, following each other in the same order. H.—It was the contemplation of a contact of the all-Pure and all-Holy with everything most alien to the divine nature—sin, darkness, and death—that called forth these words, that heightened the agonies of Gethsemane, and found its deepest utterance in that cry of unimaginable suffering which was heard from Golgotha, when all that was contemplated was approaching its appalling realization. E.—Father, save me from this hour. It is a real petition, like that in Gethsemane, “Let this cup pass from me.” The sentiment conveyed by the prayer, in both cases, is twofold: that only one thing could reconcile him to the death of the cross—its being his Father’s will he should endure it—and that in this view of it he yielded himself freely to it. His recoil is not from subjection to his Father’s will; but it shows how tremendous a self-sacrifice that obedience involved. He first asks the Father to save him from it, and then signifies how perfectly he knows that he is there for the very purpose of enduring it. Only by letting these mysterious words speak their full meaning do they become intelligible and consistent. B. 28. Glorify thy name. When Christ was lifted up from the earth, the glory of God was shown forth even more than in the creation of the world. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s holiness. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s mercy. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s righteousness. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s love. Hare.—Then came a voice from heaven.** For the third time does the Father solemnly bear witness to the Son, while for the third time he accepts the sacrifice, as one well-pleasing to him, for which the Son presents himself to him. At his baptism and at his transfiguration on the holy mount, that same Voice had spoken from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Since the time of the Lord’s ascension the history of the Church has been a fulfilment of the word, “I will glorify it again;” and this will of God to honor his name is accomplished in the case of every Christian who is saved through faith in Christ Jesus. R. B. 31,32. The course of our Saviour’s thought here taken in its connection is grand, sublime. From extreme depression, intense forecasting of woes to be endured, from which human heart and flesh recoil, he rises through prayer—the prayer of deep submission and devotion to the Father’s will—to the assurance of glorious triumph. He sees the crisis of this world’s great conflict close at hand. He sees his great antagonist, the prince of this world, cast out, dethroned, despoiled. Of his death on the cross, indicated here as being “lifted from the earth,” he foresees that it will itself beget an attractive power which will draw men to himself in love and homage. The first effect of being thus “lifted up” will be to him simply torture, heart-darkness, his cup filled with woes; but the after-effects will be the drawing of men away from Satan unto himself, the casting out of his chief antagonist—the great usurper—and the firm enthronement of himself as King and Lord of all. Instead of the word “judgment” in verse 31, I prefer the Greek word itself which comes into our English—crisis. It signifies here the hour of destiny, the point where the great, long-pending issues of the conflict come to their final decision. The battle has been fought—with apparently varying fortunes and probabilities; but now the combat deepens. Satan is doing his utmost and his worst. He has gained entrance into the heart of one of the twelve. “This is his hour and the power of darkness;” he has at length compassed the death of the Son of man. But soon the Crucified One rises a mighty conqueror!—rises, and lo! it appears that his very death on the cross has lifted, not himself alone for agony, but all men by its moral power of love. All men are lifted and drawn away from the grasp of the devil, and into sweet allegiance to him who hath “loved them and given himself to die for them.” H. C. 31. Now is the judgment of this world.** The world that “crucified the Lord of glory,” considered as a vast and complicated kingdom of Satan, breathing his spirit, doing his work, and involved in his doom, which Christ’s death by its hands irrevocably sealed. B.—The prince of this world was cast out in that all-gracious hour when Christ bare the sin of the world in his body; when through the cross he was lifted up to be, for all sinners redeemed from the power of the devil, the captain of eternal salvation. Through the blood of the Lamb Satan is vanquished by believers, who, though they still have sin, have yet no unforgiven sin, no indulged sin. R. B. 32. “If lifted up,” means not only after that I have been lifted up, but through the virtue of that uplifting. And truly the death of the cross, in all its significance, revealed in the light, and borne in upon the heart, by the power of the Holy Ghost, possesses an attraction over the wide world which breaks down all opposition, assimilates all to itself, and forms out of the most heterogeneous and discordant materials a kingdom of surpassing glory, whose uniting principle is adoring subjection “to him that loved them.” B.—The cross is not only the tribunal on which Christ judges the world, and pronounces the sentence of condemnation upon the devil: it is likewise the throne of his mercy toward sinners, the source of all blessings, the cause of our deliverance, the instrument of our salvation, and the meritorious original of an almighty grace, by which he draws all men unto him. Q. 33. Signifying what death he should die.** From the first he looked forward to his crucifixion, his being “lifted up,” as the appointed termination of his life and ministry. His going out of the world in that manner was in the plan of his mission as truly as were his advent, his preaching, his miracles, his life of truth and love. He announced to Nicodemus, as one of the truths he had brought down from heaven, the necessary vital relation of his death to the salvation of mankind; and for the key to this doctrine referred him to the lifting of the serpent by Moses as a type of the saving benefit to be derived from his crucifixion. J. P. T.—From the time that he was lifted up, by his cross, its triumphs and its attractions, Jesus has been bringing all men to him—men of every age, country, character, condition; the wise and simple, the rich and poor, the honored and despised, bond and free. He puts this cross into our hands; he bids us lift it up, he bids us carry it abroad. Ours the outward work of letting all men know who it was that died for them on Calvary, and what it was that by dying for them he has done. His the inward power to work upon the heart, to win it to peace, to love, to holiness, to heaven. H. 34. They were right in holding that “Christ abideth forever.” It is the universal doctrine of the Old Testament. They were wrong in not understanding that Christ had to suffer before he reigned. They were wrong in not seeing that the very “law” of which they made so much, pointed to his sacrifice as clearly as to his eternal glory. They forgot that Isaiah says that Messiah is to be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter,” and that Daniel speaks of his being “cut off.” J. C. R.—They had conducted Jesus, the Son of man, into Jerusalem as the promised Christ; and now he was speaking of his removal from the earth, of his dying; this did not square with the notions which they had formed of Christ. Their Christ was to abide forever, and that on earth, as King of a glorious kingdom of Israel. That his dying was the very way to his eternal abiding—this was hidden from them. This “Son of man” who was to die could not be Christ. Then who was he? The Lord bears with this question; but, without forcing them to understand that which was as yet hidden from them, and which could only be unveiled to them by actual deed preaching it, he addresses to their sluggish unbelieving hearts a loud and earnest summons to awake. R. B.—35, 36. Yet a little while is the light with you. Instead of answering their question, he warns them, with mingled majesty and tenderness, against trifling with their last brief opportunity, and entreats them to let in the light while they had it in the midst of them. B.—He, who through faith in the word which is his light becomes a child of light, remains forever united with the light. Such a one even finds the darkness of death illumined by the light of life; for in this light the crucified one is transfigured to his views into the exalted one. R. B. # Section 129.—Reflections on the Unbelief of the Jews. M. 1 And Jesus departed from the temple: and as he went out, his disciples came to him to shew him the buildings of the temple. And some spake how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts; and one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto them, See ye not all these great buildings? Verily I say unto you, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, over against the temple, the disciples Peter and James and John and Andrew came unto him privately, and asked him, saying, Master, tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming and 4 of the end of the world, when all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answered 5 and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many: and the time draweth near; go ye 6 not therefore after them. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars. But when ye shall hear of wars, and commotions, see that ye be not terrified, and troubled: for 7 all these things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and troubles; and fearful sights, and great signs shall there be from heaven. These are the beginnings of sorrows. Mk. 9 But take heed to yourselves; for before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, and deliver you up to councils, and to the synagogues, and into prisons, to be afflicted; and in the synagogues, ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake; and they shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony against them. 11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, settle it therefore in your hearts, and take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither premeditate what ye shall answer: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye L. 15 that speak, but the Holy Ghost. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. M. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one Mk. 12 another. The brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. L. 16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends. 18, 19 But there shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. M. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity 12, 13 shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, 14 the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall first be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. THE developments of Divine Providence filled up the outline of the Divine Word, and no man with the Word of God in one hand and the history of the Jews in the other can fail to see a most minute and perfect correspondence between the two. And so long as the world reads the words of Jesus, and beholds those words fulfilled in Jerusalem still trodden down of the Gentiles, and in the Jews still scattered and homeless among the nations, it has an argument for the infallibility of the founder of Christianity, and for the truth of the religion proceeding forth from him and his teaching, which nothing can gainsay or resist. Out of the dust and ashes of the Holy City, for eighteen hundred years, has risen a voice in attestation of the Messiahship of him who was crucified without her walls; and the people who denied the Holy One and the Just, in all their dispersion, have, for an equal period, been proclaiming him their true though rejected Lord. H. S. Kelsey. M. 1. As he withdrew, the gracious presence of God left the sanctuary; and the temple, with all its service, and the whole theocratic constitution, was given over to destruction. B.—To shew him the buildings of the temple. That is, to draw his attention to the magnitude, the splendor, the apparent solidity and stability of that magnificent structure. P.—One of them was eager to call his attention to its goodly stones and splendid offerings—those nine gates overlaid with gold and silver, and the one of solid Corinthian brass yet more precious; those graceful and towering porches; those double cloisters and stately pillars; that lavish adornment of sculpture and arabesque; those alternate blocks of red and white marble, recalling the crest and hollow of the sea-waves. 2. To him the sole beauty of a temple was the sincerity of its worshippers, and no gold or marble, no delicate sculpturing or votive gems, could change for him a den of robbers into a house of prayer. The builders were still busily at work, as they had been for nearly fifty years, but their work, unblessed of God, was destined to be destroyed before it was finished. Briefly and almost sternly Jesus answered, as he turned away from the glittering spectacle, "Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down." F. Josephus tells us that Titus having held a council of his generals, who were for burning the temple, declared that he would by all means save that edifice, as an ornament to the empire. But one greater than Titus had determined and declared that it should be destroyed. Accordingly the soldiers burnt it without paying any regard to his orders. M.—There was scarcely anything more remarkable in this celebrated temple than the stupendous size of the stones of which it was constructed. In the superstructure there were stones of the whitest marble, upward of sixty-seven feet long, more than seven feet high, and nine broad. This circumstance gives peculiar force to our Saviour's prediction here, which was fulfilled almost in a literal sense. For when the Romans had taken Jerusalem, Titus ordered his soldiers to dig up the foundations both of the city and of the temple. The Jewish writers themselves acknowledge that Terentius Rufus, who was left to command the army, tore up with a ploughshare the foundations of the temple, hereby fulfilling the prophecy of Micah, chap. 3 : 12. P.—Titus himself was amazed at the massive structures of Jerusalem, and saw in his conquest of it the hand of God. Thirty-five years afterward that temple sank into the ashes of its destruction; neither Hadrian, nor Julian, nor any other, were able to build upon its site; and now that very site is a matter of uncertainty. F.—Inasmuch as we are now under a dispensation of forbearance, the thunders of God go softly over the earth: and so gentle is their voice that the ears of most men hear them not. But the downfall of Jerusalem is a gracious admonitory sign written on the page of history, that there is a righteousness of God, which, although it may long retain its thunder, will in the end let it fall, certainly, irresistibly fall, upon the head of the guilty. A. T. 3. Many questions as to the time, the manner, the causes, the consequences of it, would at once arise to trouble the disciples' mind. Their Master, however, is already on his way to the gate which leads out to Bethany, and they follow. Silent all and thoughtful they follow him; they descend into the valley of Jehoshaphat, cross the Kedron, begin the ascent of Olivet, have reached a height which commands the city, where Jesus pauses and sits down—as that accurate narrator Mark informs us, "over against the temple." H.—Jesus paused before passing the ridge of Olivet, and sat down with his disciples, to look back upon Jerusalem for the last time. The sun was setting, and the whole city, with the surrounding valleys and hill-sides 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 monuments 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. Nowhere on earth was it possible to find another scene of such commanding interest as that which lay before the eye of Jesus, when he turned to look upon Jerusalem for the last time. March. It is impossible to conceive a spectacle of greater natural or moral sublimity than the Saviour seated on the slope of the Mount of Olives, looking down almost for the last time on the whole temple and city of Jerusalem, crowded as it then was with near three millions of worshippers. It was evening, and the whole irregular outline of the city, rising from the deep glens which encircled it on all sides, might be distinctly traced. The sun, the significant emblem of the great Fountain of moral light to which Jesus and his faith had been perpetually compared, may be imagined sinking behind the western hills, while its last rays might linger on the broad massy fortifications on Mount Zion, on the stately palace of Herod, on the square tower Antonia at the corner of the temple, and on the roof of the temple fretted all over with golden spikes which glittered like fire; while below, the colonnades and lofty gates would cast their broad shadows over the courts, and afford that striking contrast between vast masses of gloom and gleams of the richest light, which only such an evening scene can display. Nor, indeed (even without the sacred and solemn associations connected with the holy city), would it be easy to conceive any natural situation in the world of more impressive grandeur than that of Jerusalem, seated upon hills of irregular height, intersected by bold ravines, and hemmed in almost on all sides by still loftier mountains; and itself formed in its most conspicuous parts of gorgeous ranges of Eastern architecture, in all its lightness, luxuriance, and variety. The effect may have been heightened by the rising of the slow volumes of smoke from the evening sacrifices, while, even at the distance of the slope of Mount Olivet, the silence may have been faintly broken by the hymns of the worshippers. H. M. The quiet spot, the evening hour, the serene attitude, his words so lately spoken, all conspire to draw the disciples' thoughts upon the dark and doubtful future. H.—When shall these things . . . and what the sign? The double question of the disciples—first, respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, and especially the time when it was to happen, and second, respecting the signs of his advent, and of the end of the world—required a double answer; the two parts referring each to one of two events. C. B.—Our Lord's answer to these questions was framed to afford all the information needful to them, or useful for their guidance, but little to gratify a vague curiosity. Neither did he answer their questions categorically, but so intermingled his replies that it required after-knowledge and experience to discriminate more than was actually needful for their safety and warning to know. We can now distinguish that he spoke of his coming, not personally, but by the fulfilment of his predictions concerning Jerusalem, and for the final uprooting of that theocracy which had become obstructive to the progress of the gospel; and again of his final coming to judge the world, of which also they inquired. Much that our Lord said might be applicable to both these great events—both these “comings,” being in fact comings to judgment; but toward the close, his language grew more distinctly applicable to his final coming to judge the world. K.—Many generations before, the prophet Zechariah, foretelling the final coming and judgment, for which the world is still looking, saw the curtain lifted, and wrote thus: “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” Now, in most unforeseen coincidence, as the evening shadows gather, the Messiah, standing on that very spot of Olivet, declares to the ages that one solemn prediction which should always keep them in expectation of his reappearing, ending, “Then shall they see the Son of man coming with power and great glory; and he shall send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” F. D. H. Josephus furnishes the best commentary on this chapter. It is a wonderful instance of the care of Providence for the Christian Church, that Josephus, an eye-witness of so great credit, should be preserved to transmit a collection of facts which exactly illustrate this prophecy in almost every circumstance. D.—6-8. First come “wars, commotions, rumors of wars; nation set against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:” and the whole East was in a ferment, and Judea in open insurrection, while the armies of Spain and Gaul and Germany, Illyricum and Syria, converged upon Italy, to decide who should succeed to Nero’s purple. The throes of inanimate nature seemed to sympathize with the travail of the world—and the histories of the age are full of “famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.” “Fearful sights and great signs from heaven” appeared to mark the very spot at which the great judgment was to descend—a comet shaped like a scimitar hung over the devoted city during the whole year before the war. Other portents are recorded, in the very exaggeration of which we trace how “men’s hearts failed them for fear, and for looking after those things which were coming on the earth”—an agitation which found a voice for several successive years in the monotonous cry of the fanatic, Jesus the son of Ananus, “Woe! woe to Jerusalem! Woe! woe to the city and to the temple.” “All these were the beginning of sorrows.” S. Mk. 9. Every circumstance here mentioned was minutely verified, as appears in the Acts of the Apostles. Their lives were one continued experience of persecution of every kind. They were imprisoned, beaten, brought before councils and kings; many were put to death, were hated of all nations for the sake of Christ; that is, for being called by his name. The very name of Christian exposed them to every species of indignity and cruelty. P.—How fully these particulars were accomplished, we learn also from the Roman historians, Tacitus and Suetonius. M.—It shall turn to you for a testimony. God will turn all this to your advantage and his glory. For, by these means, your innocence and sincerity, and their malice, will be made manifest; the doctrine of the gospel will be more inquired into, and more effectually published to the world, and the truth of it more firmly established. S. C.—This and the succeeding verses indicate four dangers which will assail the Church: persecution from without; apostasy, schism, and controversy from within; false doctrine; and worldliness and consequent backsliding. Each of these dangers came in a small measure upon the Apostolic Church before the destruction of Jerusalem. And in the subsequent history of the Christian Church the reader must look for a larger fulfilment. L. A. M. 14. Shall be preached in all the world. The fulfilment of this part of the prophecy we learn chiefly from the writings of the New Testament, which inform us that the gospel was preached by Paul in Arabia, and through the vast tract from Jerusalem to Iconium in Lycaonia, and in Galatia, and through all Asia Minor, and in Greece, and round about to Illyricum, and in Crete, and Italy, probably also in Spain and Gaul. Besides, we find him writing to Christians who had never seen his face. Also we have Peter’s epistles to the converted Jews in Pontus, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. Probably the gospel was preached in these and many other countries, by the Jews who sojourned there, and who, having come up to Jerusalem to the Passover, were converted on the day of Pentecost. The Ethiopian eunuch, converted by Philip, would carry it likewise into his country. But whatever way it happened, the fact is certain, that in most of these countries churches were planted within thirty years after Christ’s death, or about ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Hence we find the apostle telling the Romans (10 : 18), that the sound of the preachers of the gospel had gone forth into all the world, and their word to the end of the earth. Hence likewise he tells the Church at Col. 1 : 6, 23, that the truth of the gospel was come not to them only but to all the world, being preached to every creature. The preaching of the gospel through the whole world by twelve illiterate fishermen, and the destruction of Jerusalem, were events extremely improbable, and therefore the prediction and accomplishment of them deserve to be particularly taken notice of. M.—It appears from credible records, that the gospel was preached in Idumea, Syria, and Mesopotamia, by Jude; in Egypt, Marmorica, Mauritania, and other parts of Africa, by Mark, Simon, and Jude; in Ethiopia, by Candace's eunuch, and Matthias; in Pontus, Galatia, and the neighboring parts of Asia, by Peter; in the territories of the seven Asiatic churches, by John; in Parthia, by Matthew; in Scythia, by Philip and Andrew; in the northern and western parts of Asia, by Bartholomew; in Persia, by Simon and Jude; in Media, Carmania, and several eastern parts, by Thomas; through the vast tract from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, by Paul; as also in Italy, and probably in Spain and Gaul; in most of which places Christian churches were planted in less than thirty years after the death of Christ, which was before the destruction of Jerusalem. D. And then shall the end come. The fulfilment of this part of the prophecy we learn from Josephus, who wrote seven books of the wars of the Jews, wherein he described with great exactness this scene of desolation in all its dreadful circumstances; and by a variety of dates showed that it happened about forty years after our Lord's death, consequently immediately after the gospel was preached through the whole Roman Empire. M.—God never sends judgment without previous warning; and there can be no doubt that the Jews, already dispersed over most known countries, had nearly all heard the gospel "as a witness," before the end of the Jewish state. The same principle was repeated and will repeat itself to the end. B. ## Section 131.—Signs of Coming Destruction. Mount of Olives. L. 20 AND when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing, where it ought not, in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. And let him which is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter to take any thing out of his house; neither let him that is in the field turn back again to take up his garment. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day. 19 For in those days shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, no, nor ever shall be. For there shall be great distress in the land, affliction and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, those days shall be shortened. 21 And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders: insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 29 But immediately after the tribulation of those days, there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven; and upon the earth shall be distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the 30 powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of 31 man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And then shall he send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of hea- L. 28 ven. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh. 29 And he spake to them, saying, Now learn a parable of the fig-tree, and all the trees: 30 When the branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye see and know of your own 31 selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand, even at the 32 doors. Verily I say unto you, That this generation shall not pass away, till all these 33 things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass Mk. 32 away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but my Father only. THE destruction of Jerusalem may well be called the coming of the Son of man, not only in just judgment upon those who had rejected him; not only as a sovereign visits with desolation a rebellious province that has refused all offers of mercy: but as the completion of the first great step in the establishment of his kingdom upon earth. And since this is the most momentous revolutionary epoch in the religious history of the world, that ever was or that ever shall be, it is fitly made, in the rest of the discourse, the type of the "coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," to destroy all that is earthly and corrupt in the Church and world, to "gather his elect from the four winds of heaven," to judge the quick and the dead, and to establish his everlasting kingdom. S. It was far from Christ's intention to give them a complete view of the development of the kingdom of God up to its final consummation. He imparted only so much as was necessary to guard them against deception, to stimulate their watchfulness, and confirm their confidence that the end would come at last. Much, indeed, was at that time beyond their comprehension, and could only be made clear by the enlightening influence of the Spirit, and by the progress of events. N. L. 20. We know that two years before the city was invested by Vespasian, a Roman army under Cestius Gallus approached and invested it. It strangely enough happened that as Titus surprised the city at the time of the Passover, Cestius surprised it during the feast of Tabernacles, when all the male population of Judea was collected in the capital. As the Hebrew converts to Christianity continued to observe the greater ceremonies of their ancient faith up to the time of the fall of Jerusalem, they too would be there along with the rest. They would see Jerusalem compassed with armies, and would know that the time for their flight had come. H. M. 15. Abomination of desolation. Before the foundations of the second temple were laid, the prophet Daniel had predicted its desolation by the overspreading (or siege) of abominations, as an event following the cutting off of the Messiah. That word abomination had a definite sense to a Jewish ear, denoting the objects of heathen worship. S. —It is clear that "the abomination of desolation" denotes the Roman army which besieged Jerusalem, and which Daniel, in the place here alluded to, calls "the abomination that maketh desolate." The Roman army is here called an abomination, because upon its standards were depicted the images of their emperor and the tutelary gods whom they worshipped; and idols were held by the Jews in the utmost abhorrence, and called by the very name here used, "an abomination." The word "desolation" is added because this mighty army brought ruin and desolation on Jerusalem. This city, and the mountain on which it stood, and a circuit of several furlongs around it, were accounted holy ground; and, as the Roman standards were planted in the most conspicuous places near the fortifications of the city, they are here said to stand in "the holy place." P. 16. The admonition to "them who were in the midst of Jerusalem to depart out" shows that the "encompassing with armies" here spoken of was such as in the end would permit the inhabitants to flee out of the city. Cestius Gallus in the beginning of the war invested Jerusalem, and took the lower town, Bezetha. Josephus says, "If he had continued the siege but a little longer, he would have taken the city. But Cestius removed his army; and having received no loss, unadvisedly departed from the city." In this manner the providence of God verified the prophecy of Christ, and interposed for the deliverance of the disciples. Josephus further tells us that, "immediately after Cestius's departure, many of the Jews daily fled from the city, as from a sinking ship." Among these were many Christians, who, remembering this admonition of the Master, foresaw what was to happen. M.—By such warnings the Christians were preserved. Before John of Giscala had shut the gates of Jerusalem, and Simon of Gerasa had begun to murder the fugitives, so that "he who escaped the tyrant within the wall was destroyed by the other that lay before the gates"—before the Roman eagle waved her wing over the doomed city, or the infamies of lust and murder had driven every worshipper in horror from the temple courts—the Christians had taken timely warning. F.—Taking advantage of the space before the siege was formed by Titus, they departed in a body to Pella, a village beyond Jordan, which became the seat of the "Church of Jerusalem" till Hadrian permitted their return. S. Mk. 18. The siege by Cestius, sent as a warning to them as the after-siege was sent as a punishment to their unbelieving countrymen, occurred in the month of October. Their flight, therefore, was not in the winter. It has been proved that the day on which Cestius, in a panic which never could be accounted for, suddenly called off his troops and retreated from the city, was a Tuesday. Their flight, therefore, was not upon the Sabbath. H.—At the beginning of A. D. 70, when Titus made his appearance, the zealots themselves were divided into two parties: that of John of Giscala and Eleazar, who held the temple and its courts and the Antonia—8,400 men; that of Simon Bar-Gioras, whose headquarters were in the tower Phasaëlus, and who held the upper city, the lower city in the valley, and the district where the old acra had formerly stood, north of the temple—10,000 men and 5,000 Idumeans: in all a force of between 23,000 and 24,000 soldiers, trained in the civil encounters of the last two years to great skill and thorough recklessness. S. 19. Tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world. Whoever will turn to the history of this war by Josephus, and there read the detail of the horrible and almost incredible calamities endured by the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the siege, not only from the fire and sword of the enemies without, but from famine and pestilence, and continual massacres and murders from the fiend-like fury of the seditious zealots within, will be convinced that the very strong terms used by our Lord do not go beyond the truth. Indeed Josephus himself says: "No other city ever suffered such miseries, nor did any age, from the beginning of the world, ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was." And again: "If the miseries of all mankind from the creation were compared with those which the Jews then suffered, they would appear inferior." The prediction of our Lord, and the accomplishment of it as described by the historian, are exact counterparts of each other, and seem almost to have been written by the same person. Yet Josephus was not born till after our Saviour was crucified; and he was not a Christian, but a Jew. P.—Our Lord wept at the foresight of these calamities; and no humane person can read the relation of them in Josephus, without weeping also. These were the days in which all the calamities predicted by Moses, Joel, Daniel, and other prophets, as well as those foretold by our Saviour, met in one common centre, and were fulfilled in the most terrible manner on that generation. G. T. L. 24. Captive into all nations. The number of those who perished by sword and famine is stated by Josephus to have been not less than 1,100,000. The number of those that were made captive was 97,000, who were subjected to every kind of cruel treatment, being either sold, or dispersed through the provinces of the Roman Empire, to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. Hammond.—The falling by the edge of the sword is not to be confined to what happened at the siege. It comprehended all the slaughters that were made of the Jews in the different battles, and sieges, and massacres, both in their own land and out of it, during the whole course of the war—such as at Alexandria, where 50,000 perished; at Cesarea, 10,000; at Scythopolis, 13,000; at Damascus, 10,000; at Ascalon, 10,000; at Apheck, 15,000; upon Gerizim, 11,000; and at Jotapata, 30,000. And thus was verified what our Lord told his disciples, that wherever the carcass was, there the eagles should be gathered together. M. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. After the Jews were almost utterly destroyed by death and captivity, Vespasian commanded the whole land of Judea to be sold. Jerusalem in particular, with its territory, becoming Vespasian's property, was sold to such Gentiles as chose to settle there. M.—And Jerusalem has never since been in the possession of the Jews. It was first in subjection to the Romans, afterward to the Saracens, then to the Franks, next to the Mamelukes, and now to the Turks. Thus has the prophecy of Christ been most literally and terribly fulfilled, on a people who are still preserved, as continued monuments of the truth of our Lord's prediction, and of the truth of the Christian religion. G. T.—Palestine was the cradle of the gospel; the Jews the people first divinely appointed to expound it. The destruction—never to be repaired—of their material temple cut the cords which bound the new faith to its local habitation, and launched it, under the hand of Providence, on its career of spiritual conquest. H. M.—While every dispersed people mentioned in history has been swallowed up of the nations among whom they were dispersed, without leaving the smallest trace of their ever having existed, the Jews continue, after so many ages, a distinct people in their dispersion. In all countries, by openly separating from the nations who rule them, they have subjected themselves to hatred and derision; nay, they have exposed themselves to death, by bearing about with them the outward marks of their descent. By this unexampled constancy they have preserved themselves a distinct people everywhere. But of this constancy can any better account be given than that it is the means by which God verifies the prediction of his Son? He has declared that when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, the Jews shall be converted; and therefore, through the whole course of their dispersion, they must continue a distinct people. If the hand of Providence is not visible in these things, I cannot tell where it will be found. M. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The meaning, in the light of Rom. 11 : 12, 15, is this: Jerusalem shall lie waste until the full completion of the number of converts to Christianity which was to result from the downfall of Judaism, and the universal proffer of the gospel resulting therefrom. J. J. O.—Till the Gentiles have had their full time of that place in the Church which the Jews in their time had before them—after which, the Jews being again “graffed into their own olive-tree,” one Church of Jew and Gentile together shall fill the earth. B.—On any theory of prophetic interpretation, it appears highly probable that in the progress of Christianity, Palestine, no longer under the misrule of barbarians and the blight of false religion, shall become a goodly land, its cities be rebuilt, and a large portion—if not the whole body—of the Jewish people be found in the old home of their fathers, honored amid the family of nations, in proportion as through the ages they have been so generally despised. N. C. B. Mk. 22. There shall arise false Christs. Our Lord had already cautioned his disciples against believing the false Christs and false prophets who would appear before the siege; and he now warns them against those that would rise up during the siege. This, as Josephus tells us, they did in great abundance, and flattered the Jews with the hope of seeing their Messiah coming with great power, to rescue them from the Romans. And they pretended to show “signs and wonders;” the very words used by that historian as well as by our Lord. P. M. 28. The eagles be gathered. The meaning is, that as the eagles collect together wherever they find their prey, so shall the Roman armies follow the call of divine vengeance. It is a beautiful allusion to the eagles of the Roman standards. Newcome. 29. The sun shall be darkened, etc.** These which follow are strong figurative expressions, denoting that the Jewish state should be utterly destroyed. By similar figures we frequently find described in Scripture an utter desolation, and terrible destruction brought upon nations and capital cities. So Isaiah of Babylon, chapter 13; and of the Idumeans, chapter 34; and Ezekiel of Egypt, chapter 32. Whitby.—The desolation and calamity here spoken of may be most appropriately referred to the overthrow and complete extirpation of the Jewish people fifty years later under Adrian; when they were sold as slaves, and utterly driven out from the land of their fathers. This was the final war and catastrophe of the Jewish nation under the celebrated and mysterious Bar-Cochba, “Son of a Star.” The figurative language of these verses (Matt. 24 : 29–31, etc.) is similar to that of many passages in the Old Testament, which refer to civil commotions and historical events, of far less importance than the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish state. R. 30. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man.** The Jews many times asked for a sign; now a sign will appear, that he is the true Messiah whom they despised, derided, crucified. He shall give proof of himself, not indeed in any visible form, but in vengeance and judgment, so visible that all the tribes of the earth shall be forced to acknowledge him the avenger. J. L. Mk. 32. Of that day and hour knoweth no man. This ignorance is made by Christ an argument for watchfulness, as if any day might prove “the day,” and any hour “the hour.” The attitude of faith is that of listening for the footfalls of an approaching Redeemer. Christians are described as those who “are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” They are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” It is the obedience of faith, neither to postpone the second advent to a distant future, nor to say that it has actually come, or is coming at a specified date. The Christian should always associate the future with the coming of his Lord, his actual and visible coming, or some spiritual preparation for it. To his believing outlook every event has something to do with him, and may be a precursor of the advent. It is more in accordance with Christian believing and living, to think of the coming of Christ, than of the coming of death. W. I. B. Not the angels. Here the Son of God is contrasted both with men and angels. Whoever the Son was, he was distinct from men, and above the angels, being clearly contrasted with both, not here in respect of knowledge, but in degree as being. The gradation is, “no man,” “no angel,” not even the Son. J. P. T.—That day knoweth neither the Son. Christ does not know it as man, and it is not his office to declare it as the Son of God. By saying that the angels do not know it, he checked the disciples from desiring to know it. The times and seasons are in the Father’s own power, and they are not therefore for the Son to reveal. It is in this sense only that he says that they are not known by him. W.—The Son here is Christ, considered as the Son of man, as the prophet sent into the world to reveal his Father’s will; not as delivering to the world what he as “the Word” knew, but, according to his frequent declarations concerning himself, what the Father which sent him gave him commandment to say. Whitby. What was wanted was a Saviour coming forth out of the Godhead, “very God of very God,” at once divine in his nature and human in his sympathies, to restore, to redeem, to rescue man from himself—to heal a fatal alienation, to put lost man and the Holy Father at one again. Who else but God manifest in human flesh was competent to this? While accomplishing it, is it very strange that he should sometimes speak of himself, in this condescending and peculiar office, as unable to know or to do certain things as of himself without the Father, with whom he ever dwells in perfect oneness, each in each; or that in this human sojourn he should declare himself dependent on that whole and undivided Deity, that entireness of the Godhead, from which he came forth into the world? For that also, and for all the blessed spiritual comfort, light, strength, hope, assurance, promise, salvation, it gives us, let us be humbly and most devoutly thankful. And let us look reverently up to that Lord and Redeemer who in the beginning “was God”—who left the Father’s bosom for our deliverance from the law of sin and death—who hath ascended up where he was before—who has put it past all doubt or question that he and his Father are one, and who with that Father reigns in consubstantial glory, ever one God, world without end. F. D. H. ## Section 132.—Transition to His Final Coming. “Watch!” Mount of Olives. L. 34 AND take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. But M. 37 as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the 38 days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 39 marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood 40 came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then 41 shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left: two women shall L. 36 be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Take ye heed; watch therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. For ye know not M. 43 what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would 44 not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh Mk. 34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to M. 45 watch. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over 46 his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his 47 lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make 48 him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My 49 lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and 50 drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh 51 not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mk.35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, 36 or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly, he 37 find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch. CONCERNING that great and notable day of which he here spoke, two facts only he announces—the certainty of its coming, and its suddenness. The element of uncertainty in death, in the second advent of Christ, in the day of judgment, is intended, not to excite the imagination to curiosity, but to arouse the conscience to vigilance, and the heart to fidelity. "It is the fundamental law of watchfulness to be always watching." Yet the watching is not to be that of anxious waiting, but of faithful doing. Men steeped in worldliness are heedless of death and the judgment to come. They lose the thought of conse- quences, and grow reckless and unscrupulous as to the methods by which they gratify their desires. But the servant of Christ holds everything in trust for his Lord, and uses time, talents, means, life itself, for his glory. Such fidelity to trust shall be rewarded with confidence and honor from his Lord. But sad and hopeless shall be the doom of such as waste life's opportunities, and live only for self and sin. J. P. T. M. 37-39. As in the times of Noah, men and women shall be employed in their ordinary work. These verses show us that to the last the elect of God will be mingled in companionship and partner- ship with the children of this world. They also confirm, by his mouth who is truth itself, the his- toric reality of the flood of Noah. A. 41. Two women shall be grinding. At Nazareth, we beheld two women grinding at the mill, preparing flour to make bread. Seated on the ground, they held between them two round flat stones. In the centre of the upper stone was a cavity for pouring in the corn, and by the side of this an upright wooden handle for moving the stone. As the operation began, one of the women, with her right hand, pushed this handle to the woman opposite, who again sent it to her companion, thus communicating a rotatory and very rapid motion to the upper stone; their left hands being all the while employed in supplying fresh corn, as fast as the bran and flour escaped from the sides of the ma- chine. E. D. Clarke, 1801.—In the village of Siloam, we heard a sound from one of the houses, which we guessed to be that of a hand-mill on which corn was being ground for the afternoon's meal. We entered and found a young woman seated on the earthen floor, and busily at work with her mill. In- terpreting our wishes, she took off the upper circular stone, showed us the iron pivot in the lower stone on which it revolved, and also the hollow slant by which the meal escaped after it was ground. As we were examining it, a second girl entered, and sit- ting down on the opposite side, and laying hold of the well-worn handle, the little mill went round more rapidly than ever. A. Thomson, 1876. L. 36. Watch . . . pray. The two great duties which in prospect of trial are constantly enjoined. These warnings, suggested by the need of preparedness for the tremendous calamities ap- proaching, and the total wreck of the existing state of things, are the general improvement of the whole discourse, carrying the mind forward to judgment of another kind, and on a grander and more awful scale —not temporal but eternal—when all safety and blessedness will be found to lie in being able to "stand before the Son of man" in the glory of his personal appearing. B.—The discourse of our Lord up to this point is to be regarded as a whole, which is here completed; having reference to his coming for the overthrow of Judaism. Our Lord here makes a transition, and proceeds to speak of his final coming at the day of judgment. R.—In the discourse from this point we meet with no signs by which this greater coming of our Lord is her- alded. But the whole burden, onward to the de- scription of the judgment (Section 135), is the most solemn and urgently repeated exhortation to watchfulness, and a constant readiness to meet the Son of man at this his great and final coming. J. J. O. The judgment over the degenerate theocracy, and the final judgment of the world; the first free development of the kingdom of God, and its final and glorious consummation, correspond to each other: the former, in each case, prefiguring the latter. And so, in general, all great epochs of the world’s history, in which God reveals himself as Judge, condemning a creation ripe for destruction, and calling a new one into being; all critical and creative epochs of the world’s history correspond to each other, and collectively prefigure the last judgment and the last creation—the consummation of the kingdom of God. N. Mk. 34. Left his house. The Christian Church is here compared to a great house or palace left for a time by its Lord and Master, the Son of man. He left his Church at his ascension, and he will return again to take account of it at the general judgment in the end of the world. He comes at the same time to every individual at his death. The Son of man at his departure gave authority to his servants, that is, not merely to the office-bearers of his Church, but to all his servants, authority to transact in his room, to maintain due order in the house, and seek its good. There is meanwhile no other above them in the house, no earthly master, but only the Word of Christ, which under the teaching of his Spirit he has left for their guidance. To every man his work. Work is the common duty of all in Christ’s house. The first thing we read of God doing for man when he made him was to assign him work. Before he gave him a right to eat of the fruit of the trees “he put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” When man is translated to the heavenly Eden it is not to idleness—“they serve him day and night in his temple.” He who made all worlds has said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” It would be strange then if the Christian Church, which was intended to be the beating heart to all this world’s activities, were exempted from a law so universal. It was for this end that Christ called its members into it—“why stand ye here all the day idle?” and then “gave to every man his work.” The porter to watch. While the mode of labor in the house may vary, there is something common to all who are in it—the duty of watchfulness. The porter must stand at the door of every heart while that heart pursues its work. To watch is to do all our work with the thought of his eye measuring it, as of a friend who is ever present to our soul, gone from us in outward form, sure to return, and meanwhile near in spirit—to subject our plans and acts to his approval, asking ourselves at every step how this would please him, shrinking from what would cloud his face, rejoicing with great joy in all that would meet his smile. Ker. M. 45–51. Observe the contrast between the good and the evil servant. The good servant is faithful, to his lord and in his trust; prudent, in watching for his lord’s coming; beneficent, using his power as a trust, for others; patient, in continuing his well-doing till the coming of his lord; and his blessing is an enlarged honor, and a grander sphere of activity in the future. The evil servant becomes a practical disbeliever in Christ’s second coming, uses his power to oppress his fellow-servants, and to gratify himself, finds his companions with the self-indulgent, not with the self-denying; and to him judgment comes suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning, and with terrible and final condemnation, that separates him from the saints, and allots his portion with sinners. L. A. Mk. 35–37. It was never meant by the framer of the prophecies that any distinct vision of the future should, by help of them, be obtained by us. There is such variety of construction in the different parts, that much must remain of double or doubtful import, till the interpreting event occurs. It has been so with all that section of the prophetic writings of which the fulfilments are already before our eyes. It must be so with all that lies over to be accomplished in the future. But with all the obscurity thus intentionally thrown around the day and the hour of Christ’s coming, let us not forget that no obscurity, no uncertainty, hangs around the great event itself; that the same Jesus whom the clouds received out of the apostles’ sight shall come again the second time without sin unto salvation. In all that future which lies before us, these are the only two events of which we are absolutely certain: our own approaching death, our Lord’s approaching advent. Our faith in the certainty of the one rests on the uniformity of nature; our faith in the other on the sure testimony of our Lord himself—a testimony that we put above the other, for he says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” We must all die, and we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. H.—There is nothing more certain than death; nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. I will therefore be prepared at all times for that which may come at any time, must come at one time or another. I shall not hasten my death by being ready, but sweeten it. It makes me not die the sooner, but the better. Warwick. I say unto all, Watch. Watch, therefore, and pray that we may be able to stand before the Son of man. Nor shall vigilance and prayer be ineffectual. On those who mock at God’s threatenings, and reject his promises, on these only the severity of wrath will fall. But for those who lay these warnings to heart, who dread the pollutions of the world, and flee from sin as from a serpent; who fear God's displeasure more than death, and seek his favor more than life, though much of frailty will to the last adhere to them, yet these are the objects of the Father's mercy, of the Redeemer's love. For these he died, for these he pleads, these he supports and strengthens with his spirit, these he shall lead with him triumphant to the mansions of glory, when sin and death shall be cast into the lake of fire Horsley.—Who is he that overcometh, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ? and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith—faith in the unseen Saviour; faith in his having lived and died for us on earth; faith in his having passed into the heavens, appearing there in God's presence for us; faith in his future coming to take us to himself. By watchfulness, by prayer, by all good fidelity to our absent Lord, let us nourish this vital principle of faith within us; so that when at last it is said to us, "Behold, he cometh!" the ready answer of our spirit may be, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" II. Mount of Olives. L. 1 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And it M. 1 came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye 2 know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, 4 unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted and sought 5 how they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people; for they feared the people. L. 3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. 4 And he went his way unto the chief priests and captains, and communed with them how 5 he might betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver 6 him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And he promised, and from that time sought opportunity how he might conveniently betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Mk. 12 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare 13 for thee, that thou mayest eat the passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, Peter and John, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him 14 into the house where he entereth in. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good man of the house: the Master saith unto thee, My time is at hand, I will keep the passover at thy house; where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat the passover with 15 my disciples? And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there 16 make ready for us. And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and, as Jesus had appointed, they made ready the passover. SCARCELY had Jesus commenced his work, when covetousness lifted itself up against him; it everywhere intruded upon his path; it disputed every step that he took. It misunderstood and forsook him, in the person of the rich young man; it excited his holy anger in the person of the sellers in the temple; it hated him; it railed at him; it persecuted him in the person of the Pharisees; and in the person of Judas it tithed the fruit of his charity for the poor; it begrudged the honor destined to his burial; it betrayed him, it delivered him up, it sold him. Oh, prophetic crime, which casts a sad light upon the future of the Church of Jesus Christ! This same crime of him, who for thirty pieces of silver sold the blood of the Son of God, is the very crime which will show itself most active in depriving men of the ineffable benefit of this shed blood; for covetousness will oppose equally the salvation of the individual, the fidelity of the Church, and the conversion of the world. A. M. M. 1. 2. Jesus sat down upon the Mount of Olives, over against the temple; and as the shadows of evening deepened in the valley of Kedron, he addressed to his wondering disciples the prophecies and parables preserved in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew's gospel. It was after he had finished all these sayings that he said to his disciples, "Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified." He had previously in his discourse been dealing with a broad and distant future, been sketching the world's history, describing its close—giving no dates, leaving much as to the sequence of events shadowy and undefined. Now he turns to a nearer future, to an event that was to happen to himself; and in terms free of all indistinctness he announces that the day after the next he would be betrayed, and afterward crucified. H. L. 3. Then entered Satan. But not yet in the full sense. The awful stages of it were these: 1. Covetousness being his master-passion, the Lord let it reveal itself and gather strength by intrusting him with "the bag," as treasurer to himself and the twelve. 2. In the discharge of that sacred trust he became "a thief," appropriating its contents from time to time to his own use. Satan, seeing this door into his heart standing wide open, determines to enter by it, but cautiously; first merely "putting it into his heart to betray him," suggesting the thought to him that by this means he might enrich himself. 3. This thought was probably converted into a settled purpose by what took place in Simon's house at Bethany. 4. Starting back perhaps, or mercifully held back, for some time, the determination to carry it into immediate effect was not consummated till, sitting at the Paschal supper, "Satan entered into him," and conscience, effectually stifled, only rose again to be his tormentor. B. 5. Thirty pieces of silver.** The price of a slave that had been slain (Ex. 21 : 32). Thus the prophecy was fulfilled in which it had been particularly specified (Zech. 11 : 12, 13). The sum was equivalent to about fifteen dollars. D. 6. For a man to accuse Christ of nothing and not to complain of him while he betrays him, is to justify Him and to condemn himself. He who nourishes any passion in his heart is in great danger of delivering up Christ to his enemies upon every temptation. When a man hopes for anything from the world, he ought to fear everything from himself. Q.—The life of man furnishes many analogies that may help to clear up the enigmatical conduct of Judas. He who does not follow the impulses of good which he receives, but gives himself up to the selfish propensities which those impulses are meant to counteract, becomes finally and irrecoverably enslaved to them; all things that ought to work together for his good serve for his harm; the healing balm becomes for him a poison. This is the severe judgment upon which our free agency is conditioned; and to it may we apply the saying of our Lord: "From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath." N. In the absence of the multitude. The Jews, having an opportunity of seizing Jesus privately in the night, determined to have him examined by the high-priest and condemned by the Roman governor early in the morning, before the people came together. Therefore Judas sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude. W. G. Mk. 12. The 15th of Nisan was the first day of the feast. But, as all leaven was scrupulously removed about noon on the 14th, in preparation for the feast, it was not unnatural to call this "the day," or as Matthew and Mark have it, "the first day of unleavened bread." So Josephus, in one place, makes the 14th of Nisan the first day of the feast, which he elsewhere fixes to the 15th; and he assigns eight days as its duration. S. (See variant opinion of Robinson: Section 155, J. 14.) 13. Sendeth forth Peter and John.** In sending them before the others, he could easily have indicated where the room was in which they were to meet in the evening. Instead of this he gives them a sign which was to conduct them to it. This way of ordering it, whatever was its real purpose, served effectually to conceal from the others the locality of the guest-chamber, and may have been meant to keep the traitor in the mean time in ignorance. H. —A man bearing a pitcher of water. To bring home water is part of woman's work, in the East. So singular would be the sight of a man thus engaged, that our Saviour here gives it as a sign to his disciples, that a man should meet them bearing water, as though in all the throng not more than a single instance of the kind would occur. N. C. B. 14. "Where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat the Passover?" the Master saith. It is a personal question, a proposal to the inner life of us all. It is an offer of the one infinite divine blessing, for, in receiving the Master, Christ, the Son of Mary and the Son of God, we receive all the real good there is in earth and heaven. There seems to be in this question just that twofold sound of invitation and authority, offer and command, which is always to be found in the word of the Saviour when he proposes to take up his abode in any of our hearts. He offers to come in if we will suffer him; for the act must be free. He commands us to suffer him, because he has a right there; and though faith holds the key, we cannot keep him out without disobedience to him, and guilt and misery following. This is what our Christian life—part a task and part a delight, part duty and part privilege, part drudging and part festival, part of law and part of grace—must always include, the proportions of the service of obligation and the service of joy constantly varying, according as we have more or less of the Master's own spirit, and live nearer to him. F. D. H. ## Section 137.—The Passover Meal. Washes the Disciples' Feet. The Guest-Chamber. J. 55 AND the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves. Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come up to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him. 1. Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper in the house of Simon the leper, and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then, as he sat at meat, came Mary unto him, having an alabaster box with a pound of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head; and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with 4 her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of 5 his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this 6 ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what Mk. 4 was put therein. And there were some disciples that had indignation within them- 5 selves, and said, To what purpose is this waste? for this ointment might have been 6 sold for much, and given to the poor; and they murmured against her. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Let her alone: why trouble ye the woman? for she 7 hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor with you always, and when- 8 soever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: for in that she hath kept this ointment and poured it on my body, she is 9 come aforehand to anoint it for my burial. Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. J. 9 Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the 10 dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; 11 because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. THE inspiration of a loving heart has the gift of prophecy. Its insight is foresight, because it is taught of God. And what a rebuke to those who would bring down everything that is lovely and of good report to the hard utilitarian measurement, and, in the pretended interest of fruit, would strike off all the spontaneous blossoms of Christian affection! Ker.—The Lord's eye beheld more in this anoint- ing than Mary could understand. She had done what she could; she had deposited her whole love in this sacrifice of anointing, but in holy simplicity she had done more than she knew. This is our Saviour's manner; thus does he interpret the love of his disciples. Let us only do what we can, and then will he do what we cannot do; if we put into our doing all that we can, then will he put therein what far exceeds our power and thoughts. "In the works of the children of God there are often hidden myste- ries which they themselves understand not," says an experienced Christian. How shall we marvel, when in the light of eternity we review our earthly course; when for the first time we shall fully under- stand all that God meant by what he led us to do through his Spirit! R. B. J. 55. Many went, to purify themselves. Thousands of devout Jews came anxiously before the Passover to be made ceremonially clean and fit for the feast. All strict Jews were careful to go through ceremonial washings, purifications, and atonements, before eating the Passover. J. C. R. —57. That was not to be allowed to come to pass which his enemies were planning to effect, that they should bring him by force to Jerusalem; instead of that, he was to enter in triumph, and that too as Zion's King, on Palm-Sunday. "Not on the feast- day," they afterward said; but, nevertheless, the hour for the presenting of the sacrifice, full of grace and truth, was ordained to be on the great feast of deliverance. R. B. 2. Made him a supper.** All our human- ity, with all its possible moods and conditions, is somehow included and mastered and interpreted by him. He goes with us in our recreation as well as in the funeral procession; he sits in the full circle of health at festivals, as well as with the mourner by the new-made grave, or amidst the fragments of ruined plans; he comes to Bethany when the three there are well, not only when Lazarus is dead. All the rooms of our houses are for him, to come in and abide, as well as the chambers of sickness or of the laying out of the dead. F. D. H. Martha served. The natural temperament of this good woman comes out here as elsewhere. She could not sit still and do nothing while her Lord was in her house. She must be actively stirring and trying to do something. Grace does not take away our peculiar characteristics. J. C. R.— This, with what is afterward said of Mary's way of honoring her Lord, is so true to the character in which those two women appear in L. 10: 38-42, as  Bethany. to constitute one of the strongest confirmations of the truth of both narratives. B. 3. Mary was not occupied like her sister in the active ministrations of the feast, but she sat and thought and gazed until the fire burned, and she felt impelled to some outward sign of her love, her gratitude, her adoration. So she arose and fetched an alabaster vase of Indian spikenard, and came softly behind Jesus where he sat, and broke the alabaster in her hands, and poured the precious perfume first over his head, then over his feet, and then—unconscious of every presence save his alone—she wiped those feet with the long tresses of her hair, while the atmosphere of the whole house was filled with the fragrance. It was an act of devoted sacrifice; and the poor Galileans who followed Jesus, so little accustomed to any luxury, so fully alive to the costly nature of the gift, might well have been amazed that it should have all been lavished on the rich luxury of one brief moment. None but the most spiritual-hearted there could feel that the delicate odor which breathed through the perfumed house might be to God a sweet-smelling savor; that even this was infinitely too little to satisfy the love of her who gave, or the dignity of him to whom the gift was given. F. Poured it on his head. This act, however strange to us, was perfectly conformable to the customs of ancient times, not only in Asia, but in the more polished parts of Europe; and, among the Jews particularly, the custom of anointing the head seems to have been almost as common a custom as that of washing the face. P.—Kingly guest at royal banquet could not have had a costlier homage of the kind rendered to him. That Mary had in her possession so rich a treasure may be accepted as one of the many signs that her family was one of the wealthiest in the village. That she now took and spent the whole of it upon Jesus, was but a final expression of the fulness and the intensity of her devotion. 4. Judas Iscariot. Love so ardent, sacrifice so costly as that of Mary, he could not appreciate. He disliked it, condemned it; it threw such a reproach by contrast upon his own feeling and conduct to Christ. H.—6. Cared for the poor. The true friends of the poor, who give most and do most for them, will always be found among those who do most for Christ. It is the successors of Mary of Bethany, and not of Judas Iscariot, who really “care for the poor.” A thief, and had the bag.** Than the love of money, no besetting sin seems more thoroughly to wither up and harden the heart. No wonder it is called “the root of all evil.” J. C. R.—A dreadful thing is this love of money! It disables both eyes and ears, and makes man worse to deal with than a wild beast, allowing him to consider neither conscience, nor friendship, nor fellowship, nor salvation. Chrys.—Christ trusts a thief with his money, because he sets no value upon it; but he keeps souls in his own custody, and redeems them with his blood, because, having received them of his Father, he values them more than all the world besides. He suffers his money to be stolen from him, but never his sheep. Q. Mk. 6. “She hath done a good work,” he said —“one not only far from censure, but worthy of all praise. She hath done it unto me, done it out of pure, deep love—a love that will bring the best, the costliest thing she has, and think it no waste, but rather its fittest, worthiest application, to bestow it upon me.” Upon that ground alone, upon his individual claims as compared with all others, Jesus might well have rested his vindication of Mary’s act. It does not require that we should assign to her any preeminence of faith. It was the intensity of the personal attachment to Jesus that her act expressed which drew down upon it the encomium of the Lord. H.—On Me, the Lord says; because “on Him,” therefore Mary’s work had its goodness and beauty, as all good works. Love to Christ is the rich source and the living soul of every other love which reckons as such before God. R. B. The inherent grace and beauty of the act forbade any direct reproof; and so jealousy meanly suggests that the precious perfume might have been better sold, the price given to the poor, and this woman have rendered her demonstrations of gratitude in some more “practical” or active way. The answer of Jesus not only rebukes the littleness which these censures betrayed, but it instructively vindicates the woman’s cordial, unstudied sacrifice; and not hers only, but the offerings of humble loyalty and silent love to him in all time and over all the earth. It is the acceptance, by the Son of God, of lowly and retiring goodness. It is the legitimation and approval of all hearty gifts to the Master, by the Master’s voice. It is the eternal benediction of the gospel on despised fidelity and neglected love. . . . We ought not to forget that God may have, that he asks, that he requires of us that there shall be, servants of his love as self-denying, as heroic, as resolute, of whom hospital never knew and poetry never sang, right here in these homely houses and these prosaic streets. And to all that sit at his feet and follow in his steps in the spirit of her who poured the fragrant offering on his head, he is ready to speak the same benediction with his infinite love—hiding in it the sure promise of life everlasting. F. D. H. 7. The poor with you always, but not me.** The Bible is such a friend to the poor, such an enemy of luxury, prodigality, and mere bodily gratification, that it seems an unnatural thing to have, even in appearance, Judas taking the side of the poor, and Christ standing in their way. But the position of the parties has a deep truth underlying it. Judas the thief takes the side of poverty that he may plunder it; and Christ, who became poor that he might make many rich, teaches that there are more ways of doing good than almsgiving. All heavenly charity is not bound up in bags of flour. “Not that he cared for the poor,” is the truth about the one; “because he cared for the poor,” is the motive of the other. Try to measure the amount of bread which would have been provided by the three hundred pence with the fragrance that has exhaled from this woman’s deed into millions of weary hearts among the poorest of the poor. Ker. 8. If Judas could yet have been saved, the Lord’s patience and gentleness must have brought him on his knees before him. There he stood, his whole heart before Jesus laid bare. And the Lord does not thrust him out, does not upbraid him with being a hypocrite and a thief, and presently about to become a murderer. He only knocks gently at the door of his heart with the foretelling of his death. It is as if he had said to him: “Mary has made me ready for my burial; and thou, Judas—how canst thou will to make me ready for death?” Judas could bear unmoved the Lord’s look, and he went out to betray him. R. B. She hath done what she could. The whole spiritual meaning of gifts consists in the disposition of the giver. Distinctions of weight and measure, standards of value, calculations of outlay, vanish before that simple and royal touchstone in the breast. Christ’s eye falls, not on the box of ointment, but it falls on Mary’s secret, inmost soul. That being sound, all is sound. She believes, she trusts, she loves; therefore “she hath done what she could.” Out of that deep and rooted affection all manner of obedient fruits must grow, in time, as surely as love is the willing servant of the beloved. To anoint it for my burial. Her gift, he seems to add, is an unconscious embalming before my agony. These most sacred impulses of divine reverence are greater than any common almsgivings. Let each have its due. Whoso loveth me will love my poor, and serve them in the time and place. Let the heart be fastened personally on me as a living Redeemer, and Christian duties will soon fall into their order, and abound. F. D. H.—“For my burying”—clearly, therefore, his condemnation and burial were near at hand. This was another death-blow to all false Messianic hopes. No earthly wealth, no regal elevation could be looked for by the followers of one who was so soon to die. F. 9. Jesus is surrounded by men looking joyously forward to days and years of success and triumph. But he knows what they do not—that on that day week his body will be lying in the new-made sepulchre. And he accepts the anointing at Mary’s hand as preparing his body for the burial. With serene eye he looks down into the future, and abroad over the earth, and speaks of it as a thing of certainty that this gospel—the gospel of glad tidings of salvation in his name—was to be preached throughout the whole world. H.—We cannot but be struck with the majesty of this prophetic announcement; conveying by implication the whole mystery of the gospel which should go forth from his death as its source—looking forward to the end of time when it shall have been preached in the whole world—and specifying the fact that this deed should be recorded wherever it should be preached. A.—While the victories of many kings and generals are lost in silence, and many who have founded states and reduced nations to subjection are not known by reputation or by name, the pouring of ointment by this woman is celebrated throughout the whole world. Time hath passed away, but the memory of the deed she did hath not waned away. Chrys.—Fourteen hundred years have passed and gone since in the great church of St. Sophia at Constantinople Chrysostom uttered these words, but still wider and wider is the tale of Mary's anointing of her Master being told, the fragrance of the ointment spreading, yet losing nothing of its sweetness; such fresh vitality, such self-preserving power, lodging in a simple act of pure and fervid love. H. J. 9, 10. Lazarus is mentioned throughout the incident as forming an element in the unfolding of the hatred of the Jews which issued in the Lord's death. Notice the climax, from mere connecting mention in verse 1, then nearer connection, verse 2, to his being the cause of the Jews flocking to Bethany in verse 9, and the joint object with Jesus of the enmity of the chief priests in verse 10. A. 11. Believed on Jesus.** An intellectual conviction that Jesus must be the Messiah. This was the state of mind in which many hundreds of Jews were before the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the day of Pentecost, convinced but not converted, persuaded that Jesus was the Christ of God, but afraid to confess him. Hence on the day of Pentecost many hundreds of Peter's hearers were prepared to believe. J. C. R.—What served further to nurture in the breasts of the high-priests, the lawyers, and the Pharisees the design to put Jesus to death, appears in the transaction of the following day, viz., the entrance into Jerusalem. Accordingly, in the incidents of these first two days of the great week we perceive the human cause of the sufferings and death of Jesus. C. B. ## Section 118.—Public Entry into Jerusalem. J. 1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. L. 14 And in the evening when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles 15 with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with 16 you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be 17 fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, 18 Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 24 And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the 25 greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over 26 them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is 27 chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. J. 2 And supper being ended (the devil having now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, 3 Simon's son, to betray him); Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his 4 hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; he riseth from supper, and 5 laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the 6 towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith 7 unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I 8 do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 9 with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands, and 10 my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but 11 is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him: therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. 12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down 13 again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master, and 14. Lord; and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your 15 feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that 16 ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not 17 greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. HUMAN characters are always reduced in their eminence, and the impressions of awe they have raised, by a closer and more complete acquaintance. But it was not so with Christ. With his disciples, in closest terms of intercourse, for three whole years; their brother, friend, teacher, monitor, guest, fellow-traveller; seen by them under all the conditions of public ministry, and private society, he is yet visibly raising their sense of his degree and quality; becoming a greater wonder and holier mystery, and gathering to his person feelings of reverence and awe, at once more general and more sacred. And it will be discovered in all the disciples, that Christ is more separated from them, and holds them in deeper awe, the closer he comes to them and the more perfectly they know him. He grows sacred, peculiar, wonderful, divine, as acquaintance reveals him. At first he is only a man, as the senses report him to be; knowledge, observation, familiarity, raise him into the God-man. And exactly this appears in the history, without any token of art, or even apparent consciousness that it does appear—appears because it is true. H. B. J. 1. He loved them unto the end. It was when he drew near the end that our Lord's love was most severely tested. But, in the most trying circumstances, to the end he said and did everything to maintain and strengthen the confidence of all who had once trusted in him. He interested himself, too, in their condition to the end. In all that he suffered, our Lord could not have been adjudged selfish if it had occupied his thoughts almost to the exclusion of the dangers that surrounded his followers, since he suffered voluntarily in their behalf; but they had his counsel and sympathy and prayers as freely as if he had not been the first to suffer—as if they alone had anything to dread. When assailants, led by Judas, came upon him again after falling backward to the ground in his presence, he was ready to surrender himself, but not his afflicted brethren: "Let these go their way." When a great company followed him on his way to the crucifixion with their lamentations, he turned to them with more pity for their doom than dread of his own. So also he bore with the inconstancy of his disciples to the end. Often indeed they had stood in need of his forbearance, and in all his treatment of them on such occasions he showed himself a lenient Master; but as the end drew near they wavered most in their allegiance. If ever their devotion could be grateful to his heart, it was not when the multitude crowded about him with wonder and applause, but rather when he prayed alone in agony and then was treacherously kissed and arrested; yet it was in the conclusion of that very scene, when he was finally in the hands of malignant foes, that "all the disciples forsook him and fled." But he did not forsake them. When Peter thrice denied him, the Master, who had before rebuked his rash violence, only turned and looked upon him, and his silent love broke down the fear and pride of that follower, who now wept the more bitterly because Jesus loved him to the end. But the love that endured so long survived the end, and in itself was without end. It could not die on the cross, nor be stifled in the sepulchre. It rose with him; and again he associated with them, inspired them with new confidence, concerned himself with their wants, and bore with their folly, as in the case of Thomas. And the same love was drawn up to heaven as he ascended, thence to "drop as the rain" and "distil as the dew" upon them, till they ascended to enjoy it unutterably in their abode with him in paradise. To this hour he has never ceased to love his own. He loves them "from everlasting to everlasting." O. E. D.—The few hours that intervened between the end of Christ's public ministry and his arrest were devoted to instructing and comforting his disciples in view of his approaching departure, and the severe conflicts they were to undergo. In these conversations he displayed all his heavenly love and calmness of soul; his loftiness and his humility. N.—From first to last, his love was a self-forgetting love, even upon the cross; his love was to the very last a Saviour's love. Instead of thinking of his own sufferings, he thought of the guilt of others. A. T. L. 14. The supper began with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, which, when the Master and the rest of the company had tasted, one of the younger persons present—generally a child—asked the reason of what was peculiar in that feast, which introduced the haggadah, that is, the showing forth or declaration of it (in allusion to which we read of showing forth the Lord's death). Then the Master rose up and took another cup, and washed his hands again before the lamb was tasted; and in this interval it is supposed Christ also washed the feet of his disciples. Then, after eating the Passover, followed another cup, which (after having delivered to each a piece of bread) was the sacramental cup at this supper. Then, after some discourse, the whole family, having drunk at least a fourth cup, sang some psalms of praise; and so the solemnity ended. A. 15. This passover.** Among all the types the Passover holds the foremost place, floating down through the old dispensation to tell of its greatest deliverance, as the Communion has come down to us to tell of the great redemption of the new. It was now about to resign its charge, for it had served its purpose. It had stirred, year by year, the ashes of memory in the Jewish heart, and kindled them into the flame of hope—had taught men to look for a greater prophet than Moses, and to long for a higher salvation than the freedom from Egypt. And now, with this last Passover, it has come. The foreshadowed sufferings of that ancient covenant all meet in his cross, and its promised blessings all flow from it. He is the victim and the offerer, the Passover and the Moses; he endures and does, suffers and saves. He passed through a deeper than Egypt's darkness—was baptized with the baptism of blood—was the slain lamb, and stricken first-born for our sins. He led his chosen to the sea which barred the way, and stretched over it his delivering cross, and it opened, and a way was made through the deep for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over. He is the heavenly manna—the water and the smitten rock—the pillar of defence and light—the ark of the covenant that dries up Jordan's stream—the tree of life that scatters its healing leaves and sheds its fruit through all the goodly land. The divine history of the past now completes its cycle, and this last Passover begins to speak the word of the cross—"It is finished." Before I suffer! They seem strange words from such lips—from him who had already earned his title to be "the man of sorrows"—who had passed through privation and reproach and grief, and who seems to count all these as nothing to that which lay before him. It is because he is standing on the verge of Gethsemane, and beneath the shadow of his cross, and such words, "before I suffer," tell us that there was an agony of endurance in view which was to cast into the shade all that laid behind him. It is this suffering that makes the death of Christ the centre of gospel truth, and that brings us together to remember him who was bruised for our iniquities. Ker.—Clear before the Saviour's eye were all the scenes of the impending midnight hour in the garden, the next forenoon in the judgment-hall, the afternoon upon the cross. A few quiet hours lay between him and his entrance into the cloud. He wished to spend those hours with his apostles, to take his last leave of them, to give his farewell instructions to them. He had never before partaken of the Passover with them. He desired to do it this once. He knew that this was virtually the last Jewish Passover: that with the offering up of himself in the great sacrifice of the following day that long line of Passover celebrations that had run now through fifteen hundred years, down from the night in Egypt when the first-born were slain, was to be brought to its close. He knew that all which this rite prefigured was then to be fulfilled, and that that fulfilment was to issue in the erection of a spiritual kingdom, in which other kind of tables were to be spread, and other kind of wine to be drunk. H. 16. Will not eat. 18. Will not drink. A declaration of the fulfilment of the Passover rite in both its usual divisions—the eating of the lamb, and drinking the cup of thanksgiving. Henceforward he who fulfilled the law for man will no more eat and drink of it. 17. The cup.** This is generally supposed to have been the first cup in the Passover meal, with which the whole was introduced. It has no reference to the subsequent cup in verse 20 (Section 140). That was the institution of a new rite; this, the abrogation of an old one, now about to be fulfilled in the person of the true Lamb of God. A.—"It is to be your last as well as mine, until the kingdom of God come" (verse 18). It was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals, the one about to close forever, the other immediately to open and run its majestic career until from earth it be transferred to heaven. B.—Henceforth the Levitical sacrifice was to cease, being transfigured into an evangelical sacrament. W. 24. Spring up how it might, we have the fact that around the first communion-table among the apostles, in the presence of their Master, in the critical and solemn position in which he and they stood, there was actually a quarrel about their individual rights and privileges; a petty ambition, the love of place and power, finding its way into the hearts of those most honored of the Lord, entering to defile the most sacred season and solemnity. H.—This was not the first time that the followers of the meek and lowly one had striven for the highest place. It is a fearful proof of the strong hold which ambition has upon the human heart, that the disciples, after a two years' training in the school of humility, had yet made so little progress, that at such an hour as this they could feel disposed to begin quarrelling about precedence. R. B.—It showed how little, as yet, even these his chosen followers had entered into the meaning of his life. It showed that, even now, they had wholly failed to understand his many and earnest warnings as to the nature of his kingdom, and the certainty of his fate. Not by mere verbal reproof, but by an act more profoundly significant and touching, he determined to teach to them, and to all who love him, a nobler lesson. F.—Our Lord showed the greatest kindness in his manner of correcting their false ideas. Having stated the difference between his kingdom and worldly ones, exaltation among his followers depending on their humility, he proposes to them his own example during his intercourse with them, and enforces his words by a most eminent act of humility in washing their feet, a condescension which he exhorts them to imitate in their general conduct toward each other. Newcome. J. 2. Being ended. Rather having begun. P. S.—The devil put into the heart. Literally “cast.” The heart is the seed-plot which Satan sows. Suggestion is one of his chief weapons. The sin of man consists in opening his heart to the suggestion; giving it a place and letting it sink down. This is obvious in the first temptation in Eden. J. C. R.—3. Jesus came from God, not leaving him, and went to God, not leaving us. Bernard.—4. Riseth from supper. He rose from the supper-table before the repast had fully commenced. The guests had taken their half-recumbent positions around the table in the usual Oriental style, reclining upon the left side, resting on the elbow, leaving the right hand free for service in eating, and with feet extended outward. H. C. (See p. 182.) 5. The master of the house had relinquished for the strangers the best apartment of his dwelling, and furnished it as well as he could. He saw that in the room the necessary apparatus for the washing, the basin and the water and the towel, were all provided, but he left it to the guests themselves to see that it was done. But which of the twelve will do it for the others? H.—He into whose hands the Father had given all things, with those same hands washes, not the hands, but the feet of his disciples. Aug.—Verily, the heart of man never could have imagined such a scene! All that the world can show that is great and high vanishes into nothing before this lowliness. R. B.—In this act Jesus became a servant of servants to his disciples. He showed that to serve was the business of his life, and in his view was not to his shame but to his glory. It was an example to illustrate a principle. All that his example meant then, it means now. The real service which the law of Christ demands of us is not abated by the least jot or tittle in consequence of the change in social customs which renders it improper now to wash one another’s feet. It were more than a misfortune to lose the sweet power of this divine example; it were worse than a blunder to miss its precious influence toward the crucifying of human selfishness and the culture of Christian humility and of loving service toward all the Christian brotherhood. H. C. 7. Not now, but hereafter.** God’s ways may appear inscrutable, and indeed must be so, for life on the earth is but a beginning and a fragment, a beginning to find its end, and a fragment to be made whole, in the all-revealing life beyond the grave. But looking at our life, in the light shed upon it by Christ’s, and meekly receiving what God sends in submission and hope, we will be learning more and more now, and all hereafter. The teaching of the Spirit, it is enough to say, becomes the providence of the Christian. It is of less consequence for him to know what betides him, than to have the assurances begotten of the Spirit, that come what may, God will fit him for it, carry him through it, and make it, in the end, the best possible experience for him. If one have but the meekness to pray, to do, and to wait, the issue cannot be otherwise than happy. God’s word and Spirit are our warrant. The world is God’s, and its heirs are God’s people. W. I. B. 8,9. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.** This at last carries the disciple away, for whither should he go if he were to have no part with him who was his life? Vehement as he was in refusing, he is now still more vehement in submitting. He answers in the language of devoted love—love which, though inconsiderate, is yet perfect love. R. B.—“If to be washed of Thee have such significance, then not my feet only, but hands, head, and all, be washed!” This artless expression of clinging attachment to Jesus, and felt dependence upon him for his whole spiritual well-being, furnishes such evidence of historic verity as no thoroughly honest mind can resist. 10. He that is washed—in this thorough sense, to express which the word is carefully changed to one meaning to wash as in a bath: needeth not—to be so washed any more: save to wash his feet—needeth to do no more than wash his feet (and here the former word is resumed, meaning to wash the hands or feet): but is clean every whit—or, “as a whole.” This sentence is singularly instructive. Of the two cleansings, the one points to that which takes place at the commencement of the Christian life, embracing complete absolution from sin as a guilty state, and entire deliverance from it as a polluted life, or, in the language of theology, justification and regeneration. This cleansing is effected once for all, and is never repeated. The other cleansing, described as that of “the feet,” is such as one walking from a bath quite cleansed still needs, in consequence of his contact with the earth. It is the daily cleansing which we are taught to seek, when in the spirit of adoption we say, “Our Father which art in heaven—forgive us our debts.” B.—And where we make this confession, then he who washed his disciples’ feet is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aug.—When burdened with the sense of manifold shortcomings, as what tender spirit of a Christian is not? is it not a relief to be permitted thus to wash our feet after a day’s contact with the earth? This is not to call in question the completeness of our past justification. Our Lord, while graciously insisting on washing Peter’s feet, refuses to extend the cleansing farther, that the symbolical instruction intended to be conveyed might not be marred. And ye are clean—in the first and whole sense: but not all**—important, as showing that Judas, instead of being as true-hearted a disciple as the rest at first, and merely falling away afterward—as many represent it—never experienced that cleansing at all which made the others what they were. B.—Concerning this twofold purification: that which is once performed through justification, and that which takes place daily through sanctification, the Lord speaks also in John 15: 2, 3. He says: “Now ye are clean,” and yet at the same time “he purgeth them.” R. B. 14–17. He their Lord and Master had washed their feet. He had done it to teach them humility, to teach them self-denial, to teach them love: blessed they if they learned the lesson! He should be chief among them who, for the sake of others, gladly laid on himself the lowliest burdens, and sought for himself the humblest services. Again and again he warned them that they were not to look for earthly reward or earthly prosperity; the throne, and the table, and the kingdom, and the many mansions were not of earth. F.—His own act stands before us, not as a model act to be exactly copied, but as an act representative to us of the whole circle of kindly offices that we are called upon to render to one another, and as illustrative of the humble, self-denying spirit in which all these offices should be discharged. H.—Whoever serves his brother in self-denying love is obeying this command of the Lord, in whatever way he may be called upon to do it, whether it be by washing his feet, or whether it be by filling his hand, or whether it be by drying from his eyes the tears, or whether it be by watching and praying for his soul. It is not what we do, so much as the mind with which we do. And this the disciples and the first Christians, who glowed with brotherly love, well knew. They drew from this feet-washing no literal law, but have sought to enter into the spirit of him who, Lord over all, yet dwelt among his own as a servant, to whom no lowliness was so lowly that the height of his love did not stoop down thereunto. Jesus’ serving love was writing in their hearts this fundamental principle in the kingdom of God, namely, that every office, even the highest, the apostolic office, is appointed to serve. How easy this to learn, but how difficult to do! “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” R. B. All our noblest enlargements of power and of peace are sacrificial: there is something hard to do, or hard to bear—human nature being what it is. But the yoke is eased if by it you help other men. Learn to love the brotherhood. Hate nothing so much as hatred—dropping every grudge and every revenge, every bitter or cruel vestige of the old satanic life out of your heart, forgiving even them that will not forgive. Live fairly and generously with men. God makes the path of obedience to himself to be the path of honesty and sweet temper and loving-kindness to his children. Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids straight before thee. Then it will prove that you are blessed children of the Father. You walk at large, like sons of God. The road of duty will still be narrow, but, travelling in it, you will breathe the immortal air, and every deepening breath will be an inspiration of the life eternal. Your daily landscape will be the scenery of both worlds—all things yours, because ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. F. D. H. CHRIST never conforms to an expectation, even of his friends. When they look to find a great prophet in him, he offers nothing in the modes of the prophets. When they ask for places of distinction in his kingdom, he rebukes their folly, and tells them he has nothing to give, but a share in his reproaches and his poverty. When they look to see him take the sword as the great Messiah of their nation, calling the people to his standard, he tells them he is no warrior and no king, but only a messenger of love to lost men; one that has come to minister and die, but not to set up or restore the kingdom. Every expectation that rises up to greet him, is repulsed; and yet, so great is the power of his manner, that multitudes are held fast, and cannot yield their confidence. Enveloped as he is in the darkest mystery, they trust him still; going after him, hanging on his words, as if detained by some charmed influence which they cannot shake off or resist. Never was there a teacher that so uniformly baffled every expectation of his followers, never one that was followed so persistently. H. B. # Section 138.—One of You shall betray Me. # The Guest-Chamber. L. 28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto 29, 30 you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at J. 18 my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen; but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He 19 that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before 20 it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me 21 receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit; and as they sat and did eat, he testified and said, Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you which eateth 22 with me shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake; and they began to inquire among themselves, which of them it was that should M. 22 do this thing. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and, one by one, began every one 23 of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth his hand with me in the dish; the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born. 25 Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. J. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom 25, 26 he spake. He then, lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he 27 had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop 28 Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now 29 no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that 30 we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out: and it was night. “AND after the sop Satan entered into him.” There is something appalling in the successive stages by which he reached the climax of his guilt. First, “the devil (simply) put it into his heart to betray” him. But many a struggle may he have endured ere he could nerve himself for the deed. Even with the thirty pieces of silver in his hand, he probably still quailed at the thought of such an act, and for such a sum—the price of the lowest slave! When Jesus stooped to wash his feet, the last struggle may have been only reaching its crisis. But that word, about one that did eat of his bread lifting his heel against him; the still more explicit announcement that a traitor was at the table; the inquiry which was forced out of him, after it had come from all the rest, “Master, is it I?” and above all, the answer (certainly not audible to the rest), “Thou hast said it”—would make the feeling irresistible, “I am detected, it is now too late to draw back.” And the sop given, and Satan now seated in his breast, he went immediately out (thus severing himself forever from that holy society with which he never had any spiritual sympathy); and it was night—but far blacker night in the soul of Judas than in the sky over his head. B.—O night the most criminal, dreadful, and dark, and yet the most holy, hopeful, and bright!—since the Son of God is therein betrayed, sold, and delivered up by the most execrable sacrilege, and since he therein gives, delivers up, and sacrifices himself, leaves the most divine pledge of his love, and teaches therein the sublimest truths of that religion which he institutes! Q. L. 29. I appoint a kingdom. Who is this that dispenses kingdoms, nay, the kingdom of kingdoms, within an hour or two of his own apprehension, and less than a day of his shameful death? B.—He undertakes to organize a kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven on earth. His purpose includes a new moral creation of the whole human race. H. B.—The first conception is due to the mind of Jesus Christ, and in his teaching the conception is presented, not vaguely and confusedly, but with luminous precision. It is the reign of God in men, when the Father of minds shall be known, loved, and revered by his children. It is the reign of righteousness, purity, truth, love, and peace, the universal reception and dominion among men of all true, just, holy, generous and divine principles. Y.—It is a plan as universal in time, as it is in the scope of its objects. It does not expect to be realized in a lifetime, or even in many centuries to come. His expectation reaches boldly out beyond his own death; that, in fact, is to be the seed of his great empire—“except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth,” he says, “alone.” Is this great idea, which no man ever before conceived, the raising of the whole human race to God, a plan sustained with such evenness of courage, and a confidence of the world’s future so far transcending any human example—is this a human development? Regard the benevolence of it, the universality of it, the religious grandeur of it, as a work readjusting the relations of God and his government with men—the cost, the length of time it will cover, and the far-off date of its completion—is it in this scale that a Nazarene carpenter, a poor uneducated villager, lays out his plans and graduates the confidence of his undertakings? H. B.—His great central conception of the kingdom of God—a kingdom based on truth, administered by moral influences, pervaded by love, and holiness, and joy, and open to all of whatever class or clime—is a conception as magnificent as it is original. And, with this, all the rest of his doctrine is in perfect and beautiful harmony, every line of truth being like a radius starting from and conducting to this central idea, and the whole forming one perfect sphere of knowledge. W. L. A. (Read Section 174.) J. 18. Hath lifted up his heel. Ps. 41: 9. It was fulfilled in the case of Judas in the sense that this case filled out fully the very idea of David in the Psalm. The same thing befell David’s greater son which befell David. 21. Troubled in spirit. The same word we met in the scenes at the grave of Lazarus (John 11: 33)—indicating deep and painful emotion—it seemed so inexpressibly sad that one of his chosen twelve—one who had sat beside him at table; was sitting (perhaps) next him at this moment—who had been lifted so high in privilege and honor, and in the possibilities of a noble life, should turn against him in the foulness of the basest treason! H. C.—To the apostles he had said, “Ye are clean;” but, as this could not be applied to Judas, he added, “yet not all.” Intimations of this kind he threw out more and more frequently, partly, as he himself said (verse 19), to prepare them for the act of treachery, that it might not take them unawares, and lead them to infer that he, too, had been deceived; and partly, perhaps, in order to rouse, if possible, the conscience of Judas himself. But his foresight of the awful deed—that one who had been a special object of his love should disarm him and become a tool of his enemies—and of the conflict with depravity that he must go through, even up to his last hour, moved him most deeply; and he now spoke more plainly, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” N.—That night all, even the best beloved, were to forsake him, but it was not that; that night even the boldest-hearted was to deny him with oaths, but it was not that; nay, but one of them was to betray him. F.—M. 22. Lord, is it I? Their language expresses in the original a much stronger negation than in our version. Surely not I, Lord? L. A. 24. A great crime is made to minister to the greatest act of the divine love, yet the criminal is stripped of no part of his guilt. “The Son of man goeth as it is written;” that writing is but the expression of the divine will; that will is sovereign, just, and good; yet woe to the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! human freedom, human agency, human guilt taken up into that vast and complicated machinery by which the counsels of the Most High God are carried out. H.—It were good for that man if he had not been born? “Words,” it has been well said, “of immeasurable ruin, words of immeasurable woe”—and the more terrible because uttered by the lips of immeasurable love; words capable, if any were capable, of revealing to the lost soul of the traitor all the black gulf of horror that was yawning before his feet. F.—25. Thou hast said. No man at the table then could have heard that answer of our Lord; we can scarcely imagine how it could be but by supposing that Judas lay upon the seat immediately next to Jesus on the one side, as John lay upon the one nearest to him on the other. Assuming this, Jesus might easily have spoken to one so near in such an undertone that none could overhear. H. J. 23. Leaning on Jesus’ bosom. The rare combination of contemplativeness and passion, of strength and sweetness, in the same soul—the perfect faith which inspired his devotion, and the perfect love which precluded fear—these were the gifts and graces which rendered him worthy of leaning his young head on the bosom of his Lord. F.—In modest self-concealment, and under a sense of the deepest gratitude, John designates himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” P. S.—25. Lying on. Rather, leaning back on. A.—26. Two men of the twelve now knew to whom the Lord referred—Judas, on the one side, to whom Jesus had directly said, “Thou art the man,” and John, now, on the other, to whom the sign was as explicit as any words could be—a sign, however, only to John himself, the others not having heard the words that gave the act its meaning. H.—But for the concluding scenes of the history, no reader of it would gather that one of the twelve differed in character from all his fellows. If there was a radical defect in the moral and religious character of Judas, it certainly remained undeveloped to his constant associates up to the fatal night when they all met for the last time together. B. 27. After the sop, Satan. At first Satan came to make the heart of Judas his own; now he enters, because it is his own. Bp. H.—The kingdom of evil, as well as that of good, has a personal head. That he should have the power of tempting is no more strange than that human spirits should possess it. He can no more compel than they, and he gains in influence only as we yield him place. Ker.—That which thou art doing, do more quickly.** Reproving his lingering, and his pretending to share in the general doubt. A. 29. Huy things needed. Our Lord did not work miracles to procure the necessaries required by himself and his disciples. Give to the poor. The supposition shows our Lord’s custom in the matter of almsgiving. He sanctified and adorned the practice of caring for the poor by his own example. Judas had the bag.** Snares attend the possession and handling of money. The man who has the care of the money in our Lord’s little company is the man that makes shipwreck of his soul, through the love of money. J. C. R. 30. In that bewildering chaos of a soul spotted with mortal guilt, the Satanic had triumphed over the human; in that dark heart earth and hell were thenceforth at one; in that lost soul sin had conceived and brought forth death. And so from the lighted room, from the holy banquet, from the blessed company, from the presence of his Lord, he went immediately out, and—as the beloved disciple adds, with a shudder of dread significance letting the curtain of darkness fall forever on that appalling figure—“and it was night.” F. ## Section 139.—Foretells the Denial of Peter, and the Dispersion of the Twelve. The Guest-Chamber. M. 26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed, or given thanks, he brake it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is given, broken, for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also after supper he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This cup is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. Verily I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my 1 Cor. Father's kingdom. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew 26 the Lord's death till he come. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ M. 3 THEN Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What 5 is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them 7 into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought 8 with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, 9 The field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that 10 was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. 1 And straightway, when the morning was come, all the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, against Jesus to put him to 2 death. And the whole multitude of them arose, and when they had bound Jesus, they led him away from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and delivered him to Pontius J. 28 Pilate the governor. And it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. 29 Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? 30 They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put 32 any man to death: that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cesar, saying, that he himself is Christ a King. J. 33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus. And Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the 34 Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee 35 of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation, and the chief priests, have 36 delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. 37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my 38 voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. Mk. 3 And the chief priests and elders accused him of many things: but he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? hearest thou not 5 how many things they witness against thee? But Jesus yet answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. L. 4 Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. 5 And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. WHAT human heart can be untouched by the demeanor of Jesus toward Judas when sin had begun to do its work? On the one hand, there is that divine earnestness with which, from time to time, he uttered the voice of prophetic warning in his ear. And on the other hand, that considerate love with which, in these warnings, he ever spared him before the disciples, never mentioning his name, just as if he was addressing a secret word to his heart alone, by which he constantly and unweariedly wooed his heart—ever up to that majestic close, when he washed the traitor's feet! And by all that, Judas was untouched; to all he was insensible. For he that has himself ceased to love, can no longer understand the love of others. In his dead heart all is voiceless and mute. But he awoke at last. Then the pent-up storm burst within the conscience of the traitor. And as he heard a voice cry out against him from every fold of that conscience, the feeling that awoke within him was—“Once I loved; once I was loved by him!” But alas! he had then no longer power to believe or love! A. T. As the death of Jesus was designed to atone for all guilt, nearly all guilt combined to accomplish it. It was covetousness that betrayed him; it was perjury that bore false witness against him; it was envy that delivered him up. Cruelty scourged and crowned him with thorns. Popular fickleness chose Barabbas, and rejected Him; while, in the soldiers, coarse brutality buffeted and mocked him. If we look beneath the outward acts of human conduct to the hidden principles from which they spring, it will be found that the guilt of crucifying the Lord is oft repeated—by avowed disciples, who desert and deny, and would even sell him, and with him every principle of conscience; by those who would aid his cause, but that to identify themselves too closely with Christ might compromise them with the world; by those who believe but do not confess; whose admiration ends when they feel the pressure of the morality of his gospel, and the self-denying character of the Christian life; and by those who in every age have preferred the specious to the real, or who have mocked with empty lip-service that divine King who is satisfied with nothing less than the homage of the heart! J. A. M. 3. Judas stands alone in sacred history as a man devoted by name, by the voice of the Lord himself, to perdition. He is the most marked type of those false disciples who joined Christ in the expectation of an earthly kingdom; and when our Lord’s repeated announcements of his sufferings and death showed this to be a vain hope, he prepared to sell himself and his Master to the rulers. S. Judas had made ready his own nature for the tempter. He, and none but he, could have rendered himself capable of yielding. And now that he has yielded, the power at work becomes apparent in the disenchantment which follows. After sin has made a man so that he cannot look steadily into his own soul, it ends by destroying his enjoyment in that fictitious pleasure for which it has induced him to sell all that is divine and real. It cheats him of the substance for a shadow, and of that shadow it robs him, or changes it into a frightful phantom, from which he would escape if he could—as Judas from the hire of his treachery. The remorse of Judas at this moment can be perfectly explained by the full consequences of his act now looking him in the face. It is the murderer’s horror when the deed is committed and cannot be undone—that awful revulsion which, among all calculations, is never reckoned on. For now, not only Christ’s guiltlessness of the charge, but his spotless and loving character—the good he had received at his hands, and never evil—the gentle considerateness—the unwearied patience—the pitying tenderness he had shown him and his fellow-disciples—rose up before the soul of his betrayer, and smote him with unutterable remorse. No one word, no one act, could he call up that would help his own thoughts to justify his treachery. Ker. Judas repented himself. There are two Greek words used in the N. T., both of which are rendered repent. The one signifies literally to know after, and hence indicates a change of mind or purpose; the other signifies literally to care after, and so to carry a burden of sorrow for the past. The latter is the word used here. The distinction is well stated by Trench: “He who has changed his mind about the past is in the way to change everything; he who has an after-care may have little or nothing more than a selfish dread of the consequences of what he has done.” This appears to have been the state of mind of Judas. It is manifested in remorse for the past, not in any new purpose for the future; and it leads not to a new life in Christ Jesus, but to a despairing death. Repentance inspires to a new life, remorse leads to despair and death; repentance seeks forgiveness, remorse oblivion; repentance conducts Peter to Christ, remorse drives Judas from him. L. A. 4. I have sinned . . . innocent blood.** What a testimony this to Jesus! Judas had been with him in all circumstances for three years; his post as treasurer to him and the twelve gave him peculiar opportunity of watching the spirit, disposition, and habits of his Master; while his covetous nature would incline him to dark and suspicious, rather than frank and generous, interpretations of all that he said and did. If, then, he could have fastened on one questionable feature in all that he had so long witnessed, no such speech as this would ever have escaped his lips, nor would he have been so stung with remorse as not to be able to keep the money and survive his crime. B. What is that to us? This answer of the chief priests was perfectly natural for men of their character. Men who had any feeling, any sentiments of common humanity, or even of common justice, would naturally have paused under these circumstances; would have examined Judas, and investigated the grounds of his repentance. But with the guilt or innocence of Jesus they did not concern themselves. All they wanted was the destruction of a man whom they hated and feared, and whose life and doctrine were a standing reproach to them. This was their sole object; as to the justice of the case, they were utterly indifferent. P. If Christ is innocent it is not their concern. The traitor who knew him so well should have thought of this when he surrendered him. And in this they touch the very point which stung Judas to the quick, the one thing which made his guilt blacker than theirs. He knew Christ better, and sinned more against the purity and love of his nature. See thou to that. Even Judas himself could not complain. They had kept their share of the contract, and he must abide by his. This is the remorseless logic which belongs to these cases, and among such men it is all-powerful. And this is the natural end of all alliances that are made for mutual aid in the pursuit of revenge or unhallowed ambition, of unjust gain or sinful pleasure. Ker. 5. Terribly soon did the Nemesis fall on the main actor in the lower stages of this iniquity. When the morning dawned upon that chilly night, and he knew the decision of the priests and of the Sanhedrim, and saw that Jesus was now given over for crucifixion to the Roman governor, then he began fully to realize all that he had done. In Judas, as in so many thousands since, this opening of the eyes which follows the consummation of an awful sin to which many other sins have led, drove him from remorse to despair, from despair to madness, from madness to suicide. F.—We only see in his fearful end the most dread instance of the regular development and enhancement of sin in the individual that is contained in the history of man, and with awe we behold in him the only one who received his sentence in person before the last day. E. 6. Not lawful to put them into the treasury. These very men, who had no scruple at all in murdering an innocent person, yet had wonderful qualms of conscience about putting into the treasury the money which they themselves had given as “the price of blood.” P. 2. Pontius Pilate the governor. The Roman provinces were of two kinds, senatorial and imperial. The latter were governed by military officers, who held their office and power at the pleasure of the emperor. They looked after the taxes, paid the troops, preserved order, and administered a rude sort of justice; from their decisions there was ordinarily no appeal, except in the case of a Roman citizen. Judea was an imperial province; Pontius Pilate was its governor or procurator, and was directly amenable to the emperor, Tiberius Cesar, for his administration. L. A.—Pilate had arrived from Cesarea, to secure in person the preservation of order in the dangerous days of the feast. His quarters were in the new palace, built by Herod the Great on Zion. It was the pride of Jerusalem. G. It was probably about seven in the morning that, thinking to overawe the procurator by their numbers and dignity, the imposing procession of the Sanhedrists and priests, headed, no doubt, by Caiaphas himself, conducted Jesus from their hall of meeting over the lofty bridge which spanned the valley of the Tyropæon, in presence of all the city, with the bound hands of a sentenced criminal, a spectacle to angels and to men. “SUFFERED under Pontius Pilate”—so, in every creed of Christendom, is the name of the Roman procurator handed down to eternal execration. Yet of all the civil and ecclesiastical rulers before whom Jesus was brought to judgment, Pilate was the least guilty of malice and hatred, the most anxious, if not to spare his agony, at least to save his life. F. J. 28. The Pretorium, translated “hall of judgment,” was the headquarters of the Roman military governor, wherever he happened to be. S.—One of the ground apartments of Herod’s palace on Zion appears to have been the procurators’ Pretorium, mentioned here; as Josephus informs us that the Roman governors took up their quarters in the palace, and set up their tribunal in front (i. e., at the eastern entrance) of it, namely, on the “Pavement” (of John 19 : 13). Strong. Lest they should be defiled. Jewish authorities on defilement inform us that going into the house of a Gentile made a Jew unclean for one day. Notice how sanctimoniousness and crime consort together in the same bosoms—the spirit of murder firing their hearts, yet afraid to defile their hallowed garments or soil their holy feet by going into Pilate’s judgment-hall! H. C. Eat the passover. The word passover is employed in the New Testament in three different and specific acceptations, viz.: 1. The paschal lamb. 2. The paschal meal. 3. The paschal festival. The last may be taken in its literal and widest sense. Then, to eat may be understood to keep or celebrate the passover. Or, the paschal festival may be taken in the sense of paschal sacrifices; that is, the voluntary peace-offerings and thank-offerings, made more especially on the 15th day of Nisan. There is nothing in the language of John, nor in the attendant circumstances, which, upon fair interpretation, requires or permits us to believe that he intended to correct the unquestionable teaching of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The language of these three evangelists is full, explicit, and decisive, to the effect that our Lord’s last meal with his disciples, as recorded by them all, was the regular and ordinary paschal supper of the Jews, introducing the festival of unleavened bread, on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan. R. (Section 155, J. 14.) 31. Take ye him, and judge him. Pilate’s Roman knowledge of law, his Roman instinct of justice, his Roman contempt for their murderous fanaticism, made him not choose to act upon a charge so entirely vague. F.—As he had heard of no disturbance produced by Jesus, the statement made by the Sanhedrim appeared by no means credible; and, suspecting that religious disputes were at the bottom, he wished to get rid of the whole affair, and told them “to take him, and judge him according to their law.” N. It is not lawful for us to put to death. Judea was now under the Roman yoke; one badge of its servitude being this, that while the old Jewish courts were permitted to try and to punish minor offences, the final judgment of all capital offences was reserved for the Roman tribunals. A Roman judge must pass the sentence, or, at least, must sign the warrant that consigns the criminal to execution. At Jerusalem, these reserved cases were brought up for adjudication at the time of the great festivals, when the Roman procurator, who resided ordinarily at Cesarea, visited the capital. For the last six years, Pontius Pilate had held this office in Judea, and he was now in the city on occasion of this Passover. H. 32. Signifying what death he should die. It stood written in the eternal councils that Christ was to die by that Roman form of execution which inspired the Jews with a nameless horror, even by crucifixion; that he was to reign from his cross—to die by that most fearfully significant and typical of deaths—public, slow, conscious, accursed, agonizing—worse even than burning—the worst type of all possible deaths, and the worst result of that curse which he was to remove forever. F. The Lord was not to be stoned, according to the Jewish custom; for his holy body must be preserved from all mutilation. R. B.—This remark John makes for the strengthening of our faith, and to show us how wisely everything was ordered by the counsel of God under such complicated circumstances. His enemies dared not do what they would, but throughout the whole trial of Christ everything was ordered by God’s decree, determined long before. But this very Providence, which watched over our blessed Saviour from his birth to his death, will watch over us in our hours of life and death, if only we yield ourselves wholly up to it, and commit all our ways to God alone. Rambach. L. 2. They here bring three different accusations against him, not one of which—in the sense they desire Pilate to understand them—is true; and one of which, the second, they know is absolutely false. But it suits their object to represent the accused to Pilate as stirring up sedition, refusing to pay custom, claiming to be king of the country in his own right. H. The grounds on which the Sanhedrim condemned Christ were not sufficient to induce Pilate, the Roman procurator, to inflict capital punishment upon him. To serve the purpose, recourse was had to his claim of Messiahship, on which they had professed to found their own decision, with the addition of a political element: “He has claimed to be a king;” and hence “he perverts the nation (contests the Roman authority), and forbids to give tribute to Cesar.” An accusation of this sort could be the more readily admitted, as the Roman authorities were well aware that the Jews felt themselves degraded and disgraced by paying taxes to a heathen power. N. J. 33. Jesus stood before the governor. The future Judge of quick and dead stood before this earthly judge. He stood there, a King in bonds. Pilate beheld him, and his impression that this was no malefactor was legible on his countenance. Then began the Lord’s accusers to bring forward the accusations upon which they had previously agreed. He had confessed that he was Christ; therefore they represent him to the governor as a rebel, who had called himself an anointed king; and thereto add that he seduced the people and refused to pay tribute to the emperor. They make out the Lord to be just the kind of Messiah which they were hoping for; and in this character they deliver him up to the heathen Pilate. R. B.—The hypocrites! They were hunting Jesus to death simply because he would not identify himself with them, and use his supernatural power to drive out the Romans, and set them on the vacant throne. They were demanding his death on the pretext that he had threatened to use force to establish his kingdom, when the truth was—his real offence, in their eyes, was that he would not use force! G. 36,37. My kingdom is not of this world. He does not say “not over,” but “not of this world”—i. e., in its origin and nature; therefore “no such kingdom as need give thee or thy master the least alarm.” Our Lord only says whence his kingdom is not—first simply affirming it, next giving proof of it, then reaffirming it. This was all that Pilate had to do with. The positive nature of his kingdom he would not obtrude upon one who was as little able to comprehend it, as entitled officially to information about it. B. As the Lord owned himself the Son of God before the most exalted theocratic council, so he confessed his regal dignity in presence of the representative of the highest political authority on earth. O.—The words implied that in another sense he certainly claimed to be both a king and the founder of a kingdom. He then defined more exactly the sense in which he was both. N. “Thou art a king, then!” said Pilate to him, in astonishment. Yes! but a king not in this region of falsities and shadows, but one born to bear witness unto the truth, and one whom all who were of the truth should hear. F.—For my kingdom is an empire of truth. “Every one that is of the truth,” whose heart receives and loves the truth, hears my voice and is one of my subjects; a member of my kingdom. In the sense in which he is a king, his claim to be one is no crime. H. C. The only weapon of which he made use was spiritual truth. His life, his words, all the manifestations of his character, are consistent only with the design to achieve, not a material, but a moral conquest, and to effect not a political, but a spiritual revolution in the world. He had the conception of a purely spiritual reign, the conception of a palace and a throne for God in the soul of man, the conception of the regeneration of man’s inward nature. Y. After he had disclaimed any purpose of setting up an earthly kingdom, affirming at the same time that he was King in a certain sense, he added that he came into the world to testify of the truth. These three propositions, taken together, set forth his purpose to found his kingdom, not by worldly means, but by the testimony of the truth. But he testified of the truth by his whole life, by his words and works, comprising the entire self-revelation of him who could say, “I am the Truth.” N. Then Christ is a King of Truth. Should not Pilate have desired to behold a King of Truth, a witness whose possession the truth is, in the midst of the fruitless search which the heathen world was making after the true God? To a Jew he might perhaps have said, salvation; to the heathen Pilate he holds out salvation as an object of attraction under the form of the truth. To reveal in his own person this saving truth, that God’s holy love desires the redemption of sinners—for this purpose it was that Christ was born and became man, a born King of Truth; for this cause did he come into the world, of which he is not; to this end did he live in the world, and preach, and work, and suffer. Jesus, the friend of souls, bears witness to that which our soul is seeking for; and his word would fain sound to us like the sweet accents of home. R. B. Our Lord’s reply was particularly adapted to the position, acquirements, experience, of him before whom he stood—a Roman official of high rank, educated, cultivated; a man of large experience of men—men in different countries and of different creeds; not given much to thought about religious matters, yet sufficiently acquainted with the rival schools of philosophy and religion by which the Roman commonwealth was distracted. Truth, moral and religious truth, was the proclaimed object of research, of which some were saying, Lo, here it is, and others, Lo, there it is; but of which he, Pilate, in pursuit of quite a different object, had learned to think that neither here nor there nor anywhere was it to be found. “Here,” thinks Pilate, “is a new rival of those old Stoics, who were ever teaching that every wise man was a king—the setter-up of a new system. One thing at least is clear enough, that it is a quite empty charge these Jews are urging against him. He may sit as long as he likes upon that ideal throne of his, without the throne of Tiberius being endangered; he may get as many subjects as he can to enter that ideal kingdom, and my master, the emperor, have not a loyal subject the less.” 38. And so with that passing question to Jesus, “What is truth?”—a question he does not stay to get answered, as he has no faith that any answer to it can be given; a question not uttered sneeringly or scoffingly, but rather sadly and bitterly, he himself having come to regard all truth as a phantom; and with a tolerant, half-pitying feeling toward Jesus—with that question put to Jesus by the way, Pilate goes out to the Jews. H. It was the half-pitying question of the practical man of the world, who felt that truth was a phantom, a word that had no political import, and regarded the attempt to connect it with a kingdom and matters of real life as a delusion of harmless though pitiable enthusiasm. E.—He wholly set aside the idea of an unearthly royalty; he saw in the prisoner before his tribunal an innocent and high-souled dreamer, nothing more. F. That the peace of a nation or the life of an individual should be endangered on account of the truth or falsehood of any system of speculative opinions, was so opposite to the opinion and feeling of the Roman world, that Pilate inquired what he meant by truth; what truth had to do with a question of life and death. Apparently despairing, on one hand, of bringing this blameless enthusiast to his senses; on the other, unwilling to attach importance to what appeared to him in so different a light, he wished at once to put an end to the whole affair. He abruptly left Jesus and went out to the Jewish deputation at the gate. H. M.—To them he pronounced his first emphatic and unhesitating acquittal: “I find in him no fault at all.” F. Mk. 3 5. He answered nothing. The silence of Jesus was the most dignified and speaking reply to such charges as they had to bring. B.—One observes an almost exact parallel as to his silences and his speakings in our Lord’s conduct before the Jewish and the Gentile courts of justice. So far as we can understand the principle determining the time to speak and the time to be silent, it was this: that when the matter directly concerned his divine Sonship and Kingship, he will help his judges in every way he can; nay, he will himself supply the evidence they want. Upon that count he will coöperate with his enemies in bringing about his condemnation; but will leave the attempts to fasten on him any other charge to break down of themselves, that it might be solely as the Son of God, the King of Israel, that he should be convicted, condemned, and crucified. H. WITH what meek majesty did Jesus confront the representative of the greatest empire of the world, declaring himself a king in that higher realm of spiritual powers where truth rules over all! Even the temporizing truckling governor was awed by this strange assertion of a kingdom which his power could not touch, and to which every soul must bow. Yet the Roman empire long ago crumbled away, while Christ's kingdom lives and grows. J. P. T. The Kingship of Christ rests on a foundation which forms part of the very throne of God. His dominion is established in human hearts. It is founded in willing submission. It is maintained by spiritual authority. It is established in righteousness. It will ultimately unite heaven and earth. It begins in individual conversion. Its grandest earthly manifestation will be seen in the general extension of truth; the richest and noblest manifestation of all will be seen in heaven. Christ's death founds it; Christ's Spirit forms it; Christ's will, ever in harmony with the will of the Father, rules it; Christ's glory (which is also the glory of the Father, and comprehends the full blessedness of the redeemed) is its end. J. A. ## Section 154.—Before Herod, and Pilate again. Barabbas preferred. L. 6, 7 WHEN Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. 8. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen 9 some miracle done by him. Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused 11 him. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed 12 him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together; for before they were at enmity between themselves. 13 And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, and the rulers, and the 14 people, said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this 15 man, touching those things whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod: for I sent you 16 to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him. M. 15 Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom- 16 soever they desired. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas, a robber, who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison with them that had made insurrection with him. And the multitude crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. (For of necessity he must release one unto 17 them at the feast.) Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: whom will ye therefore that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? will ye 18 that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. 19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream, because of him. 20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? And they cried out all at once, Away with this L. 20 man, and release unto us Barabbas. Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them, saying, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? him 21 whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they all cried out again, saying, Crucify him, 22 crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him; I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. 23 And they cried out the more exceedingly, they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. M. 24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the 25 blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His 26 blood be on us, and on our children. Then Pilate, willing to content the people, gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released Barabbas unto them, that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will. DECISIVE, great, and strong, Christ is yet all this, even the more sublimely, that he is invested in the lovely but humanly feeble garb of innocence. And that this is the true conception is clear, in the fact that no one ever thinks of him as weak, and no one fails to be somehow impressed with a sense of inno- cence by his life. When his enemies are called to show what evil or harm he hath done, they can specify nothing, save that he has offended their bigotry. Even Pilate, when he gives him up, confesses that he finds nothing in him to blame, and shuddering with apprehensions he cannot subdue, washes his hands to be clear of the innocent blood! Thus he dies, a being holy, harmless, undefiled. And when he hangs, a bruised flower, drooping on his cross, and the sun above is dark, and the earth beneath shudders with pain, what have we in this funeral grief of the worlds, but a fit honor paid to the sad majesty of his divine innocence? H. B. L. 7. Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, hoping thus to escape the dilemma of an unjust condemnation or of an unpopular release. B. 8,9. Herod hoped to see some miracle. Nothing but the craving of an empty curiosity, the thirst for some showy exhibition of knowledge or of power. Herod asks and asks again that some sign may be shown, some token of his alleged power exhibited. Jesus makes not a single move- ment to comply. Herod is the only one of all his judges before whom Jesus preserves an unbroken silence. H. 10,11. Though the chief priests and scribes stood about his throne, instigating him to a fresh and more heinous act of murder by their intense ac- cusations, he practically showed that he thought their accusations frivolous, by treating them as a jest. F.—Greatly galled, yet in no way softened, when he could make nothing of this mysterious man, he and his men of war found nothing else to do than to set Christ at naught, and mock him, and array him in a white robe, and send him back to Pilate. 12. For some fancied interference with his ju- risdiction, Herod had taken offence at Pilate. The recognition of his jurisdiction, then, by sending to him for trial such a notorious person as Jesus, would be the very kind of compliment most soothing to his kingly vanity. Herod appreciated the compli- ment; and Pilate got the quarrel between himself and Herod healed. 15. Jesus was sent back to him by Herod; sent back in such a way as to indicate that Herod made light of this poor Galilean's pretensions to be a king—thought it, in fact, more a matter for mock- ery and ridicule than for serious judicial entertain- ment. H.—Is done unto him. Rather, hath been done by him. P. S. 16. Will chastise and release him. Pi- late wanted to release the Lord to satisfy his con- science; he wanted to chastise him to satisfy his fear of man. He imagined that a king who had been disgraced by scourging would no longer be an object of envy to the chief priests. He has already gone thus far in deciding against the Lord. He will scourge him. R. B. It was a weak and unworthy concession, the first faltering of Pilate's footstep. He cannot but say that he has found nothing worthy of death in this man; he is himself thoroughly satisfied that there is nothing in him worthy of any punishment; but it will please his accusers, it will conciliate the people, it may open the way to their readier acquiescence in his after-dismissal, to inflict on him some punishment, a proposal springing rather from the wish to protect Jesus from the greater penalty by inflicting on him the less, yet one that weakened his position, that made those sharp-sighted Jews at once perceive that he could be moved, that he was not ready to stand firmly and fixedly upon the ground of Christ's innocence. H. M. 16. Barabbas was plainly a ringleader in one of those fierce and fanatic outbreaks against the Roman domination, which fast succeeded one another in the latter days of the Jewish commonwealth. This at once explains how it was possible for the chief priests, with their religious pretensions, to show the interest on his behalf which they did, and explains no less the enthusiasm with which the Jewish populace demanded his liberation. Whether, indeed, Barabbas had actually played the part of a false Christ, setting himself up as the true, we have no means of knowing. It is far from unlikely. Keeping in mind the significance of names in Scripture, we can hardly fail to recognize a fearful mockery in his name, Barabbas, or "son of the Father;" as though in the very name which he bore, not to speak of the work which he wrought, he should be the devil's counterfeit and caricature of the true Holy One of God. He had wrought, we may well believe, in that false Messias spirit, which was filling with wild and insane hopes the whole nation, and rapidly hurrying it to that final conflict with the Roman power, in which, as a nation, it should be forever broken in pieces. T. 18. For envy. Pilate knew very well that no such sedition as they charged could have existed without his knowledge, or would have disturbed these restless, seditious Jews if it had been never so serious. He knew they were ready enough to throw off the Roman yoke if only some leader powerful enough might appear, to be their head. Hence he saw that they were pushing this prosecution "for envy." H. C.—From all he had learned, Jesus was only a well-meaning enthusiast, and he could easily see how such a man might well be dangerous to the vested interests and mock-holiness of the Jewish magnates, but not at all so to Roman authority. G. 19. His own wife—Claudia Procula—ventured to send him a public message, even as he sat there on his tribunal, that in the morning hours she had had a troubled and painful dream about that just man; and, bolder than her husband, she bade him beware how he molested him. F.—That she should have learned so much of Jesus as to think and speak of him as "that just man"—that she should have been so much concerned when she heard that her husband had been asked to try him, as to take this uncommon step of sending a warning to him on the judgment-seat—may be regarded as a proof how wide-spread and deep the impression Christ had made. H. 20. Cried out. While Pilate was receiving this message from his wife, and waiting the answer to his question, "Whom will ye that I release?" the chief priests and elders were busy in the crowd, persuading them what answer to give. L. A. The people, persuaded by their priests, clamored for the liberation of the man who not only was what they falsely said of Christ, a leader of sedition, but also a robber and a murderer. To him every hand was pointed; for him every voice was raised. For the holy, the harmless, the undefiled—for him whom a thousand hosannas had greeted but five days before—no word of pity or of pleading found an utterance. "He was despised and rejected of men." F.—Thus they committed the great sin which Peter charges upon them not long after: "Ye denied Jesus in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you." J. C. R. The same moral state of the people now led them to reject Jesus and demand the release of Barabbas, which, forty years later, provoked the unrelenting vengeance of Titus. It was the brooding hope of sovereignty, at least of political independence, moulded up with religious enthusiasm, which rendered it impossible that the pure, humane, unworldly, and comprehensive doctrines of Jesus should be received, or his character appreciated. And the nation which could thus incur the guilt of his death was prepared to precipitate themselves to such a fate as at length it suffered. H. M. L. 20. What shall we do with Jesus, if we make him not our Mediator, our Saviour, our life, our refuge in all our evils, and the object of our adoration, love, and confidence; since God has made him our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? Q. 21,22. Crucify! It is the first time the word has been named in Pilate's hearing, the first time they tell him articulately what it is they desire to have done with Jesus. Crucify him—give up to that most ignominious of all deaths this meek and gentle man, who he is sure has done no wrong; whom he sees well enough that the chief priests seek to get rid of from some religious antipathy that they have taken against him: can the people mean it? Why, what evil hath he done? H. Crucifixion, entirely foreign to the Jewish code, had been introduced into Jerusalem by the proconsuls. Crosses had been planted at the same time as the Roman eagles on the soil of Judea, and were the tokens of a detested rule. But enmity against Jesus overmastered hatred of the foreigner in the hearts of the Pharisees. Thus they did not hesitate to demand for the Galilean a sentence of death, the very thought of which, on other occasions, would have roused all their indignation. De P. 23. The very mention of letting him go stirs the crowd to a tenfold frenzy, and now the voices of the chief priests themselves are heard swelling and intensifying the cry, “Crucify him! crucify him!” Before a storm like this who can stand? He has done—so Pilate thinks—the most he can. If he go further, he will raise another city tumult which it will cost many lives to quell, and the quelling of which by force may expose him to the very same charges of tyranny and cruelty which, upon more than one occasion of the kind before, had actually been transmitted to Rome against him, and drawn down upon him the rebuke and displeasure of the emperor. The yielding is but the sacrifice of a single life, which may be made without involving the governor in any danger. But the resisting—who can tell in what that might land? Still, however, he is not at ease. H. M. 24, 25. The dream of Pilate’s wife, and the symbolic purification of the governor himself, express the influence which the righteousness of the Saviour exercised upon their imagination and judgment. B. F. W.—First a ceremony was enacted between the governor and the Jews, vain on his part, but of awful significance on theirs! Pilate washed his hands before the people, protesting, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it;” and they accepted the tremendous responsibility: “His blood be on us and on our children.” The providence of God took them at their word, when their last efforts for freedom ended in their dispersion over all the world. No less signal was the retribution which befell the other actors in this greatest crime of the world’s history. S. Before the dread sacrifice was consummated, Judas died in the horrors of a loathsome suicide. Caiaphas was deposed the year following. Herod died in infamy and exile. Stripped of his procuratorship very shortly afterward, on the very charges he had tried by a wicked concession to avoid, Pilate, wearied out with misfortunes, died in suicide and banishment, leaving behind him an execrated name. The house of Annas was destroyed a generation later by an infuriated mob, and his son was dragged through the streets, and scourged and beaten to his place of murder. Some of those who shared in and witnessed the scenes of that day—and thousands of their children—also shared in and witnessed the long horrors of that siege of Jerusalem which stands unparalleled in history for its unutterable fearfulness. They had forced the Romans to crucify their Christ, and they and their children were themselves crucified in myriads by the Romans. They had given thirty pieces of silver for their Saviour’s blood, and they were themselves sold in thousands for yet smaller sums. He must be blind indeed who does not see that when the murder of Christ was consummated, the ax was laid at the root of the barren tree of Jewish nationality. Since that day Jerusalem and its environs, with their “ever-extending miles of gravestones and ever-lengthening pavement of tombs and sepulchres,” have become little more than one vast cemetery—an Acel-dama, a field of blood, a potter’s field to bury strangers in. F. They put Jesus to death, when the nation was assembled to celebrate the Passover; and when the nation too was assembled to celebrate the Passover, Titus shut them up within the walls of Jerusalem. The rejection of the true Messiah was their crime: and the following of false Messiahs to their destruction was their punishment. They preferred a robber and murderer to Jesus, whom they crucified between two thieves: and they themselves were afterward infested with bands of thieves and robbers. They put Jesus to death, lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation: and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus before the walls of Jerusalem: and before the walls of Jerusalem they themselves were crucified, in such numbers, that it is said room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies. Bp. Newton. PILATE’S CHARACTER.—The fair statement seems to be that Pilate was a thorough type of the later Roman man of the world. Stern but not relentless, shrewd and world-worn, prompt and practical, haughtily just, and yet self-seeking and cowardly, able to perceive what was right, but without moral strength to follow it out, he stands forth a sad instance of a man whom the fear of endangered self-interest drove to act against the deliberate conviction of his conscience, to commit an act of the utmost cruelty and injustice, even after his convictions had been deepened by warnings, and strengthened by presentiment. E.—Agrippa the elder speaks of the iniquity of his government in the strongest terms: “He feared lest they should examine and expose the misdeeds of his former procuratorship, the taking of bribes, the acts of violence, the extortions, the tortures, the menaces, the repeated murders without any form of trial, the harsh and incessant cruelty.” G. R. The secular history shows that the state of the public mind in Judea, as well as the character of Pilate, harmonize in the most remarkable manner with the narrative of the Evangelists. The general expectation of the Messiah, the impatience of the Roman sovereignty, the extraordinary excitement of the more fanatical part of the people, the rigid prudence of the chief priests, lest the slightest indication of revolt should compromise the safety of the city and the temple—these circumstances of the times sufficiently account for the reception of such a teacher as Jesus at Jerusalem. Appearing with doctrines so alarming to the authority of the priesthood, so full of disappointment to the fanatic populace, so repugnant to the national pride, and, above all, openly assuming the mysterious title, the Son of God—it excites less astonishment than sorrow that the passions of such a people should at once proceed to the most awful violence against a Teacher whose tenets were too pure and spiritual for their comprehension, and whose character was so remote from their preconceived notions of the expected Messiah. H. M. # Section 155.—Jesus scourged, mocked, and delivered up. M. 26 THEN Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And when he had scourged 27 Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, called Pretorium, and gathered unto him the whole band of sol- 28, 29 diers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, worshipped and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of 30 the Jews! And they spit upon him, and smote him with their hands, and took the reed and smote him on the head. J. 4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to 5 you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! 6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no 7 fault in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. 8, 9 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; and went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no 10 answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not 11 that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. 12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king, 13 speaketh against Cesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in a place that is called the Pavement, but in 14 the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth 15 hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him! Away with him! crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your 16 King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. "BEHOLD the man!" Pilate unwittingly spoke a word in which is contained the secret of our redemption, our deepest disgrace, and our highest glory. In the man Christ Jesus, the only Mediator, we see at once our sin and our righteousness, our curse and our blessing, our shame and our glory; both what we deserved and what he deserved. "Therefore (so Luther exhorts) do thou learn Christ, the crucified Christ, till, having lost all trust in thyself, thou canst extol him, and say: Thou, my Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, while I am thy sin. Thou hast taken upon thee what is mine, and thou hast given me what is thine. Thou hast taken to thyself that which thou wast not, and thou hast given to me that which I was not!" When, in the hour of temptation, the devil shall cast our sins in our teeth, and whisper to us: Behold the man thou art! then may we also answer him: Behold the man! while we point the accuser to our surety, who, in the crown of thorns and the purple robe, expiated our sins, and through his blood so abundantly shed, has obtained for us abundant forgiveness. Under suffering and the cross, if we hear such whispers as these: Behold the man thou art! by God and man forsaken—where is now thy God? and if we are ready to lose patience, and utterly despair, let us make answer to the tempter: Behold the man! and let us flee to our dear Lord, who, for our sakes, has suffered far greater and more heavy woes than we, and has sanctified our every burden. He opened not his mouth, no cry of impatience escaped his holy lips; and should we murmur and fret over the sufferings which are made so precious by his sympathy with us as his members? We should rather rejoice in any conformity to the likeness of his suffering; for then in glory too we shall be like him; "because as he is, so are we in this world." Behold the man! The sight will not weary us. It will continue to refresh us until we shall behold our King in his beauty, and recognize him by the marks of his passion, as the "Lamb that hath been slain." R. B. 26. Scourged him.** The word used for the scourging implies that it was done, not with rods, for Pilate had no lictors, but with what Horace calls the "horribile flagellum," of which the Russian knout is the only modern representative. F.—According to the Roman custom, his hands are bound fast to a low pillar, and his breast and back are bared. The soldiers then approach. They hold in their hands whips plaited with thongs, tipped with iron wire. Therewith they strike, heaping lash upon lash. Consentingly and patiently does the Lord submit his body to these painful lashes, that sacred body, intended and prepared for sacrifice. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The punishment lay upon him, that we might have peace, and with his stripes we are healed." R. B. Behold affronts and indignities which the world thinks it right never to pardon, which the Son of God endures with a divine meekness! Let us cast at the feet of Jesus Christ, thus unworthily treated by his creatures, that false honor, that quick sense of affronts, that mischievous refinement which is punctilious about a trifle, which exaggerates everything and pardons nothing, and, above all, that devilish determination in resenting injuries. Q. 27-30. After the scourging, fresh scorn and shame were heaped upon the suffering Jesus. He had said: "I am a King;" therefore the soldiers of the governor now began to mock his royalty, just as the servants of Caiaphas had before derided him as Prophet. And the governor allows it all. He even desires that Jesus should be thus pitifully treated, hoping that thereby he might perhaps even yet escape the guilt of his death. R. B. They went through the whole heartless ceremony of a mock coronation, a mock investiture, a mock homage. Around the brows of Jesus, in wanton mimicry of the emperor's laurel, they twisted a green wreath of thorny leaves; in his tied and trembling hands they placed a reed for sceptre; from his torn and bleeding shoulders they stripped the white robe with which Herod had mocked him—which must now have been all soaked with blood—and flung on him an old scarlet war-cloak. F. 29. They platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head. This they did to deride and torture him. To torture him, for with their harnessed fists they press the sharp thorns into his brow; to deride him, for they placed on his head the crown of thorns, in order to adorn his mock royalty. And, yet, what crown could have been imagined for our King Jesus which should have so exactly suited him as this crown of thorns? He who came to obtain for us the blessing, bears what the curse-laden earth brings forth, being made a curse for us. The thorns might with justice have been turned into instruments of our torture, for they are emblems of our earthly lusts and cares, growing and flourishing in our heart, and choking there so many noble grains of seed; but now they torture him—and to us the crown of glory is given, the crown of life and righteousness. R. B. 30. Then, when they have got him robed, and crowned, and sceptred thus, they bow the knee, and hail him as a king. But they tire even of that mock homage; the demon spirit that is in them inspires the merriment with a savage cruelty; and so they snatch the reed out of his hand, and smite with it the crown of thorns, and drive it down upon his pierced and bleeding brow, and spit upon him, and smite him with their hands. H. Not one member of the Lord's only, but his whole body, had to suffer the most cruel torture; his head was wounded by the crown of thorns, by smiting with the reed; his face suffered spitting and cuffs with the hand; his whole body was mangled with scourging, it was stripped, it was covered with a cloak of scorn; his hands held the reed; and afterward his tongue was forced to taste vinegar and gall. Because in all our members sin dwells and works, therefore has Christ willed for our sins to suffer in all his members. Chrys.—And so, amid the conflict of human passions and the advancing tide of crime, the Scripture was fulfilled which said, in Messiah's name, many hundred years before he came into the world, "I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." (Is. 50 : 6.) B. J. 4-6. All this is done in an inner court or guard-room, out of sight of the crowd that is still waiting without. Pilate sees it all; makes no attempt to mitigate the suffering or the mockery; is absorbed in wonder as he gazes upon Jesus—such a picture of silent, meek, unmurmuring, uncomplaining patience! standing there, and taking all that treatment as though no strange thing were happening, as if he had expected all, were prepared for all. There is no weakness in that patience; but a strength, a power, a dignity. The sight moves Pilate's heart: may it not move even the hearts of those people without? may it not satisfy their thirst for vengeance to see the suffering Jesus reduced to such a pitiable plight as this? He will try at least what the sight can do in the way of stirring such sympathy. He goes forth, with Jesus following, and says to the multitude, "Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him;" then, turning and pointing to Jesus, as he stood wearing still the purple robe and the crown of thorns, bearing on his face and person the marks of all the sufferings and indignities of the guard-house, Pilate says, "Behold the man!" "behold and pity, behold and be satisfied—behold, and suffer me, now that I have thus chastised him, to let him go!" H. I find no fault in him. It was meet that he who had the chief hand in slaying the Lamb of God, should three times publicly declare that he found no spot or blemish in him. Three times he vainly tried to evade condemning our Lord, or to make the Jews desist from their bloody design: once by asking the Jews to choose between Christ and Barabbas—once by sending him to Herod—and once by scourging him. J. C. R. 6. But his appeal only woke a fierce outbreak of the scream, "Crucify! crucify!" The mere sight of him, even in this his unspeakable shame and sorrow, seemed to add fresh fuel to their hate. In vain the heathen soldier appeals for humanity to the Jewish priest. The Roman who had shed blood like water, on the field of battle, in open massacre, in secret assassination, might well be supposed to have an icy and a stony heart; but yet icier and stonier was the heart of those scrupulous hypocrites and worldly priests. F.—If God ever showed his long-suffering great, it was here, when this outcry for the blood of his Son rose up into his ear, and yet he held his peace. 7-9. They had failed in bringing Christ to the cross as a rebel; they therefore now brought forward the accusation upon which he had previously been found guilty of death by the Sanhedrim. "He made himself the Son of God!" R. B.—The name "Son of God," the lofty sense evidently attached to it by his Jewish accusers, the dialogue he had already held with him, and the dream of his wife, all working together in the breast of the wretched Pilate, he went again into the palace, and saith to Jesus, Whence art thou?—beyond all doubt a question relating not to his mission but to his personal origin. B.—No answer. His silence is a judgment. By his silence he judges and by his silence he condemns a high-priest, a king, and a governor. A. T. 11. From above. Thus did Christ declare that no human will limited his life, but that his death took place in consequence of a higher necessity ordained by God, for a higher end. N.—He that delivered me.** The words appear to refer to Caiaphas as the official representative of those who formally gave over our Lord to the Roman governor, and to imply that his guilt was greater, because, when he had no power granted him from above against our Lord, he gave the Lord up to one who had, and whose power was plenary. E. Therefore—the Lord says—because thou imaginest that it is out of thine own power that thou canst judge me, because thou knowest not what is above, nor him who is from above, therefore is thy sin less heavy than the sin of Caiaphas and the chief priests; for these wilfully refuse to know who I am, that I am Christ, the Son of the true God, and their King. R. B.—Thou art indeed committing a great crime—but Judas, Annas, Caiaphas, these priests and Jews, are more to blame than thou. Thus, with infinite dignity, and yet with infinite tenderness, did Jesus judge his judge. In the very depths of his inmost soul Pilate felt the truth of the words—silently acknowledged the superiority of his bound and lacerated victim. F. There is something surely very impressive here; that, sunk as Jesus was beneath the weight of his own sufferings—sufferings so acute that they well might have engrossed his thoughts and feelings—he yet so calmly weighs in the judicial balance the comparative guilt of the actors in this sad scene, and excuses, as far he is able, the actings of Pilate. It had something of its proper effect upon the procurator. Instead of diminishing, it but increased the desire he already had to deliver him. H. The extreme reluctance of Pilate to sentence Christ, considering his merciless character, is signally remarkable; and, still more, his repeated protestations of the innocence of his prisoner, although he generally made no scruple of confounding the innocent with the guilty. But he was unquestionably influenced by the overruling providence of God, to make the righteousness of his Son appear in the clearest light, by the fullest, the most authentic, and the most public evidence. Hales. The words, and the whole bearing of Jesus, struck into the heart of the Roman. Presence of mind and self-respectful dignity, even in the most helpless victim of injustice, have an irresistible power over the oppressor. How much more such a unique grandeur as diffused itself round this mysterious man! Pilate was more than ever resolved to release him. Returning once again to the tribunal, Jesus at his side, he strove to bring the priests and the crowd to content themselves with what their victim had already suffered. G. 12. Thou art not Cesar's friend.** That Cesar was the dark and jealous Tiberius. Up to this period the Jewish nation, when they had complained of the tyranny of their rulers, had obtained a favorable hearing at Rome. Even against Herod the Great their charges had been received. On their complaint Archelaus had been removed from his throne. Not yet had their turbulence and insubordination effaced the influence of that attachment to the Cesarean family, which had obtained for their nation distinguishing privileges. In what manner such a charge, of not being "Cesar's friend," might be misrepresented or aggravated, it was impossible to conjecture; but the very strangeness of the accusation was likely to work on the gloomy and suspicious mind of Tiberius. H. M. 13. If he could have dared to show his real instincts, he would have driven them from his tribunal. But Pilate was guilty, and guilt is cowardice, and cowardice is weakness. His own past cruelties, recoiling in kind on his own head, forced him now to crush the impulse of pity, and to add to his many cruelties another more heinous still. He knew that serious complaints hung over his head. Panic-stricken, the unjust judge, in obedience to his own terrors, consciously betrayed the innocent victim to the anguish of death. He who had so often prostituted justice, was now unable to achieve the one act of justice which he desired. He who had so often murdered pity, was now forbidden to taste the sweetness of a pity for which he longed. He who had so often abused authority, was now rendered impotent to exercise it, for once, on the side of right. F. 14. Preparation of the passover.** Not "the hour for preparing the Passover meal." It means "this was the day before the great Sabbath of the Passover week, a day well known among the Jews as 'the preparation,' or day of preparing for the Passover Sabbath, which was peculiarly a high day." Mark (15 : 42) expressly says this. J. C. R. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ Mk.12 AFTER that, he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. L. 13 And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden, that they should not know him. 17. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God, and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us, went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26,27. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 28. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him: and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 33. And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. Neither believed they them. APPROACH the holy Gospels from the side of trust and love. In them is found the blessed presence of him whom, if you are a Christian, your soul loves above all things; of him through whom you have daily access to the Father of your spirit; of him whose atoning blood, daily applied to your soul, is your only confidence before God, in the midst of daily growing proofs of your own utter unworthiness; of him whose victory over death is your only hope as years pass on, and the edges of the dark shadow begin to infold you. These gospels are the history of Him; how he, from his awful Godhead, was pleased to stoop to be born as one of us, and yet not as one of us; how, in the emptying out of his glory as God, there grew up mysteriously around him, in his humiliation, the elements of human knowledge; how, himself without sin, he entered into conflict with sinners. How loving in the midst of severity, how gentle amid sternness, how humble in the holding back of his power, was ever his bearing among those who hated him! How holy and harmless his going down into death, how glorious his victory over it! Take these blessed facts as the life of your soul, and go to the gospels to know more of Him! A. If, with a true and living faith, we seek to bring home to our hearts the great features of the evangelical history, we shall not seek in vain. The history of the gospels will be more and more to us a living history; one divine image ever waxing clearer and brighter—shedding its light on lonely hours, coming up before us in solitary walks, ever fresher, ever dearer—until at length all things will seem so close, so near, so true, that our faith in Jesus and him crucified will be such as no sophistry can weaken, no doubtfulness becloud. E. L. 13. Emmaus. A village seven and a half Roman miles from Jerusalem, a walk of two and a half hours. R.—15. Jesus drew near, and went with them. It is incarnate Deity, fresh from the conflicts and the victories of the garden, the cross, the sepulchre. It is literally God walking with men, men walking, though they knew it not, with God. H. 16. Their eyes were holden.** Mark says (verse 12, above) that our Lord appeared to them in another form, while Luke here says that their eyes were holden that they should not know him. The one gives the cause and the other the effect. J. A. A.—The original expression (in Mark) points unmistakably in its signification to form or shape. J. J. O.—Still, the averment of Luke that their eyes were holden, and the manner of our Lord's parting from them, seem more naturally to imply that the idea of a supernatural agency affecting the eyes or minds of the two disciples, was in the mind of the sacred writer. R. 18. Render the first clause in the sentence thus, "Dost thou lodge alone at Jerusalem?" "Dwellest thou in solitude there, so withdrawn from all which is passing, that no tidings have reached thee of the marvellous events which within the last few days have befallen?" T. 19. By questions needless for him to put, but very useful to them to answer, Jesus draws out from them the extent of their ignorance and incredulity, but, at the same time, the amount of their belief, the strength of their attachment to Christ, and the grief which the disappointment of their expectations regarding him had created. H. 21. We trusted that it had been he.** Even his chosen disciples gave to him their affections rather than their judgments. They devotedly loved his personal character, they believed in his greatness, but they did not comprehend it; the new principles struggled in their minds with the old faith, but they never succeeded, while he lived, in completely displacing it. Hence, when he died, the disciples at the first spoke as if their hopes were overthrown forever. The plain fact is, that Jesus at the last disappointed his disciples, disappointed his own relations, disappointed the masses of the people, disappointed every one except himself. He was never disappointed, from the first to the last moment of his course. Without a single complete example of success while he lived, amid constant discouragement and apparent discomfiture, he calmly believed in the omnipotence of spiritual truth and in the divinity of his own mission. Y. 25. Fools. The word so rendered only means "wanting in thought, understanding, and consideration," and does not imply any contempt. J. C. R.—Slow of heart to believe.** Of the Scripture, they had believed as much as fell in with their preconceived prejudices and opinions; so often the way with us all; but not "all that the prophets had spoken." Man's word, and woman's word, and angels' words, they had paid more or less heed to all these; but of God's word, that word which liveth and abideth forever, they had not inquired, nor sought to learn from it how it should fare with the Christ of God; else they would have found that the very things over which they were mourning had long ago been fore-announced, and declared needful to his entrance into his glory. T. The one great, misleading prejudice of the disciples had been their belief that the path of the promised Messiah was only to be one of triumph and glory. To rectify that error, it was only required that they should be made to see that the predicted triumph and glory were alone to be reached through the dark avenues of suffering and of death. H. 27. In all the scriptures. He began, as we can hardly doubt, with the first promise: the seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent's head. And then there were the types, claimed by the Lord in the days of his flesh, or by those who wrote concerning him, as fulfilled in him: the brazen serpent and the paschal lamb. So also the typical persons: Joseph, who from the lowest humiliation of the pit and the dungeon passed to the right hand of the throne; David, who suffered so much and so long from the persecutions of Saul—these, with many more. And when the august interpreter reached the prophets, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was the central prophecy which he expounded. Around this would be grouped the great prophetical Psalms of the Crucifixion—the Psalms are specially referred to, verse 44—as eminently the twenty-second, claimed by the Lord upon his cross, and the fortieth, claimed in like manner for him by his apostle (Heb. 10: 5); then further Daniel 9: 26; and the book of the prophet Jonah; while Zechariah would prove rich in prophetic glimpses of all which had just on Calvary been fulfilled (12: 10; 15: 7). These disciples had assumed that Jesus of Nazareth could not be the Christ, because he had suffered these things; the Lord shows them from all Scripture that he could not be the Christ, unless he had suffered these things. T. To accompany two such humble men, and spend so much of one of his Sabbaths in instructing them out of the Scriptures, the divine Redeemer himself thought not a task too lowly. By devoting so much of that first Christian Sabbath to it, has he not left behind him a pattern of what all true and faithful exposition of the sacred Scriptures ought to be, even the unfolding of the things touching a once crucified but now exalted Saviour; and has he not dignified, by himself engaging in it, the work of one man's trying, at any time, or in any way, to lead another to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus? H. 28. Made as though he would have gone further. He was simply passing on. Our Lord did not mean to deceive. He used the readiest and most natural means to draw out the feelings of the disciples, by walking on as if intending to go further. J. C. R. 30. He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave. Something in his manner of doing this was his own appointed means of their recognition of him. But we must not suppose any reference to, much less any celebration of, the Lord's Supper. Neither of these disciples was present at its institution, and certainly it had never been celebrated since. With this simple consideration will fall to the ground all that the Romanists have built on this incident—even to making it a defence of administration in one kind only. A. No instance given illustrates more strikingly the adaptation of the risen Saviour's self-disclosures to the requirements of his disciples. Their minds were first enlightened and their hearts warmed, till there was no longer a danger of affecting their senses only, but a security of intelligent conviction, resting on impressions left by the discourse they had heard. They were gently led on till fully prepared, and then the appearance was granted in a way inexpressibly touching and tender, that no less fired their love than established their faith. G. 31. Vanished out of their sight. A marvellous change had passed over him. He was the same, and yet different. He was known only when he revealed himself. He conformed to the laws of our present life, and yet he was not subject to them. B. F. W. The miracle of the resurrection was rather, in the first instance, for such as already believed in Christ, and now only needed that their faith should be sealed and confirmed. Hence, in part at least, the impression we get from the New Testament in regard to those forty days—an impression of unobtrusiveness on the part of Christ, a certain reserve and remoteness, almost semi-spiritual and shadowy, as evinced in sudden, unexpected appearances and disappearings, changes of form, and silent glidings in and out of secluded and fastened chambers, as if the feet, which were so soon to tread the yielding air ascending to the Father, were already lightening their pressure upon the solid earth. R. D. H. The Evangelists treat the resurrection as simply, unaffectedly, inartificially, as everything else which they touch. The miracle to them seems to form a natural part of the Lord's history. They show no consciousness that it needs greater or fuller authentication than the other events of his life. They wrote not to create belief, but to inform those already believing. A knowledge of the chief events in the Lord's ministry, including the resurrection, and a general conviction of their reality and significance, is everywhere assumed in the apostolic writings. In each of the epistles the literal fact of the resurrection is the implied or acknowledged groundwork of the apostle's teaching. The very designation of God is "He who raised up the Lord from the dead." In this miracle lay the sum of the new revelation, the sign of Christ's Sonship. To believe this fact and profess it was the pledge of salvation. B. F. W. 32. Did not our heart burn? From this episode I learn that Christ Jesus is willing to be the companion of my life-journey until I reach the heavonly home. Blessed the man whose heart burns within him from the constant presence and inspiration of the Saviour. Having Christ with him, the believer's life-journey will be a safe one. He need never miss the right road. He will never be led astray. Christ knows the whole pathway thoroughly from the "City of Destruction" to the City of the Great King. And wherever Christ directs us to walk, there we ought to go. It matters not that we cannot see the end from the beginning. Christ sees; that is enough. He that walketh with Jesus "walketh surely." T. L. C. # Section 163.—Meets the Eleven in the Evening, and again a Week later. L. 36 AND as they thus spake, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus himself as they sat at meat, and stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands, and his feet, and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb; and he took it, and did eat before them. J. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. WHAT a calm and solemn glory rests upon the history of the resurrection of our Lord! He is no more what he was, and yet he is the same. He is not yet seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father; but he does not appear to be of the earth, for he comes only "many times" to the disciples; and where is he when not with them? The twilight envelops our Lord, but it is a morning twilight. The night lies behind him; behind him lies the conflict. After he had conquered the night with its terrors, there dawned the morning of a glorious day, which no night shall follow. Peace be with you! This sounds not merely through our hearts and homes, but through the silent dwellings of the grave. The resurrection morning is the victory of immortality over corruption; and therefore all who bear the name of Christ rejoice at the grave of the risen One, in the anticipation of eternity. The resurrection festival of the Lord is a festival of peace. A. T. HE had appeared to Mary Magdalene in the morning. Between morning and evening he had appeared to the company of women returning from the sepulchre, to Simon Peter, and to the two disciples walking to Emmaus. This therefore was his fifth appearance. The cause of the disciples assembling, we may reasonably suppose, was the tidings received from the four distinct sets of witnesses, that Jesus had risen from the dead, and was alive. J. C. R. 36. When the doors were shut. If, with Calvin and others, we regard his entrance as a miracle, nothing more is required than in the similar instance of Peter's deliverance out of prison, where "the iron gate opened of his own accord." There is not in the language the slightest foundation for the idea that Jesus entered through the closed doors or solid walls; or that his approach was like that ascribed to angels, and not like that of an ordinary human being. R.—That Christ came not through the doors (continuing shut), but that he caused them by his supernatural power to open before him, is a sense of the words that is fair, and unforced, and agreeable to the common way of speaking. R. S. 39-43. After reproving the disciples for not having already believed, he comes to the help of their infirmity, and manifests himself to them as their risen Lord with still greater certitude than to the Magdalene and to the disciples at Emmaus. C. B. By this language and by this exhibition, and by eating before them—another act inconsistent with the idea of a spirit—it was our Lord's deliberate purpose to persuade his disciples that he himself was before them in the same identical body which had been crucified and laid in the sepulchre. And these two conclusions follow irresistibly from all the facts recorded by the chosen witnesses of our Lord's resurrection: First, that the disciples believed the body of their Lord after his resurrection to be the same identical body of flesh and bones, which they had seen crucified and laid in the sepulchre; and, secondly, that our Lord himself took special pains to impress this very belief upon their minds. R. He so carefully qualifies them to be witnesses of his resurrection, that afterward they should appeal to this fact, as we find them doing, that they had "eaten and drunk with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10: 41). R. B. He showed himself to none but disciples. The world could not have understood him. It might have thought that it beheld the "earthly;" it could not have comprehended the "heavenly." It might have imagined that it saw one who was again to die; it could not have risen to the idea of a conqueror of the grave forever. It might have gazed upon him with the eye of sense; it had no eye of faith to contemplate him as he was, and as he would alone be known. Therefore it was that he showed himself to none but his disciples, and even to them only at such intervals as were necessary to fan the spark of divine life within their souls, and to prepare them for that perfect spiritual vision when they should rejoice to "know him after the flesh" no more. W. M. This sacred seal of his mission was not for a show for skeptics. For a moment he would have been to them a wonder and a terror; but soon they would have said again, "He hath a devil." His kingdom was the kingdom of truth; and truth must rest upon moral conviction. The resurrection had answered its end in convincing and confirming the disciples; the fact was made sure by sufficient witnesses; but it was not the fact, but the spiritual truth that this fact taught and certified, which was to be preached. J. P. T.—Christ had accomplished the facts of the redemption. But these facts enshrined doctrines. By the light that issued from his instructions during this brief interval, the apostles were led into the divine meaning of what before Christ himself could not fully explain. Binney. J. 21. The peace which he had given to them in the word of promise he now extends to them in the reality of fulfilment; as if he had said: That peace be now with you which, through my dying and rising again, I have obtained for you! All the blessings contained in Christ's kingdom, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, redemption from the power of death and the devil, the gift of eternal life—all this the Lord sums up in the word peace. In giving peace he gave all that sinners can ever need. He has made peace, the old writers say, above us, with the reconciled Father in heaven (Rom. 5: 10); he has made peace within us, with our assured heart (1 John 3: 21); he has made peace beneath us, in hell, that we should have rest from Satan. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Christ is the arch-missionary and the arch-apostle (Heb. 3 : 1), at once the author and the first bearer of the office; and the apostles are his successors in the ministerial office. Christ came in his Father's name, and the apostles come in Christ's name. R. B. Mk. 15-18, J. 22. Here follows our Lord's charge and commission to the eleven apostles, delivered to them here in private by themselves; and distinct from the public and more general commission recorded in M. 28 : 19, 20. As a symbol of this commission to them in particular, and of the power which they should shortly receive through the Spirit imparted from on high, "he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." There was in this emblem a recognition and reiteration of the gracious promise of the Spirit before made; which was to be abundantly fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. R. (See Section 165, note on M. 28 : 18.) Mk. 16. Believeth not. The words, "is not baptized," are not found in this second clause, as would have been the case had baptism been a saving rite, or essential to salvation. Whether baptized or unbaptized, a man who has not the saving faith of the gospel will be lost. J. J. O. 17,18. Their sunken faith in his promises received a new impulse when these promises were repeated by him, risen from the dead; his reappearance formed the point of contact for a new spiritual communion with him never to be dissolved, thenceforward to be developed ever more and more. According to their own unvarying asseverations, his resurrection was the foundation of their immovable faith in his person, and in himself as Messiah and Son of God, as well as of their steadfast hope, in his communion, of a blissful, everlasting life, triumphing over death. Without it, they never could have had that inspiring assurance of faith with which they everywhere testified of what they had received, and joyfully submitted to tortures and to death. N. Nothing stands more historically certain than that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared again to his followers, or than that their seeing him thus again was the beginning of a higher faith, and of all their Christian work in the world. It is equally certain that they thus saw him, not as a common man, or as a shade or ghost risen from the grave; but as the one only Son of God—already more than man at once in nature and power; and that all who thus beheld him recognized at once his unique divine dignity, and firmly believed in it thenceforth. The twelve and others had, indeed, learned to look on him, even in life, as the true Messianic King and the Son of God, but from the moment of his reappearing, they recognized more clearly and fully the divine side of his nature, and saw in him the conqueror of death. Yet the two pictures of him thus fixed in their minds were in their essence identical. That former familiar appearance of the earthly Christ, and this higher vision of him, with its depth of emotion and ecstatic joy, were so inter-related that, even in the first days or weeks after his death, they could never have seen in him the heavenly Messiah, if they had not first known him so well as the earthly. Ewald. J. 22. As it was from the lips of the risen Saviour that the breath proceeded out upon the little company at Jerusalem, so is it from the risen, exalted Saviour that the Spirit comes, whose life-giving influences spread over the whole Church of the First-born. This was but an earnest of better things to come—a few sprinkled drops of that fuller baptism wherewith they were afterward to be baptized; but yet enough to teach that it was by Spirit-taught, Spirit-moved men—by men in whose breasts the heaven-kindled fire of the true spiritual life had begun to burn—that the commission Jesus had been giving could alone be executed. H. The symbolical act, recalling the predictions of his last discourses in regard to the imparting of the Spirit, must have impressed them profoundly. The higher life received from Christ had before been covered and dormant; now a new consciousness of it arose within them. Still the full sense of the sign and of the words was far from being realized. Not as yet were they the mighty organs of that Spirit for the diffusion of the kingdom of God. The act, therefore, was in part prophetical. N. Of this Spirit, with which he was anointed without measure, Christ, as the risen and glorified One, gives by measure to his disciples, and thereby sanctifies them to the ministry of the gospel, which is a ministration of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3 : 8). R. B.—The Holy Ghost is given to the apostles, and therefore their word in these matters is a word of the Holy Ghost, full of power and truth. Löhe. 23. Whose soever sins ye remit.** In any literal and authoritative sense this power was never exercised by one of the apostles, and plainly was never understood by themselves as possessed by them or conveyed to them. The power to intrude upon the relation between men and God cannot have been given by Christ to his ministers in any but a ministerial or declarative sense—as the authorized interpreters of his word, while in the actings of his ministers, the real nature of the power committed to them is seen in the exercise of church discipline. B.—Wherever the gospel of the grace of God is preached to an individual man, and he is entreated and encouraged to take hold of peace, to accept of pardon, to trust in the mercy of Jesus, to believe in the forgiving love of God—then is that office of remitting sins in the name of Jesus undertaken and discharged. H. 24. Thomas called Didymus.** Thomas's mind was a reflecting one, striving after clear conviction in his understanding. When the Lord was speaking of his going to the Father, and of the way by which his disciples should follow him, then it was Thomas who could not endure this discourse which was unintelligible to them all, and who gave the almost impatient answer, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?" "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel"—this grief was gnawing at Thomas's heart likewise, now that he had seen the Lord treading his path of crucifixion; and deeper than the other disciples was he lying in unbelief. R. B. Was not with them. Christ made his first visit during the absence of the skeptical disciple, leaving him to contend with his own doubt and with his fellow-disciples, not by chance or accident, not because he was less worthy of the visit, but that the world might have from him the most overwhelming testimony to the identity of the Christ risen with the Christ dead. Devotion and faithfulness to Christ and duty at length triumphed over his skepticism, and made him the most convincing witness of a risen Redeemer. "Credo." Scoffers talk of the apostles as if they had been the most credulous people in the world. Now, of Thomas at least they cannot say this, for he was evidently one of those cautious people who must feel the ground on which they set their foot. And yet his doubt is a matter of deep interest to us. All things must work together for good to them that love God. And the effect of Thomas's doubting is to prevent us from doubting. Thomas doubted thus, that all who doubt like him might be convinced like him. You are astonished at his skepticism; he astonished then likewise at his faith, after the Lord had, in infinite condescension, satisfied even the presumptuous demands of his doubt. A. T. 27. Then saith he to Thomas.** How sudden, how unexpected the address! Thomas knew that for seven days none of the disciples had seen the Lord; none of them could have reported to Him the words that he had used. Yet now are these very words repeated. H. Thomas had said: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails"—Christ answers: "Behold my hands!" Thomas had said: "Except I put my finger into the print of the nails"—Christ answers: "Reach hither thy finger!" Thomas had said: "Except I thrust my hand into his side"—Christ answers: "Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side!" Thomas had said: "I will not believe"—Christ answers: "Be not faithless, but believing!" See how the Lord Jesus keeps in view even every word! R. B. This long-suffering was shown to Thomas, in order that in him Jesus Christ might manifest all kindness and gentleness, for a pattern to all weak and simple souls. Luther.—So does this all-tender Friend of souls still go out after all souls which are tormented with doubts respecting his goodness and truth, in his great patience overlooking even the sinful—"I will not believe." It is not without meaning that the Lord says, Be not faithless; be believing, and not merely, believe! To be believing, is with true Christians their proper condition of life; they live not upon single glances of faith, but faith in Jesus Christ is the abiding motive sentiment of their whole life. R. B. The apostles have recorded their own sin and shame that we should learn from them how gracious and long-suffering God is, and how he bears patiently with sinners; and we should see from these examples, that in what we are by nature there exists but small difference between us and the blessed apostles; seeing that they often went astray, and that they rested alone on Christ's mercy. And we, although we may be conscious of even greater weakness and sin in ourselves, may not therefore lose heart or despair, but from their example may comfort and encourage ourselves in the hope that Christ will patiently bear with us too. Luther. "We flee to thee, Lord Jesus"—so prays Bernhard—"because thou didst not despise the penitent thief, nor the weeping woman that was a sinner, nor the woman of Canaan who wrestled with thee, nor the publican at the receipt of custom, nor the disciple who doubted thy glory." 28. That Thomas did not do what Jesus invited him to do, and what he had made the condition of his believing, seems plain from verse 29 ("Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed"). He is overpowered, and the glory of Christ now breaks upon him in a flood. His exclamation surpasses all that had been yet uttered. B. Overpowered by the heart-searching and yet tender love which is seeking to win him, his heart breaks forth in the adoring confession, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One, he calls his Lord and his God. Now did the word of comfort shine bright and clear to him: "Believe in God, believe also in me;" now did the Spirit which shone forth from the wounds of the glorified Son of man remind him of all that Jesus had said concerning his oneness with the Father. He says to Christ, "My Lord and my God!" My—it is thus that the faith which saves speaks. That Christ is the Lord and that he is God, the devils also "believe;" but the saving my they cannot utter for fear and trembling. R. B. It is at the very time when our Lord is pleased to convince his doubting follower of the reality of his sacred body, in fact of his perfect humanity, that the apostle so preeminently recognizes his Lord's divinity. With evidence the most distinct that he whom he was permitted to touch was man, the convinced disciple, in terms the most explicit, declares him to be God. E. This is the highest confession of faith which has yet been made. It shows how the testimony of Jesus to himself had gradually deepened and exalted the apostles' conviction, from the time when they knew him only as the son of Joseph till now when he is acknowledged as their Lord and their God. A. It was not faith which assured Thomas that what stood before him was the Christ he had known; that was sight. But it was faith which from the visible enabled him to pierce up to the truth invisible: "My Lord and my God." And it was faith which enabled him through all life after to venture everything on that conviction, and live for one who had died for him. God has granted us the possibility of believing in a more trustful and more generous way than if we saw. To believe, not because we are learned and can prove, but because there is a something in us, even God's own Spirit, which makes us feel light as light, and truth as true—that is the blessed faith. F. W. R. The faculty of faith is as natural to man as the faculty of sight; and, where there is moral evidence to warrant our faith, we may feel as secure in believing as could Thomas in seeing. The spiritual apprehension of Christ through faith is a loftier condition of mind, a richer and more rewarding participation of his Spirit, than could ever be reached through the bodily senses. 29. Blessed they that have believed.** This far-reaching benediction embraced, upon one hand, the prophets and saints of the Old Testament, who, with no visible signs of Christ's appearing, and no definite conception of his life and death, nevertheless kept him ever in view as the object of longing desire; and, on the other, it embraced every one who now comes to Christ with a living faith. This faith makes Christ present, makes heaven near makes salvation sure. All the wondrous truths of the gospel, in the person, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, and all its blessed promises of honor and glory in the future, are made real to our faith. More precious than gold in its own pureness and brightness, more enduring than the fires by which it is tried and tempered, this faith answers to the inheritance to which it leads, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. J. P. T. How Doubt should be treated.—A mental difficulty, a doubt, is not a sin. To some, questioning, doubting is as natural as a strong will, a quick temper. It must be treated as a fact. We must confront all doubt with reality; we must confront every doubting soul with a believing one. Doubt is unrest, faith is repose; doubt is trouble, faith is peace. It is rest to touch some natures. There is a mighty calmness about a real believer. Christ spoke out of living realities; proof went with his words; and so far as a Christian can make the impression on a doubting heart that there is a reality in his faith, he has done something to bring such soul to peace. Chief of all, let us make it our greatest endeavor to bring the doubting soul into personal contact with Christ; have life touch life. If we can bring that life in its weakness and doubt into contact with his life of strength and truth, the work is done. We must be careful to let nothing come between the doubter and Christ. The mighty concession that Christ himself gives to a soul in doubt is full of meaning. He did not allow Mary to touch his crucified body, yet did not withhold it from doubting Thomas. Let us lead every doubting soul straight to Christ, to his life, to his death, and, if need be, to his crucified and risen body. Tucker. For this end Christ has entered the world, that he may make man the heir of God, and God the heritage of man. He stands before us more clearly now, that he may assure us of it. He has borne the penalty of sin, has passed through death in our nature, and has risen above it, bearing those marks of his suffering which prove his continued share in our humanity and his everlasting sympathy with us. And he shows us his hands and his feet! Ker. ## Section 164.—At the Sea of Tiberias. Lovest thou Me? L. 50 So then after the Lord had spoken these things unto them, he led them out as far as 51 to Bethany; and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, and while they beheld, he was parted from them, and taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight; and he was carried up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. A. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men 11 stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. L. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned with great joy unto Jerusalem, from the 53 mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath-day's journey: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Mk. 20 And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. J. 30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not 31 written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the 25 Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. THE Resurrection of the Lord, and the Ascension which divinely crowns it, are too often considered wholly by themselves in our study of the amazing life recorded in the Gospels. We do not always notice as we should how clear and strong a light shines backward from the transcendent close on all the course which had preceded, through which the now ascending One had day by day been patiently walking. As the rising of the sun irradiates the landscape, pouring the fresh matin splendor into each valley, wreathing the mountain-cliffs with smiles, turning the snowy crest to chrysolite, while renewing the grace of every flower, and charging the dew-drops with diamond lustres, so this supreme outburst of the divine fulness of energy and sovereignty resident in the Lord interprets all his preceding miracles, emphasizes all his recorded teachings, gives superlative import and glory to his humility, and makes us recognize the immensity of the sacrifice which to him was involved in the long endurance of our mortal limitations. The unsearchable and continuing love which had led him to the earth, and had kept him here on his life-giving errand, amid whatsoever contradictions of sinners, needs no demonstration but that which it finds in the instant ease with which when his errand has been accomplished he returns from the earth to the heavens he had left. But most of all on the Cross does this Resurrection, with the following Ascension, pour celestial interpretation. The death of the Lord is here demonstrated voluntary, in the most complete and absolute sense. Certainly no man who accepts the self-moved return of the Lord out of death into a life more regal than before, can doubt that he could previously have forbidden that death if he had chosen. He might have ascended on the Palm-Sunday, as well as after Gethsemane and the tomb. He might have ascended on that same night on which he was betrayed; and the officers who sought him would have found it as easy to clutch the stars in their right hands as to detain for an instant that kingly form which afterward rose in silent majesty over Bethany. All the legions of Rome could not have fettered the sovereign hand which Death himself could not bind and hold! and what array of earthly force could possibly have cast him into that tomb whose very gates could not confine him after they had been shut and sealed! But if his death was thus wholly voluntary, then it was either a suicide or a sacrifice: a suicide, unjustified to our minds by any sufficient resulting benefit: or a sacrifice, made necessary to man's salvation by the evilness and the doom of sin, and by the wise righteousness of God. This unconstrained acceptance of death must have been not only a part of his plan, but an indispensable factor in it; and the only explanation of that, which in the light that radiates afterward from shattered tomb and parted skies becomes so strange, startling, obscure, is that which lies in his own words: giving his life "a ransom for many;" his "blood shed for the remission of sins." A Heaven opened to men by his Cross, as for reasons inherent in God's economy it could not be by anything else—a Heaven whose infinite liberty and splendor are prophesied to us by his Ascension—this is the discovery which comes to us with inevitable clearness as we stand with the disciples beneath the cloud that at last receives him out of sight! R. S. S. Now that Jesus had risen from the dead, his assent to heaven in an open and visible manner was a simple necessity to the moral value of the resurrection, and to the final impression of his life, his teaching, and his death. If he had simply vanished from among his disciples, the impression of his resurrection might, in time, have vanished also. But Jesus joined their last view of him on earth with his return to heaven as a palpable reality. J. P. T. L. 50, 51. As far as to Bethany. The term Bethany is often used to describe the district of that village, which stretched toward Jerusalem, and touched the suburb called Bethphage, which extended eastward from Jerusalem six furlongs, or "a Sabbath-day's journey," on the Mount of Olives. W.—When on Olivet, I was impressed with the belief that Jesus on this occasion took the upper road, over the top of the mount. It was more private; and the moment the summit was passed, he and his disciples were in absolute solitude. Jerusalem is shut out by the hill, and Bethany is hidden until we reach a rocky spur overhanging the little nook in which it lies embosomed. I saw one spot, as far from Jerusalem as Bethany, very near the village, and yet concealed from view; and I thought that it, in all probability, was the very place on which the Saviour's feet last rested. J. L. P. It has been made impossible, in Providence, for the precise spot of his birth or his baptism, of his transfiguration, his death, his burial, or his ascension, to be beyond dispute identified; and no personal relic whatever remains of him. An idolatrous adoration of things earthly and temporal would have otherwise seemed inevitable in Christendom. R. S. S. A cloud received him. The intervention of a cloud may have been designed, to make our Lord's transit from earth to heaven more distinctly visible, and to recall the awful but familiar symbol of Jehovah's presence under the Old Testament. Out of their sight. More exactly, from their (very) eyes. They saw the whole proceeding till the object passed the natural and necessary boundary of vision. This distinguished the case from every other like it. J. A. A. Early in the morning, at an hour when no unconsecrated eye could see him—for only they, who believed in him, had beheld him since his resurrection—he walks with the eleven—the twelfth had gone to his own place, as the Scripture says—through the yet silent streets of the city—he goes out at the gate, and ascends with them the very mountain whose foot had been moistened with the tears, yea with the bloody sweat of the now glorified man. A. T. He looks upon them; he lifts his hands; he begins to bless them. What love unutterable in that parting look; what untold riches in that blessing! His hands are uplifted; his lips are engaged in blessing, when slowly he begins to rise; earth has lost her power to keep; the waiting, up-drawing heavens claim him as their own. He rises; but still, as he floats upward through the yielding air, his eyes are bent on these uplooking men; his arms are stretched over them in the attitude of benediction, his voice is heard dying away in blessings as he ascends, till the commissioned cloud closes the earthly and sensible communion between Jesus and his disciples. That cloudy chariot bore him away, till he was “received up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God.” H. The song of his birth once more wraps the earth in the folds of heaven—here the benediction, there the glory. With hands uplifted he blesses the disciples, leaves to men peace and good-will, and then goes up to God in the highest. From that hour the most momentous fact in history—the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth—the most potent means of moral reform, the most mighty influence of spiritual experience, began to work in human society, transforming that society, purifying and ennobling it, till at length Christianity has become its own witness; itself greater than all its miracles, the wonder of the ages, attesting Jesus as the Son of God, and his word as the power of an endless life. J. P. T. The ascension is a stopping and a starting point in the march of time. When the cloud intercepted Jesus as he went up, it bore witness to a great change and a great transition. It forever terminated the carnal, it finally established the spiritual as the law of God’s dealing. Even the presence of Christ upon earth was the presence of the carnal. The Word made flesh tabernacled among us in a body. When Christ left the earth, he finally and forever exchanged the carnal for the spiritual. From that day place was nothing, form was nothing; the only temple of God is the soul, the only ritual of God’s Church the offering of a free heart. V. Since our ascended Lord is in no sense dead, we are sure that all the great offices pertaining to his salvation are still in active exercise. He stands in heaven to-day the living head of his redeemed Church; our priestly advocate whose advocacy evermore avails in our behalf; the controller of all things in God’s providential government. He is what the apostle so grandly calls him, the King of the Ages. It is his providence which touches us. It is his love that guides us. It is his sympathy that helps us. It is his power that energizes us. It is his victory that we at last are utterly to share. Hoyt. A hearty belief in the literal and local ascent of our Lord’s humanity into the heavens is in itself a belief in the whole mystery of the Godhead and Manhood. If in his death our Lord has assured us of his humanity, and in his resurrection has demonstrated his divinity, most surely in his ascension has he displayed both. In that last scene we realize all—the human, the divine, and the most complete manifestation of their union. It is more as a man that we see him leading his disciples out of Jerusalem, and walking, for the last time, up the slopes of Olivet: it is more as God that, with the eye of faith, we behold him taking his seat on his Father’s throne; it is, however, as the God-man in its truest aspects that we gaze on him ascending, flesh of our flesh, and yet God blessed forever—man in the form that rises, God in the power that bears him to his Father’s throne. E. The end of Christ’s appearance on earth corresponds to its beginning. No link in its chain of supernatural facts can be lost without taking away its significance as a whole. Christianity rests upon these facts; stands or falls with them. By faith in them has the divine life been generated from the beginning; by faith in them has that life in all ages regenerated mankind, raised them above the limits of earthly life, and formed the stage of transition from an existence chained to nature, to a free, celestial life, far raised above it. Were this faith gone, there might, indeed, remain many of the effects of what Christianity had been; but as for Christianity in the true sense, as for a Christian Church, there could be none. N. Christ rose as a conqueror to commence a new dominion. “He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Nor will the end come till he has conquered back the empire of the universe to the Godhead. That reign is begun. That conquest is now proceeding. The Mediator is on the throne. He has received all power in heaven and on earth. His people are as safe as the subjects can be of One whose dominion ruleth over all. Nor will this mighty One put up his sword or stay his career of victory till all the universe is loyal, or all that is disloyal is disarmed; till moral evil has disappeared from the sight of a holy creation, banished to its own place. A Saviour’s resurrection is too seldom the subject of our thoughts. Even those who are “often at Gethsemane” too seldom go out “as far as unto Bethany,” and gaze up into heaven along the track of an ascending Redeemer. Even those who sometimes look forth to Christ on the cross too seldom look up to Christ on the throne. But if Jesus was delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification; and if we would lead an elastic, hopeful, and improving life, we must remember our Saviour as risen and reigning, and destined to come again. To one great sorrow, especially, is Christ’s resurrection the surest antidote. Whether in the actual endurance or in the awful anticipation, death is very dreadful, and it used to have a sting which not only slew the victim, but extinguished the survivor's hope. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ! Thanks that there is one tomb which has already lost its tenant, and thanks for the news of how that happened! Thanks that the old penalty is now exhausted in the sinner's substitute, and that whatever great stone be placed on our sepulchre, there need be no gravestone of guilt on the immortal soul! Thanks, O Father, for thy gift unspeakable; thanks, O Saviour, for thy love unfathomable! Thanks for tasting death for every man! Thanks for thy glorious ascension and beneficent reign! Thanks for thy gracious promise to destroy the last enemy; and thanks, O Holy Spirit, the Comforter, for those to whom thou hast given such union to Jesus that they feel as if they could never die—nay, that to depart and be with Christ is far better! "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Hamilton. Sat on the right hand of God. The whole gospel, and all the grandeur of the Christian religion, is reducible to this, namely: "That we have such a High-Priest, who is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;" that he "is there set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, being the Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Q. And now the great work of Christ's incarnation is complete. In ancient times he was spoken of as "the Angel of God," "the Angel of his presence," "the Messenger of the covenant," "the Lord." In some of the prophets (especially Ezekiel and Daniel) "His likeness is as the appearance of a man." Henceforth these titles cease: likeness has become reality. It is the APPEARANCE of a man no more, for his manhood has been verified and adored. The glory has taken a permanent form, and as a glorified man he is ever after set forth in the book of God. As such he stands in the midst of the golden candlesticks; as such he himself tells us he will hereafter be seen, "sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven;" and as such, when the judgment is past, his name will be made excellent in all worlds. J. A. Between us and His visible presence—between us and that glorified Redeemer who now sitteth at the right hand of God—that cloud still rolls. But the eye of faith can pierce it; the incense of true prayer can rise above it; through it the dew of blessing can descend. And if he is gone away, yet he has given us in his Holy Spirit a nearer sense of his presence, a closer infolding in the arms of his tenderness, than we could have enjoyed even if we had lived with him of old in the home of Nazareth, or sailed with him in the little boat over the crystal waters of Gennesaret. We may be as near to him at all times—and more than all when we kneel down to pray—as the beloved disciple was when he laid his head upon his breast. To all who will listen he still speaks. He promised to be with us always, even to the end of the world, and we have not found his promise fail. It was but for thirty-three short years of a short lifetime that he lived on earth; it was but for three broken and troubled years that he preached the gospel of the kingdom; but forever, even until all the æons have been closed, and the earth itself, with the heavens that now are, have passed away, shall every one of his true and faithful children find peace and hope and forgiveness in his name, and that name shall be called Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, "GOD WITH US." F. Acts 10. Two men stood by. It has been supposed that these were Moses and Elijah who had been present at the transfiguration and there talked with Jesus of his exodus about to be accomplished at Jerusalem. There is something sublime in the idea that the great prophetic legislator, and the reformer, who had come from heaven to be present at the momentary anticipation of the Mediator's glory, now appear again as witnesses of his departure to take final and perpetual possession of it. J. A. A. L. 52. Returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Yea, with joy! They had seen the hands stretched out to bless them. Wherever they stood and wherever they went, the blessing hands were before their eyes. And wherever we behold sorrowing men, show them these blessing hands! A. T. Jesus moved upward as if lifted from the earth by some celestial attraction, with his face looking downward upon his beloved companions, and with his hands stretched out in an attitude of benediction. Hence the eleven grieved not for their Lord's disappearance. They bowed their heads in worship toward the ascended Christ, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, as if they had gained, not lost a friend, and as if the ascension were not a sunset, but a sunrise—as indeed it was, not for them alone but for the whole world. A. B. B. The disciples returned, we are told, with great joy; the sorrow of the departure swallowed up in the hope of the speedy return. So vivid, indeed, was the expectation cherished by the first Christians of the second advent of the Lord, that it needed to be chastened and restrained. They required to have their hearts directed into a patient waiting for that coming. We require to have that faith quickened and stimulated, which they needed to have chastened and restrained. H. J. 31. These are written, that ye might believe. The genesis and growth of John's faith, and of that of his companions, were indissolubly connected with the teachings and miracles which he records. How often, after one of these records—for example, after the account of the miracle at Cana—it is added that his disciples believed! The Evangelist shows what it was, and why it was, that he and his companions believed, although Jesus was rejected by so many. The roots of that inward experience which was his life and joy, were in these transactions that he is induced to relate in order that others may share with him the spiritual blessing. There is thus an autobiographic element which runs through his narration. G. P. F. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This great doctrine of the threefold God, with its practical relation to ourselves, forms the substance of the writings of John; they all seem framed in it as in a mould; they perpetually suppose it not alone directly, but silently, in their inmost structure, and in a way which could not be interpolated unless his whole writings be an interpolation; and thus manifest the profound truth that these things were written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; the Son of God, and thence himself divine; the Christ, and thence the anointed of a divine Spirit. W. A. B. 25. Many other things which Jesus did.** This verse seems to assert and vindicate the fragmentary character of the gospel, considered merely as an historical narrative; for that the doings of the Lord were so many, his life so rich in matter of record, that, in a popular hyperbole, we can hardly imagine the world containing them all, if singly written down; thus setting forth in the strongest terms the superfluity and cumbrousness of anything like a perfect detail. A.—In the limitation of these matchless histories, in point of number, there is as much of that divine wisdom which has presided over and pervades the living oracles, as in their variety and fulness. B. The Fulness and Completeness of Christ's Teaching.—The teaching of the Lord includes the substance of all Christian doctrine. Not only in set discourses, but in transient conversations and sudden replies, in words drawn forth by the appeals of the wretched, by the temptations of enemies or by the errors of disciples, in strong denunciations of the wicked or in tender consolations of the weak, the mind of Christ has been expressed on all points, and the store of divine sentences is full. It would be easy to show that every doctrine expanded in the epistles roots itself in some pregnant saying in the gospels; and that the intimation of every truth, revealed to the apostles by the Spirit, came first from the lips of the Son of man. The more we study the records of that short ministry in the flesh, the more we are impressed with the fact that all the past and all the future are gathered up in it. T. D. B. We cannot more fitly conclude this narrative of our Saviour's life on earth—in which we have aimed to bring into one view the records of the Four Evangelists—than by calling attention to the two points insisted on by John: first, that we have only a small part of our Lord's sayings and doings in the presence of his disciples; but, finally, that all we do possess has been written with this one sole object, "That we might believe that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, and that, believing, we might have LIFE THROUGH HIS NAME." S. In the transcendent, removed, and awful depth of his absolute infinitude, which no understanding can pierce, the everlasting and almighty God lives in an existence of which our only possible knowledge is gained by lights thrown back from revelation. Out of that ineffable and veiled Godhead—the groundwork, if we may say so, of all divine manifestation, or theophany—there emerge to us in revelation the three whom we call persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with their several individual offices, mutual relations, operations toward men, and perfect unity together. Holding fast the prime and positive fact of this unity, we have given us, as an equal matter of faith, the threeness. We know of no priority to that threeness; of no epoch when it was not; of no Deity independent of that threefold distinction. A question at that point takes us over into realms utterly inscrutable to thought. We conceive of God always, not as absolute Being, but as in relations, in process, in act. And in such relations, process, act, we behold him only as three: the Son eternally begotten of the Father, not subordinate in nature or essence, nor created, nor beginning, but consubstantial with the Father; the Holy Ghost ever proceeding from the Father and the Son, not in time, nor made out of nothing, but one in power and glory and eternity with them both. Christ comes forth out of the Godhead as the Son, the Saviour, and, being born of Mary, is Jesus, the Messiah. We could not know him in those very characters which he must sustain in order to be our Redeemer except as he really takes upon himself our nature, a voluntary human subjection—as it is precisely written, “the image of the invisible God” in humanity. This is the mystery of the incarnation. This was the precise mercy to be wrought for the solution of the problem of the world’s sin. He was to leave “the glory which he had with the Father before the world was,” and “be made in fashion as a man,” be “tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” be “an high priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” “God manifest in the flesh,” “God with us.” To this agree all the Scriptures. It was to be expected that, in repeated instances, this incarnate Son, engaged on his redeeming and intercessory work, would be shown as dependent on the Father, who now represents to us the unseen personality of the Godhead—as submissive, suffering, deferential, obedient even unto death, perfect in humiliation. Voluntarily, to this end, and for the time, he says, “My Father is greater than I.” He prays; how else could he be the Intercessor? He obeys, is sent, lessens himself to dependency for the sake of mediation. How else could the divine will and perfection be displayed under human conditions? Hence the whole of that instrumental inequality between Son and Father, which is wrought into Biblical language, remains in all our devotional habit, and which ought to remain there to give us a realization of the wondrous fact of the redemption, that we may apprehend our Saviour both as God and as man. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/