All other writings and Scripture references found in blue, are not in the original writing: they are my own - W. H. TINDLE.]

The moral law is just as binding to the Christian today as it ever was to the Jew. The penalty for Christians not obeying the commandments of their Lord in the Sermon on the Mount (and as set forth in the Church Epistles) will mean the loss of the reward; that is, the loss of the millennial Kingdom: "For I say unto you [disciples] , that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5: 20). Hence our Lord’s warnings and exhortations to His disciples throughout the Gospels, are also taught in the writings of His inspired Apostles. * [* Matt. 5: 20 ; 7: 21, 26, 27. ; 18; 1-10. ; Eph. 5: 5. ; Gal. 5: 21. Rev. chs. 1-3. Etc.]

The Kingdom of the Lord will be set up. God will undertake that, and He Himself will remove all other kings, and in their stead place His Son as King of kings and Lord of lords. Then the ‘faithful’ and obedient will hear Him say : "I appoint into you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom ; and ye shall sit on thrones judging . . . " Again:- "Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord." * [* Luke 22: 28-30 ; Matt. 25: 23. cf. Matt. 7: 21 ; 5: 20.]

The question regarding whether or not Jesus Christ will reign [in person] upon this earth in righteousness and peace for a thousand years, is not an issue worthy of discussion ; that will be a certainty at His return: "I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance. And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ : and he shall reign . . . " * [Psa. 2: 8 ; Rev. 11: 15.] The question every Christian should be asking is : ‘Will I be "accounted worthy to attain to that world?" ‘(‘age’ see Greek.) : * [*Luke 22: 28-30 ; Matt. 25: 19, 21 ; Luke 20: 35. cf. 1 Thess. 2: 12 ; 4: 1, 2 ; 2 Thess. 1: 4, 5 ; 2 Tim. 2: 4-7; Rev. 3: 21. Etc.] and this very important issue is not being addressed to-day in our churches. Multitudes of the Lord’s people are not made aware that crowns have to be won, and that they can be lost : "I come quickly : hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown"* [* Rev. 3: 11.]; nor are they aware that now is the time to qualify for the prize awarded by the Righteous Judge. * [* 2 Cor. 5: 10; Col. 3: 25.] At His return it will be too late for all those who have ‘flippantly ignored’ His warnings, to ‘receive the recompense of the inheritance.’

This [‘inheritance,’] is not a free gift which will be given to every believer ; it is a ‘recompense’ for good ‘WORK’ and ‘SERVICE’! - "Whatsoever ye do, work heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance : ye serve the Lord Christ. For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he hath done : and there is no respect of persons" * [ Col. 3: 24, 25.] "THEY SAY. WHAT SAY THEY? LET THEM SAY" : LET US "CONTEND LAWFULLY" : "He is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully" * [ * 2 Tim. 2: 5.]

The Gospel according to Matthew bears every mark of having been written by a Jew, and, primarily, for believing Jews, to do for them what Luke did for Theophilus, presumably a Gentile convert, namely ‘that they might know the certainty concerning the words which they had been taught by word of mouth.’ * [* Luke 1: 4, margin.]

This does not mean, however, that Matthew has no room for the relation of contacts the Lord made with Gentiles, or that he has not a wider horizon than the merely national one. The contrary is the case. In the genealogy of the Lord, supplied to substantiate His claim to ‘the throne of His father David,’ he names a Gentile woman, the Moabitess, Ruth. Like Mark he relates the story of the Syrophoenician Woman, a Gentile out of whose daughter the Lord cast a demon. With Luke he relates the story of the Healing of the Centurion’s Servant, but he alone adds the words of the Lord that ‘many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven [Lit., ‘Kingdom of the Heavens’.] ; but the sons of the Kingdom (that is, those Jews to whom it was offered first) shall be cast forth into the outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,’ * [*Matt. 1: 5 ; 8: 5-13 ; 15: 21-28.]

With Mark and Luke, Matthew gives the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, but he alone records that the Lord added, ‘Therefore I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’ And like Luke, Matthew specifies ‘all the nations’ as the sphere in which the disciples were to proclaim the redemptive work of Christ. Such as become obedient to the faith were to be baptized, and to them were to be taught ‘all things whatsoever’ He had commanded them, from which, assuredly, the things recorded in this Gospel cannot be excepted. What is written here, albeit intended primarily for Jews, is not limited to Jews ; it is for the instruction and edification of all that name the Name of the Lord. * [* Matt. 21: 33-43 ; 28: 19, 20.]

As well as the commission to carry the Good News to all nations, given by the Lord to His disciples after His resurrection, Matthew records His instructions to them for a preaching tour contemporary with His own ministry, and which was to be confined to their own land and their own countrymen. In these instructions there is some local colouring ; in detail they would be inappropriate to a world mission, though the underlying principles remain good for that also. Much of the material of Matt. 10: 1-23 is found also in Luke and Mark. How the instructions were carried out, and with what results, is recorded in Mark 6: 12, 13, and Luke 9: 6. Moreover, at the close of His own ministry the local detail was withdrawn and the mission to Palestine merged in a mission to ‘all creation under heaven.’ * [* Luke 22: 35-38 ; 24: 47 ; Col. 1: 23.]

Such a Kingdom was often the burden of the Prophets, whose word, being the Word of God, must one day be accomplished ; but the time was not yet. Only after Pentecost did the disciples realize that the Kingdom of which He spoke was not after the order of this world’s kingdoms, as He declared to Pilate, nor does it come with pomp and circumstance, as he told the Pharisees. * [* Dan. 2: 44 ; Matt. 4: 17 ; Mark 1: 14 ; John 18: 36 ; Luke 17: 20, 21.]

Towards the close of His ministry the Lord spoke ‘to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying, The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat : all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe : but do not ye after their works ; for they say, and do not.’ It is not conceivable that the Lord should come under His own condemnation! Rather His peculiar glory is this, a glory not shared by any other teacher the world has ever known, that He was Himself the embodiment of the things He taught. In a larger than the immediate sense of the word, the Evangelists record ‘all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.’ The order is significant. He lived the Sermon for thirty years before He preached it. * [* Matt. 23: 1-3 ; Acts 1: 1.]

On one occasion when the Jews asked Him, ‘Who art Thou?’ the Lord replied, ‘Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning.’ His last words to the world again identify Himself with His teaching, ‘He that rejecteth Me, and (or, even, as often elsewhere) receiveth not My sayings, . . . the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.’ * [*John 8: 25 ; 12 : 48.] The Sermon on the Mount is the Lord’s self-portraiture ; not of His physical appearance, indeed, but of His character, and hence is what we ought to be. The subjects of the Kingdom are to reflect the character of the King.

From another point of view, so complete is the dependence of the Son upon the Father that the words of the Sermon are the words, not of the Son, but of the Father. ‘The word that I spake . . . I spake not from Myself ; but the Father which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say (that is, the words in which the message was delivered). In His prayer He made the same distinction : ‘the words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them . . . I have given them Thy Word.’ And ‘all things whatsoever’ He thus spake to them from His Father, they, in turn, were to teach to all, in every nation, who responded to the Gospel. * [* John 12: 48, 49 ; 17: 8, 14.]

Long afterwards Peter wrote to persons who had become obedient to the faith in distant lands : ‘Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps,’ words which may be paragraphed, ‘setting a copy line for you to follow,’ since that is the literal meaning of hupogrammatos, which appears here only in the New Testament. Those who [will] enter His [Millennial] Kingdom are to keep to the tracts He made, or, as John expresses it, ‘to walk* even as He walked.’ And like the Thessalonians, are to become ‘imitators . . . of the Lord.’ * [* 1 Pet. 2: 21 ; 1 John 2: 6 ; 1 Thess 1: 6.] This pattern, this ‘copy line.’ is most clearly discernible in the Sermon on the Mount. * [* Here the emphasis is upon our walk ; not upon our standing in grace : the kingdom therefore is not present but future; it is not spiritual but literal ; it is not eternal but millennial.]

Paul is uncompromising in his instructions to Timothy : ‘If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to sound (lit., healthful) words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness ; he is puffed up (‘besotted with pride,’ Ellicott) knowing nothing, but doting (lit., sick, diseased) about questionings and disputes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife,’ and other evils. * [* 1 Tim. 6: 3, 4.] This is language of unexampled severity, affording a measure of the Apostle’s apprehension of the danger, of which there is abundant evidence in our own day, of substituting curious trivialities, profitless speculations, and easy platitudes, for ‘the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,’ and which is the true ‘stewardship of God.’ * [* Tit. 1: 1 ; 1 Tim. 1: 4, margin.]

Certain objections have been taken to the Sermon on the Mount as guidance for Christian life in this present age. Indeed, an extreme view, popular in some quarters, and said to be necessitated by certain interpretations of Scripture from the prophetic, or ‘dispensational’ point of view, would deny the applicability of the Gospel of Matthew in any part to this age and the present calling. There are, indeed, different keys with which to unlock the treasures of Scripture, and every serious student of the Book will distinguish its ‘times and seasons,’ but too often the dispensational key becomes a knife, effecting its mutilation rather than its interpretation. A dispensation is a means to an end ; God’s means may change, His end does not. That end is to make men like Himself, that is like His Son, Whose character is here presented. To turn the key into a knife can only contribute to defeat this end, and do from within, but more effectively, what Jehioakim attempted to do from without. * [* Jer. 36: 23.]

Another objection is that the Sermon is law, not grace, and the Christian is not under law. Now this latter is, of course, true, if by law is understood that which was ‘given through Moses,’ and which the Apostle had in view when he wrote to the Romans ‘ye are not under law,’ and to the Christians, ‘not being myself under law,’ words restored in the Revised Version * [* Rom. 6: 14 ; 1 Cor. 9: 20.] There is not the slightest evidence that the sayings of the Lord were in his mind on either occasion ; it is not so that he speaks of these sayings, but rather thus, ‘ye ought . . . to remember the words of the lord Jesus, how He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ * [* Acts 20: 35, and cp. 1 Tim. 6: 3, 4.] Law is rule applied to actions. The Sermon is made up of principles calling for exercise of mind and conscience if they are to be rightly used. It is not a code ; it is a description of character, a way of living. It is guidance, not legislation. It is love analyzed, love in action. As lived by the Lord it is the fulfilling of the requirements of the law indeed, but it is very much more ; it is the life that called from heaven the testimony of the Father, ‘This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.’ * [* Rom. 8: 4; Matt. 3: 17.] The high standard of the Law given through Moses falls immeasurably short of the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ.

The same school of interpreters describes the Sermon, somewhat cryptically, as ‘Kingdom truth,’ which is intended to have the effect of eliminating it from the realm in which ‘grace reigns.’ Reference to a Kingdom suggests rule and obedience thereto ; where the King’s writ runs there is the Kingdom. It is not suggested here that Kingdom and Church are interchangeable terms ; the two are kept entirely apart in Scripture, yet since there is no neutral territory, the Church is within, not without, the Kingdom. If loyalty and obedience to divine rule are to be looked for on earth at all, surely they should be found in the individual Christian and in the churches composed of such as call Christ Lord! The King of the surrendered will looks for like-minded subjects ; it is not for us, who have been delivered out of the authority of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love, to ‘begin to make excuse.’ * [* Matt. 26: 39 ; Luke 14: 18.]

In the ages before Christ the experience of forgiveness and acceptance with God was known to the men who trusted Him, as witness David’s language in the Thirty Second Psalm, for example. In ‘the passing over of the sins done aforetime.’ God was, in due season, vindicated by the Cross. In like manner Pentecost vindicated the Lord in giving to the disciples the name Father whereby to think of, and in which to address, God. * [* Rom. 3: 25 ; 8: 15.]

If, then, it is urged that there are some precepts here that, in this age, it would be impossible to follow, the answer is that this is an under-statement. Not some, but all, are impossible to men in the flesh, to unregenerate men, but no word the Lord spoke ‘shall be void of power’ to those whose confidence is in Him. What the Lord said to His disciples was spoken in anticipation of the coming of the Holy Spirit to be with them, and to abide in them [on condition of their obedience (Acts 5: 32.)] for ever. Not in our own wisdom, nor in our own strength, but in His, is the Christian life to be lived. This becomes more abundantly evident when we notice that there is nothing in the Sermon that is not found in another form from the Epistles ; very little indeed that is not to be found implicit or explicit in those written by the Apostle Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome. With him we may say, ‘I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.’ * [* Phil. 4: 13]

Moreover, when the Holy Spirit came upon them these disciples formed a nucleus of the Church, yet there is no suggestion in any New Testament writing that they were ever discharged from these obligations, or that another ideal was substituted for this. On the contrary, as we have already said, all that the Sermon contains reappears in the Apostolic writings. To find the parallels would make a happy and fruitful Bible study. A number of these are given in chapter ix. [- about 160.]

A not uncommon way of evading the difficulties presented by this teaching of the Lord is to postpone it to the future. This device is reminiscent of the captions to the chapters in the Prophets which were formerly printed in the Authorized Version : all the evils therein were denounced upon the Jew, all the blessings appropriated for the church. The new school prescribes the high moral standard for the Jew in the future, and reserves all the assurance of grace and blessing for the Christian now! Yet grace is given us for this very end : ‘instructing (Paideuô : ‘training’ seems to be the meaning here) us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age.’ * [* Tit. 2: 12, margin.]

It is conceivable that the Lord ever has asked, or that He ever will ask, more of others in any age than He asks of us in this? Do moral standards ever retrogress? If we ourselves are not to make provision for the flesh, does He so indulge us? To the Christian ‘to live is Christ,’ to be an imitator of Christ. * [* Phil. 3: 21 ; 1 Cor. 11: 1.] There can be no loftier standard in any age. If we allow the present opportunity for loyal obedience to pass, we may be certain it will never be available again.

It is sometimes contended that the Sermon on the Mount is to be in force during the Millennial Reign of Christ. But the characteristic of the Millennial Age is that therein righteousness will be maintained by adequate power, whereas to-day these are in opposite camps. In this age there are two kingdoms - ‘the power of darkness’ and ‘the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love.’ In that age there will be but one, for then ‘the Kingdoms of the world’ will have become ‘the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.’ * [* Col. 1: 13 ; Rev. 11: 15.]

Again, it has been suggested that this teaching of the Lord is intended for a time of fierce persecution, after the Rapture [See, Luke 21: 36 ; Rev. 3: 10] and before the manifestation of the Parousia - the Great Tribulation. That would mean that under sorer stress a higher standard is to be set for loyal souls - a standard too high for this easier age!

We conclude, therefore, that the Sermon on the Mount is intended for the guidance of regenerate persons in an unregenerate world. * [* Matt. 19: 28 ; Tit. 3: 5.] And being the word of the Lord it tries all ‘those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern.’ So was Joseph tried as he lay in prison ; so were the disciples tried, thinning their numbers and leaving only those earnest souls whose perplexity is seen in their reply to the challenge of the Lord, ‘Would ye also go away? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.’ * [* Heb. 5: 14 ; John 6: 67, 68.] Did they find the words concerning themselves spoken on the Mount less trying, less a discipline, than the words concerning Himself spoken in the Synagogue in Capernaum? At least they try us more ; we would fain turn aside their keen edge, evade their high demands, by labelling them a counsel of perfection, a fine but impracticable ideal. Those who would postpone it to a future age surely forget that moral truth outlasts dispensations because it transcends them. These sayings of Christ are not mere opinions, neither do they exaggerate God’s standards for human life. He who spoke them claimed to be the exemplar as well as the exponent of the Will of God.

‘This is the victory that hath overcome the world,’ that delivers us from measuring ourselves by its standards, and from seeking its satisfactions, ‘even our faith ;’ *[* 1 John 5: 4.] for faith is a personal relationship with God which brings us out of the confusion of the world into line with His undeviating purpose. Hence faith is the principle of justification, hence it is, no less, the principle of life ; ‘as therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him’ - by faith. * [* Col. 2: 6.] By faith we understand, by faith righteousness is wrought, and without faith it is impossible to please God. The measure of our obedience to the words spoken on the Mount is the measure of our faith in Him Who spake them. They are His challenge to our loyalty, His call to the heroic obedience that counts ‘all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus (our) Lord.’ And if we refuse the call, ‘what do ye more than others?’ Rather let us seek grace to be guided by its counsels and to know the resurrection power that will make it good in our lives. * [* Phil. 3: 8.] Everyone, therefore, which heareth these words of Mine and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man . . . and every one that heareth these words of Mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man . . . ‘ The issue could not be more plainly stated. ‘He that hath ears to hear let him hear.’

Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under a bushel, but on the stand ; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (ch. 5: vv. 3-16).

There is a marked difference in the language in which the Lord speaks of discipleship, and that which He uses to the multitudes on whom ‘He had compassion . . . because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.’ To them He speaks in winning words, yearning over them with understanding sympathy, as when He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ * [*Matt. 11: 28.] or, ‘How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not.’ *[* Luke 13: 34.] But if any man would be a disciple, [i.e., a follower.] on him is made the supreme demand ; he must forsake , and even hate, all that would hinder his following Christ. * [* Luke 14: 25, 26, 33.] It is easy to become a Christian ; to be a Christian, to live the Christian life, to follow Christ, is another matter. The guilty sinner is forgiven and accepted on the sole but sufficient ground of the death of Christ. The dead sinner is quickened into life by the sovereign act of the Holy Spirit. The terms of God’s amnesty are simple : let a man believe God’s testimony to the sufficiency of the Saviour, let him put all his confidence in that Saviour, and he is born again ; he has passed out of death into life ; he has become a Christian.

This, however, is only the beginning of the Christian life, variously described in Scripture as a seeking, a striving, a labour, a warfare, a race, an endurance. The claim Christ makes upon those who name His Name is absolute : ‘If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’ And since His own spiritual and moral stature is high, therefore the standard He sets is high. He is Himself the embodiment of His teaching, the expression of the perfection of His Father.* [* Luke 9: 23 ; John 8: 25 ; Matt. 5: 48.]

It must be kept clearly in mind, therefore, that the incentive to ‘keeping His commandments’ is not that by doing so we may earn [eternal] salvation, for that is a gift of God.’ Or win eternal life, for that also is a free gift of God . . . in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ * [* Eph. 2: 8 ; Rom. 6: 23.] The incentive is the desire, wrought in the Christian by the Holy Spirit, to walk even as He walked.’ To ‘walk and to please God.’ * [* 1 John 2: 6 ; 1 Thess. 4: 1.] This is the test of our love and the condition of His, even as He said, ‘he that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me : and he that loveth Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him . . . if ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love ; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.’ ‘For this is the love of God,’ says John, ‘that we keep His commandments.’ *[* John 14: 21 ; 15: 10 ; 1 John 5: 3.]

If not in the Sermon on the Mount, and kindred passages, were are these ‘commandments’ to be found? Assuredly not exclusively in the Discourse in the Upper Room. The Gospels must be taken as complementary one of the other. [Important in this connection are the words of Dr. H. C. G. Moule in his book Jesus and the Resurrection, p. 17, ‘I cannot help seeing . . . the many details in which St. John in his Gospel, takes for granted the main Evangelic narrative, and passingly and without anxiety, uses his readers’ knowledge of it.’ The italics are Dr. Moule’s.] It would be more than precarious to exclude from the sayings recorded in one Gospel all reference to sayings recorded in another, and impossible to justify attaching a different meaning to the identical phrase ‘all things’ in the two passages, Matt. 28: 20 and John 15: 15, ‘ye are My friends if ye do the things which I command you . . . all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you,’ and, ‘teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you.’ The words are the words of the Father, the voice is the voice of the Shepherd ; His sheep hear it and they follow Him. * [* John 10: 27.]

The terse sentences with which the Manifesto opens, it is clear, are not addressed to the Kingdoms of this world, nor to a kingdom of this world’s order. In none of these, at the best, would such an ideal secure more than lip homage ; indeed, as He Himself forecast in the immediate sequel to the Beatitudes (vv. 11, 12) and as He told them later, the men of this world had both seen and hated both Him and His Father. Let them be assured then that the world loves ‘its own’ but hates them that in their conduct of life make manifest that they belong to Him.* [* John 15: 19, 24.]

Poverty of spirit is the antithesis of pride, and pride rules in the kingdoms of this world. The Greek gloried in his intellectual achievements, the Roman in the force whereby he conquered the world ; the Jew held both in contempt and glorified in his religion, ‘rested upon the Law’ and was ‘confident that he himself was a guide of the blind, a light to them that are in darkness.’ Yet God had said to Israel, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.’ * [* Rom. 2: 17-19 ; Isa. 57: 15.] This, then, that the Lord Jesus taught was not a new doctrine ; poverty of spirit (contrition and humility) had ever been acceptable with God. But only when the Son of God ‘became flesh and dwelt among us’ was true humility, true poverty of spirit, seen in the world. ‘He emptied Himself (by) becoming obedient even unto death’ ; ‘though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.’ He not merely inculcated lowliness in others ; He Himself was ‘lowly in heart.’ * [* Phil. 2: 7, 8 ; 2 Cor. 8: 9 ; Matt. 11: 29.]

The poor in spirit are to be congratulated, for they walk with Christ in fellowship with God, and in the enjoyment of His peace. They are to be congratulated on their prospects also, for with Paul they ‘reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.’ Denied ‘the kingdom of this world’ ‘theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,’ and theirs its rewards. A servant and a child are its types ; such are they that constitute it now and that shall reign in it hereafter. Nevertheless, it is to a ‘little flock’ the [Millennial] Kingdom is given, for ‘narrow is the gate and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life,* [That is, in this context, life during the coming age on this earth ; not eternal life; the former is a reward; the latter a free gift.] [Rom. 8: 18 ; Matt. 19: 14 ; 20: 26-28 ; Luke 12: 32 ; Matt. 7: 14; (Matt. 7: 21; 18: 1-3).]

V. 4. Congratulations offered to mourners sound strange in a world where most people seem to have no higher ambition than for ‘a good time.’ The condition on which that ‘good time’ may be had is the refusal to look in the face things as they are. The mightiest single factor in human life is sin, the perverted will of man ; and death is its complement. For its inveterate sinfulness and its approaching destruction the Lord wept over Jerusalem. For the immediate victory for the enemy, death, He wept by the grave of Lazarus. But He, too, shall be comforted, for Jerusalem shall yet be called ‘The City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel . . . an eternal excellency,’ and ‘the last enemy.’ Death, shall be destroyed. * [* Isa. 60: 14, 15 ; 1 Cor. 15: 26.] In fellowship with Christ His people also mourn over sin and its effects, in themselves and in the world. And in that fellowship they look to share His consolation in the day in which ‘He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied,’ and when their ‘sorrow shall be turned into joy.’ * [* Isa. 53: 11 ; John 16: 20.]

V. 5. All these ‘congratulations’ are incongruous when judged by the standards of this world’s kingdoms. Where, for example, is ‘meekness’ valued? The word so rendered (praos or praus, as it is variously spelled) would probably be better represented by such words as ‘mild’ or ‘gentle,’ as it is used of an animal broken to harness, a condition in which it is amenable to the will of another. It seems hardly necessary to add that the Lord is, intrinsically, what they become who are led by His Spirit. Of the four places of its occurrence in the New Testament three refer to the Lord. In one passage it is His own word, ‘I am meek . . . in heart’ ; in another it is a quotation from a prophecy, ‘Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek and riding upon an ass’ ; in the third the Apostle bases an exhortation upon the characteristic, ‘I . . . intreat you by the meekness of Christ.’ The other occurrence is in Peter’s instruction to wives to adorn themselves in ‘the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit.’ * [* Matt. 11: 29 ; 21: 5 ; 2 Cor. 10: 1 ; 1 Pet. 3: 4.] In all these places ‘gentle’ seems more appropriate, but in any case there is no suggestion of ‘weakness’ such as the English word ordinarily carries. The ‘gentleness’ of which Christ was the perfect example, has its roots in the divine strength ; only those conscious of the availability of that strength can be gentle in heart, that is, in sincerity and truth.

The blessing pronounced upon the meek is drawn from the Greek translation of Psa. 37: 11, ‘the meek shall inherit the earth,’ with which may be compared verse 9, where the same promise is made to ‘those that wait upon the Lord,’ as it is in v. 22 to ‘such as be blessed of Him,’ and in v. 29 to ‘the righteous,’ and in v. 34 to those who ‘wait on the Lord and keep His way.’ Though the Psalm is primarily concerned with the moral condition of the individual and not with the outlook of the nation, yet in these verses it is possible that the ultimate restoration of the nation to the enjoyment of the inheritance promised of old to Abraham, and temporarily forfeited through iniquity and pride, here comes into view. And while the promised restoration will be fulfilled when God’s time is ripe, it is for us, meanwhile, to recognize the underlying principle, that none of God’s promises are obtainable by our efforts but are to be redeemed by Him out of His own resources. The Lord, to Whom the Throne belongs in virtue of His descent from David, and the Land in virtue of His descent from Abraham, refused to take them from Satan ; they must come to Him, as, indeed, they will come in the appointed time, from the Hand of His Father. Now the Meek One is rejected and ‘the meek’ are excluded from the place of authority, yet ‘He must reign,’ and ‘if we endure, we shall also reign with Him.’ * [* 1 Cor. 15: 25 ; 2 Tim. 2: 12.]

V. 6. Hunger and thirst are dominating appetites, imperious in their demands and not to be denied where there is vigorous life. As with the human frame so with the regenerate spirit ; the new life has its characteristic and dominating appetites demanding satisfaction. The Lord does not pronounce His blessing upon the righteous, for that would encourage a spirit of self-satisfaction in the superficial soul, or discourage the sincere to the verge of despair. There is no finality in the attainment of righteousness, since for the Christian its standard is not the Law of Moses but Christ Himself, the ‘bread’ and the ‘water’ of life.

The Apostle Paul, who, ‘as touching the righteousness which is of the Law’ was ‘found blameless.’ translates these words of the Lord concerning hungering and thirsting into terms of his own experience of the desires of the new life when he writes, ‘That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ . . . that I may know Him . . . if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.’ While the Christian looks ‘for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,’ he has also his measure of satisfaction on the way thither, living in the enjoyment of the emancipating assurance, ‘sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under law, but under grace.’ The same Spirit that works in us an ever-deepening dissatisfaction with ourselves and our attainments, reminds us of the promise of Christ, ‘he that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.’ * [* Phil. 3: 6-11 ; 2 Pet. 3: 13 ; Rom. 6: 14 ; John 6: 35, cp. 7: 37.]

V. 7. Mercy is the negation of malice, of censoriousness, of the austere and exacting spirit. It has its roots in sympathy and generosity. It is selfishness sublimated of its evil elements, for it constrains us to do to others what we would that others should do to us. Pity may be no more than emotion, mercy is active intervention ; pity is felt, mercy is shown. The shining example of mercy is the Good Samaritan, in whom we hear the Lord Himself saying to us, ‘Go, and do thou likewise.’ * [* Matt. 7: 12 ; Luke 10: 37.]

Beware of the spurious mercy, which is merely sentimental, but which has no practical effect upon conduct, and bears no fruit in our relations with others. Beware of the luxury of an emotion, of the tear to the eye, the lump to the throat, over some story of the imagined woes of imagined people, the while the real woes of real people fail to move us to benevolent action. Herein are the truly merciful blessed, that with them God shows Himself merciful, both now, and ‘in that day.’ * [* Psa. 18: 25-27 ; 2 Tim. 1: 18.]

V. 8. The lesson of purity was taught to the Jew in what we may call kindergarten fashion ; ‘carnal ordinances,’ in such things as ‘meats and drinks and divers washings,’ teaching the deeper lesson that in order to approach God we must ‘cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit’ and so ‘perfect holiness in the fear of God.’ * [* Heb. 9: 10 ; 2 Cor. 7: 1.] Purity of the heart is something far outweighing ceremonial and ecclesiastical correctness, or doctrinal soundness, however excellent these things may be in their own place. The Pharisees, ancient and modern, are punctilious in eternal things, cleansing ‘the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess . . . like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full . . . of all uncleanness.’ The feet of Judas had been washed, but in his heart remained the purpose to betray his Lord. * [*Matt. 23: 25-28 ; John 13: 10.] Far different is ‘the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.’ * [* Heb. 12: 14.]

The heart of the sinner is purified by the word of the Lord received in faith. * [* John 15: 3 ; Acts 15: 9.] In that word the Christian sees Christ, and receives the assurance that having seen Him he has seen the Father. And although in his present state he sees ‘in a mirror, darkly,’ yet he has the further assurance that in due time he shall see ‘face to face.’ * [* John 14: 9 ; 1 Cor. 13: 12.] Thus he is strengthened to endure ‘as seeing Him Who is invisible’ to mortal eyes, for faith is awareness, consciousness, of God. * [* Heb. 11: 27 ; 1 Pet. 2: 19, margin.]

V. 9. God is ‘the God of peace,’ that is, of wholeness, completeness, harmony. Into a world of peace whereof had been broken through self-will and disobedience, God sent His Son to make peace, that is, to provide a righteous basis for peace, ‘through the Blood of His Cross.’ He that has the Spirit of the Son in his heart will become an imitator of his Father in this respect also. * [* Col. 1: 20 ; Eph. 5: 1.] Mention of the price in which the Son made peace will suggest to the children that they, too, will have a price to pay if, in fellowship with Him, they would make and maintain peace among brethren. Satan is still the author of division and of confusion, as God is of peace and amity ; hence the stern, uncompromising language of Proverbs 6: 12-19, concerning him that makes or encourages strife, ‘A worthless person, a man of iniquity ; he walketh with a froward mouth . . . he soweth discord . . . which the Lord hateth . . . And he that soweth discord is an abomination unto Him.’ The Christian, therefore, is to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in his heart ; in every contention to allow that peace, at whatever cost to himself to have the last word. * [* Col. 3: 15.]

Vv. 10, 11. Such is the character of the King ; that which was realized in Him, and in which He found His own blessedness, becomes the ideal which those that enter His Kingdom will assuredly be ambitious to attain. [ i.e., ‘to gain by effort,’ as the word ‘attain’ is defined.] * [* 2 Cor. 5: 9.] What, then, will be their experience who live by the laws of the Kingdom, who follow the steps of its King in a world still antagonistic to Him? In former ages the world has never been worthy of such, as the writer of Hebrews testifies (11: 35-40) and they shall have their compensation when the King comes to His own. Those to whom He spoke, therefore, were not to expect that their loyalty would meet with a different reception in an unchanged world. They, too, would be reproached, persecuted, maligned, but let them see that, like Moses, it is for ‘the reproach of the Christ’ they suffer, as, long afterwards, Peter wrote, ‘if ye are reproached for the Name of Christ, blessed are ye . . . for let none of you suffer . . . as an evil-doer . . . but if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God in this name.’ * [* Heb. 11: 26 ; 1 Pet. 4: 14-16.] Let it rather be a cause of rejoicing since the rewards of the Kingdom await them ‘in heaven’ ; a heavenly people will find an abundant recompense for earth’s afflictions in ‘the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward.’ * [* Rom. 8: 18.]

‘The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch’ ; it is still true that only those who are learners in the school of Christ, only those who bear the yoke with Him, are entitled to that ‘honourable name’ or to the reward of discipleship hereafter.* [* Acts 11: 26 ; Matt. 11: 29 ; Jas. 2: 7.]

The fires of persecution burn out the dross of mere profession, its storms winnow out the chaff and leave the grain ; but where the new life is, persecution will not deter from the pursuit of that ‘sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.’ It is not enough to admire the faith and sufferings of those who have preceded us in the way [of obedience] ; we must ‘intimate their faith’ and like them, ‘suffer hardship with the Gospel according to the power of God.’ * [* Heb. 12: 14 ; 13: 7 ; 2 Tim. 1: 8.] The Lord never promised an easy passage to those who enter His Kingdom. The determining question is not, Is it easy? But, Is it worth while? In His parables He urged upon His hearers to count the cost before they undertook to follow Him (see Luke 14: 25-35 for examples). In His teaching, words such as these often fell from His lips : ‘If the world hated you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you . . . If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you . . . all these things will they do unto you for My Name’s sake.’ Nevertheless, the Christian should so live as to secure a ‘good testimony from them that are without’; *[* John 15: 18-21 ; 1 Tim. 3: 7.] he may earn the world’s respect, but while he remains faithful to the Lord, popularity he can neither seek nor earn.

Vv. 13-16. The relation to the Christians to the world is now set forth under the figures of salt, light, and a city, three things that are conspicuous, each in its own way. Salt and sunshine differ in method but both are health-givers. Salt permeates the mass and is felt though not seen, whereas light is felt because it is seen. The hill-crest city is a landmark by which the traveller may direct his steps. Their usefulness lies not in conformity to environment, but in contrast with it. Colourless Christians do not help their neighbours, but rather stumble them. The non-practising Christian is a contradiction - savourless salt, an unlit lamp, useless alike to God and man. To suppose that by conforming to the world we may the better influence it is to forget that salt is biting, distinctive, and this is the evidence of its virtue. Because of its saltness it is antiseptic, purifying, deterring corruption, keeping life wholesome in its neighbourhood. If the salt have lost its characteristic quality it is ‘henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.’ Such also is the man who professes the name of Christ yet is not ‘an ensample . . . in manner of life.’ * [* 1 Tim. 4: 12.]

There is another danger against which provision is made. The Christian is to speak of ‘the Gospel (which is) the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,’ that men may trace his changed life to its true source. He will not take to himself credit for his good works. The language of his heart as of his lips will be, ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.’ With becoming reverence he bears testimony to the quickening, delivering, sustaining, guiding, [restoring], and empowering of God. The ideal Christian witness is not in word only, nor is it in works only ; it is a happy combination of both. Nevertheless words are easier than works ; it is easier to talk than to live. Hence the Apostle’s emphasis upon the latter, an emphasis that deepens toward the end of his ministry, as may be seen in the large space he devotes to exhortations to Timothy and Titus to teach others, and themselves to exemplify, the place of ‘good works’ in the life of the Christian ; as , for example, this : ‘Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things I will that thou affirm confidently to the end, that they which have believed God may be careful to maintain good works.’ * [* Rom. 1: 16 ; Psa. 115: 1 ; Titus 3: 8.] The Greek word translated ‘good’ in Matt. 5: 16 and Tit. 3: 8, is kalos beautiful, admirable. It is used of the Good Shepherd in John 10: 11. It suggests manifested goodness, goodness that can be seen.

And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell. It was said also, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement : but I say unto you, that every one that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress : and whosoever shall marry when she is put away committeth adultery (ch. 5. Vv. 17-32).

The King now proceeds to define His relation to the Law. His hearers would naturally be eager to know this, and some were evidently apprehensive for the ancient sanctities, and feared lest this Teacher should abrogate the code given from Sinai and substitute for it new and revolutionary doctrines. He bids them dismiss such thoughts. ‘Think not.’ He says, ‘that I came to destroy (kataluo, to bring to nought, to dissolve utterly. Wycliffe translates ‘undo’) the Law or the Prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfil’ (pleroô - complete, accomplish.* [* Cp. Rom. 13: 8.]

Our Lord’s three ‘excepts’ concerning entrance to the [Millennial] Kingdom should be pondered.

1. [Spiritual] Life Essential. ‘Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.’ *[* John 3: 5.]

2. Faith [and humility - see context.] Essential. ‘Except ye [disciples] turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven.’ * [Matt. 18: 3.]

3. Right Conduct Essential. ‘Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’ * [* Matt. 5: 20.]

Vv. 21-26. The old obedience to the Sixth Commandment looked upon itself with complacence if it forbore to strike the fatal blow. The Lord carries obedience into a deeper region, that of intent and disposition. He shows that anger holds the potentiality of murder ; that it descends from hasty heat to studied contempt, and hence to frozen hatred, if it be given place in the heart. These three stages of its dreadful progress bring correspondingly increased liability to him who allows them. This increase is illustrated in our Lord’s graphic language referring to amenableness to the judgment, to the council, and to the hell (Greek, ‘Gehenna.’) of fire, by which His hearers understood the local court (which existed in every town), the Supreme Court (the Sanhedrim) which tried major causes, and the Gehenna of Fire - the capital punishing by stoning and burning in the Valley of Hinnom, the fate of the accused. If these be the figures, what shall the realities be which they illustrate? Anger retained, therefore, is a peril to the soul, for it moves towards hatred, and ‘Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,’ * [* 1 John 3: 15.] If I can go on hating my brother I am certainly amenable to the awful judgment of the hell of fire, for ‘no murderer hath eternal [Greek, aionios - can be translated ‘age-lasting’ or ‘life for the age’: as it demands in this context.] life abiding in him.’ Compare Matt. 11: 24 ; Luke 12: 47-48.

Therefore the obedience of the true sons of the Kingdom will be such as casts out anger quickly. ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.’ * [* Eph. 4: 26.] However righteous anger may be in its beginning, we are so prone to permit it to degenerate into scorn and detestation that no time must be lost in exorcising it. Nothing is to be permitted to delay the rectification of any known cause of anger. So important is this duty that not even the lofty occupation of worship may interpose to delay the action necessary to banish anger from the heart for a brother to whom cause may have been given for it. If, at the very moment when I bring my gift to the altar, the recollection flashes across the mind of an open cause of anger against me in a brother, worship itself must be interrupted in favour of the errand of reconciliation. ‘Leave there thy gift . . . first be reconciled to thy brother.’ In this striking way our Lord urges the tremendous importance of such a speedy observance to the command as recognizes the value of my brother’s soul.

In passing, it is well to notice how in the discourse our Lord recognizes the comparative values of spiritual duties. In cases of angry rupture of loving relations between brethren - first be reconciled to thy brother. *[* Matt. 5: 24.] In reference to life’s aim, first seek the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. * [* Matt. 6: 33.] In the matter of criticising others, first cast out the beam that is in thine own eye. *[* Matt. 7: 5.] Our natural tendency is to do the second thing first and then find that we have failed to do it effectually because we have avoided the needful but humbling first thing.

And if I continue to ignore my brother’s wound, and, proudly disdainful of his hurt, seek no reconciliation, may it not be that I, who act so unbrotherly, am not his brother after all? If I have truly known the repentance that seeks and receives from God the great forgiveness and reconciliation, I will be ready to seek in true humility and repentance to be reconciled to my brother also. And If I shew no desire to seek this reconciliation, is it not an alarming symptom that I have never really known the Father, but am moving toward that bar where he shall have judgment without mercy who hath shown no mercy? Therefore, the true -[wise, thoughtful, considerate, fearful of the consequences of inactivity]- disciple will seek reconciliation quickly, here and now, before he stands before His bar, of Whose judgment it is written, ‘He that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.’ *[* Col. 3: 5 margin ; compare Eph. 6: 8.]

‘If we discerned ourselves,’ says the Apostle in another connection, ‘we should not be judged.’ *[* 1 Cor. 11: 31.]

These the sons of the Kingdom must, if needs be, renounce with stern resolution. ‘A maimed life is better than a foul one.’ If, for instance, my love of art, my appreciation of pleasant things, my aesthetic tastes, lead me into associations and situations where my moral purity is constantly threatened, I am deliberately to deprive myself of their gratification in order to ‘enter into life,’*signifies, i.e., the present enjoyment of the new life, qualitatively considered, itself the evidence and earnest to the soul of ultimate entry into the realm of the life of the blessed . [ It also has a future significance relative to live in the coming age.]

The lesson the disciples should lay to heart from these solemn words of our Lord is the need to walk apart from the sexual licence of the present age. Never were the sexes so free to intermingle, never were the ancient safeguards of moral purity so scorned and ridiculed by writers and publicists. We are to take our standards, not from the sensational Press, the Stage, the Film Screen, the Modern Novel, the Eugenist, the Phychologist, nor from materialists in whom is neither fear of God nor regard of human proprieties on this vital question. The believer’s obligation is to be loyal to his Lord, and His word must set the standard for all the true sons of the Kingdom over which He rules. No sin works more deadly ill to my neighbour than the sin of impurity, and ‘love worketh no ill to his neighbour,’ * [* Rom. 10: 13.] therefore the subject of Christ’s rule will put far from him all imaginations, thoughts and speech which tend in that direction.

The standard raised in the Epistles is identical with that here set forth by our Lord. ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication ; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles which know not God ; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter : because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.’ * [* 1 Thess. 4: 3-7.]

Vv. 34-37. This base use of solemn terms of speech is alien to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness ; the subjects of the Kingdom will refrain from it entirely. Their simple word, without any oath, is to suffice, being altogether veracious and dependable. If they find it necessary to emphasize a statement, a repeated affirmation or denial is the utmost permissable. (Compare the Lord’s own oft-used phrase ‘verily verily.’) ‘Let your speech be Yea, Yea ; Nay, Nay ; and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one.’

Let us learn the needful lesson of the 3^rd. chapter of James (v. 2) that he who has his tongue under control is a mature man. ‘For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.’ And this, ‘above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath : but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; that ye fall not under judgment.’ * [* James 5: 12.]

‘Lie not to one another ; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings.’ * [* Col. 3: 9.] ‘Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbour ; for we are members one of another.’ *[* Eph. 4: 25.]

V. 38. The Law of Retaliation (Lex Talionis) lies at the foundation of all the world’s jurisprudence. Its fundamental principle that he who does wrong shall receive for the wrong he has done operates whenever a judge pronounces sentence on a convicted law-breaker. Without such a law, fallen man being morally what he is, the social structure of the world could not hold together. If wrong-doing and right-doing received the same reward neither life, liberty nor property would be safe for so much as an hour. The visiting of punishment proportioned to the wrong is also of the very nature of justice ; and the Old Testament revelation of it is graphically expressed in the saying here mentioned by the King : ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ (v. 38, from Lev. 24: 19, 20), an extension in application of the primeval law stated in the words, ‘Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.’ * [* Gen. 9: 6.]

V. 39. It is the task of the preacher to arrest and hold attention and to provoke enquiry ; therefore the imagery employed, that of turning the other cheek, of giving the cloke, of going the second mile, is vivid and arresting. But a bald literalness will inevitably misinterpret the lesson here. All the wrongs described are personal. Insult, injustice, and oppressive demands visited on the individual disciple are indicated by the three examples chosen by the Lord. Literally to offer the other cheek might even be done provocatively ; the spirit of non-resistance of personal wrongs is the real grace here inculcated.

The action of the Lord Jesus Himself when smitten on the cheek in the presence of Caiaphas * [* John 18: 22, 23.] is an indication that the literal is not the true interpretation here. His conduct was always morally perfect, always the ideal exemplification of His own teaching. He did not in such circumstances actually invite a second blow. Instead, He calmly took occasion, even while the flesh still tingled from the blow received, to instruct the insulter. Without thought of reprisal, but with desire that right and truth should prevail, He quietly said, ‘If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, why smitest thou Me?’ * [* John 18: 23.]

V. 40. What is the be the disciple’s attitude when a wrong actionable in the civil courts is sustained? Is personal wrong still to be borne without attempt to demand and secure redress? The answer is clearly given in Scripture so far as wrongs between those who are Christians are concerned. ‘Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? . . . Is it so that there cannot be found among you one wise man, who shall be able to decide between his brethren? . . . Why not rather take wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? * [* 1 Cor. 6: 1, 5, 7.]

The saying which follows, concerning the taking away of the coat, shows that the disciple is to pursue the same line of conduct when enduring injustice. The coat is the under-garment, whilst the cloak is the more valuable upper garment. Of this latter it was contrary to the Law to dispossess the owner.* [* Exodus 22: 26.] The oppressor is seeking at law to obtain the disciple’s less valuable raiment. In such a situation the disciple is to forbear fighting for his rights, is to yield up what is being demanded, and, should the oppressor persist, let him take the more valuable and essential garment, which he could not have obtained by any legal suit.

The illustration is strong to the point of paradox in order that the central lesson may be unmistakably clear - that the disciple wins by losing. Christ here challenges us to be believers ; to believe that He is right here as everywhere else, in face of all that considerations of worldly prudence may argue to the contrary. It is simply an application to one of life’s real situations of that most characteristic and oft-repeated principle of Christ’s teaching, ‘Whosoever would save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, and the Gospel’s shall save it.’ * [* Mark 8: 35.]

V. 41. The compulsion to go one mile refers to corvee or forced service, a practice of the military powers then and at many times since, of ‘commandeering’ the goods of labour of any civilian, as they might deem expedient. The practice seems to have had its origin in Persia in connection with the carrying of the posts. During Gospel times the Roman Occupation in Palestine often impressed Jewish travellers, compelling them to carry military loads for specified distances. Simon the Cyrenian was compelled in this fashion to bear Christ’s cross. *[* Matt. 27: 32 ; Mark 15: 21 ; the only other occurrences of the word in N. Testament.]

Our Lord selects this unpopular institution to illustrate the attitude which subjects of the kingdom are to take up when sudden and irksome demands are made upon their time and services. Although in an organized State personal service is usually compounded for by payment of taxes, the right of the ruling powers to enforce such service remains, and the duty of the Christian is clearly defined in Romans 13: 1-7. In such circumstances the disciple of the Lord will, without rebellion, without even reluctance, render what is demanded and then be prepared to render as much more voluntarily. During the first ‘mile’ the compeller may be his master ; during the second ‘mile’ he follows, not the compulsion of an external command, but the impulse from within : he is master of the situation, for he is conferring a boon.

The Christian life is one of going beyond, of giving not because of demand, but because of the delight love finds in giving. Abraham’s servant, commissioned to find a suited bride of Isaac, recognized her in Rebecca because she answered the test of character he had chosen : she not only responded to his request for a drink from the well, but went beyond it voluntarily, offering also to give water to his camels. Paul rejoiced in his confidence that Philemon his friend would act in the same spirit, not merely according to the Apostle’s request to receive back the returning runaway, Onesimus, but much more ; ‘thou wilt do even beyond what I say.’ * [* Philemon 21.]

So the sudden laying upon him of unsought burdens is to find the Lord’s follower recognizing new opportunities to display the spirit of his Master, the spirit that delights to serve the unthankful, ‘for love’s sake.’ * [* Philemon 9.]

Augustine’s comment is worth quoting, ‘Give to every man : but not everything.’ If you send a lazy beggar away with a lecture upon idleness you have sent him not empty away. When that suitor cried to Him from the crowd, ‘Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me,’ and the Lord made answer, ‘Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?’ - might it not appear that He forgot His own precept, refusing even this easily-granted request which was made to Him? But it was not so ; He gave the man, not indeed what he asked, but something far better, a medicine for the hurt of his soul in that warning word, ‘Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness,’ * [* Luke 12: 13, 15.]

‘Avenge not yourselves, beloved’: but then, is there no such thing as justice in the world? Yes, indeed, ‘for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto Me ; I will recompense, saith the Lord.’ Justice is to be left in the hand of God ; it is His prerogative and it is sacrilegious presumption for any save those whom He has ordained * [* Romans 13: 1] to take it into their own hands. What, then, is the disciple of the Lord to do when he smarts under personal injustice? ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him to drink.’ But is not this extraordinary line of conduct likely to encourage him in further wrong-doing? No - ‘for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,’ causing his mind to burn with shame and perhaps also his conscience with contrition. Be assured that this is the way to win, and ‘be not overcome of evil’ as in the case when thou yieldest to the temptation to seek revenge, ‘but overcome evil with good’ - thine enemy’s evil with thine own good. ‘Thus the iron law of legal justice is transmuted by this magic of love into a golden rule of sacrifice.’

Peter’s comment is in similar strain. ‘Be tender-hearted, humble-minded : not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling ; but contrariwise blessing ; for hereunto were ye called, that ye should inherit a blessing.’ * [*1 Pet. 3: 8,9.]

Vv. 43-44. The fifth illustration gathers to a point of positiveness the disciple’s attitude to the Law and shews the true character of the obedience which he is called upon to render. That obedience is comprehended by the word, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’

When this favourite Rabbinical question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ was propounded to the Lord Jesus by the lawyer, the answer was given in the memorable parable of the Good Samaritan. The clear teaching conveyed by the story of the robbed traveller is that the fulfilling of the Law concerning loving our neighbour necessitates ungrudging benevolence towards the man who, beset with need, fall across our path, howsoever unworthy or hostile he may be, or howsoever linked, nationally or socially, with traditional foes. The love that fulfils the law treats the enemy as a neioghbour : it goes out spontaneously, rejoicing in the opportunity to do good and dispense blessing. A Samaritan, hated outsider though he was, so acting toward a Jew who in normal circumstances would have spat upon him, was acting a neighbour’s part and fulfilling the law. The Lord’s command to the lawyer and to us is, ‘Go and do thou likewise.’ * [* Luke 10: 25-37.]

Vv. 45-47. Such was the love of God that flowed out through Christ in unsought blessing to unworthy men. The love of God has ever this character ; its benevolence is not conditioned by the attitude of those to whom it flows. ‘Your Father which is in heaven . . . maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.’ * [* Matt. 5: 45.] To love our own kind is an instinct of human nature which has survived the Fall. Even the worst and lowest of mankind show love of this sort. There is nothing meritorious or praiseworthy in it ; certainly nothing distinctively Christian. The Lord points out that more than this is looked for from the subjects of the Kingdom of heaven. At the beginning of this section of the Sermon He stated the imperative need of a righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees ; now He urges that love of a quality which exceeds that shown by publicans and Gentiles is required of His disciples. He challenges us with this searching question, ‘What do ye more than others?’ The standards of the Kingdom are higher that those of the world ; more is, therefore, expected of its subjects ; and thank God, more is possible because of the gracious supplies that are ever available to those who are His.

Thus the King sets up the moral standards of the Kingdom, and in this five-fold way sets forth the new order of conduct which is to be expressed by its subjects. A high standard? Yes, an impossible standard for unaided and unregenerate flesh : but the subjects of the Kingdom are new-born men, a new nature is theirs, created by God ‘in righteousness and holiness of truth.’ * [* Eph. 4: 24.] They have at their disposal the energies of the divine Indweller and along with the lofty demand comes the adequate spiritual supply, bringing these otherwise ‘hard sayings’ within the range of practical possibility. The measure in which they are exemplified may not be but partial (and indeed must be in view of the hindrance of the flesh), yet it should be a measure which grows in strength and beauty as the days pass, to God’s praise and to Christ’s honour.

‘Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children ; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell.’ * [* Eph. 5: 1-2.]

And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites : for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them : for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. After this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Vv. 2-4. The Lord takes up almsgiving first, because an important aspect of our life is that lived toward our fellow-men. Those acts of doing good to men of which almsgiving is representative are essential to the life that is pleasing to God.

The picturesque description of the Pharisaic almsgiver sounding a trumpet before him should probably be taken metaphorically. The Sermon has several such startling and original metaphorical passages. Instances are the plucking out of the right eye and the cutting off of the right hand, * [* Matt. 5: 29, 30.] the beam, or plank, in the critic’s eye, * [* Matt. 7: 3.] and the parent offering his hungry child a stone, a serpent, or a scorpion for food. *[* Matt. 7: 9, 10.]

Vv. 5-15. The next section enforces a similar lesson with reference to prayer. Prayer is taken up as a representative activity of our life Godward. Again the Teacher, in a swiftly-drawn word-picture, shows the sham of praying with an eye to gain a religious reputation with men. The figure of the ‘religious’ standing at the street corner - so as to be sure of a large publicity - and praying interminably, repeating phrases whose very repetition has emptied them of all meaning and reality, is one that instantly fixes upon the mind both the faturity and impertinence of ostentation in those exercises in which the individual is supposed to be dealing directly with God alone. Such prayer is no prayer ; it goes not to God, but to men, to whom in truth it is addressed. There it terminates.

V. 9. This, known as the ‘Lord’s Prayer.’ Is marvellous in its brevity, simplicity, spirituality and comprehensiveness. It contains, as recorded by Matthew (R.V.) fifty-five words, can be repeated in less than half a minute, contains petitions which range from the common bread-and-butter needs of our breakfast tables to the ultimate achievement of the age-long purposes of God ; puts God’s glory first, our needs second, does not rule out material matters as too trifling to pray about, yet insists on the supremacy of the spiritual, and emphasizes the basic condition of the disciples’ enjoyment of the Father’s forgiveness. The simple intimate, filial mode of address ‘Our Father’ is strangely unlike many of the grandiloquent phrases with which men approach God. It quietly brings the disciple into the enjoyment of a child’s freedom of access, putting into his lips the Name Christ came to reveal, near, intimate, dear, the plural pronoun ‘Our’ at the same time linking him in bonds of spiritual kinship with all who call on the Father.

V. 10. ‘Thy Kingdom Come.’ The heart of the praying disciple longs for the rule of God among men. The day is known to the Father ; unknown to us. Yet our hearts are to cry in deep spirit-begotten desire for the arrival of the Kingdom in all its power and universality of sway. The verb is in the aorist tense - a point in the expanse of time - teaching that the Kingdom will arrive in the glory and power which are its signs, with cataclysmic suddenness. Not by gradual permeation of the Christianizing influences of the truths of the Faith, till all nations yield allegiance to Christ ; but swift as the lightning flashes from the east even to the west, at the coming of the Son of Man, will His foes be broken, His throne established, the Kingdom of this world made the Kingdom of God and His Christ, and righteousness cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Toward this sublime end of God’s ways with men the longings of those who are even now the Sons of the Kingdom (at present in ‘mystery.’ not yet in manifestation) will ever earnestly run. Nothing is dearer to them that the thought of the victory of God throughout the wide earth, and their prayers are but desire become articulate that the Father’s will, the utmost beneficent wisdom, may be as truly carried out in the sphere of human affairs on the earth, as it is now in that of the angelic intelligences in the heavens. The very highest blessedness of the creature, angelic or human, is to answer to that will in the delightsome obedience that springs from the harmony of inmost desire.

V. 11. The prayer now contracts to the routine needs of our daily life, for true prayer does not dwell alone upon the cosmic purposes of the God of the infinite majesty, wisdom and power : but, knowing that the same God cares for the minutiae of the life of each person, is bold to ask for those simple material needs which each day brings.

V. 12. From the material and mental, the prayer rises to the spiritual. Our need of divine forgiveness is also ever-present. The sense of it is necessary to free us for the unhindered prosecution of our appointed tasks. A conscience unburdened with any load, a sunny sky overhead, the sweet sense of the Father’s pardoning mercy - apart from these happy known by the heart, the disciple is without the blessedness of which the Lord spoke at the beginning of the Sermon, and cannot manifest the character the Beatitudes describe.

V. 13. ‘And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ All trial is temptation, inasmuch as it puts us to the proof.. All pressure of circumstances, all opportunity of self-indulgence, all occasion for self-adulation, challenge the reality of our love to God and our confidence in Him. Temptation is the common lot of men, and from it the disciple of the Lord is not immune. He is bidden ‘count it all joy . . . when ye fall into manifold trials’, * [* James 1: 2, margin.] looking steadfastly to the gracious purpose that allows it, the growth of the quiet grace of endurance in his character. In the hottest furnace he is to remember that there is nothing in his trial that has not happened before to any other, ‘there hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear : but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation make also a way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.'’*[* 1 Cor. 10: 13.] He who has come victoriously through fiery trials is counted blessed. ‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the chown of life, which the Lord promised them that love Him.’ * [* James 1: 12.] [ Here we see the crown of life is not eternal life - the gift of God. It must therefore be life during the coming age : it is live in the Millennial Kingdom for the victorious overcomer.]

Nevertheless, we are to pray, ‘bring us not into temptation.’ The spirit of self-distrust is to mark the disciple ; he is not to trust himself wantonly in the way of trial, or to challenge it to visit him by exhibiting a self-sufficient spirit. Not only is trial used by God to strengthen our faith in Him ; it may be used by Satan to induce us to sin. God permits us to be tried or tempted in order that character may become perfected, but temptation in the sense of inducement to sin is never presented to us by God. If it becomes so, the cause is in our own evil desires.* [* James 1: 13, 14.] The spark that falls on water lights no fire.

Vv. 16-18. The Teacher next turns to the subject of fasting ; a side of religious practice representative of the self-ward side of life, with particular regard to the grace of self-control. Whilst Scripture contains no direct command to fast it is clear that the Lord’s teaching here does not disprove it. There are New Testament examples which indicate that voluntary abstinence from things lawful may be desirable at special seasons when the believer may be in critical need of ascertaining the will of God concerning some matter affecting his pathway. Every believer knows that such seasons occur, when to miss the present purpose of God is to incur grave spiritual loss. It was while certain gifted ministers of the Church at Antioch ‘ministered to the Lord and fasted’ *[* Acts 13: 2.] that the Holy Spirit’s call to two of their number, Barnabas and Saul, was unmistakably heard. How important a moment that was in the history of Gospel expansion! How necessary that there should be a clear sense of God’s will then concerning the part to be played in missionary endeavour! The call was evidently as clear to them all as the two most directly concerned ; a necessary conviction if fellowship in the Gospel between the missionaries and the Assembly from which they went was to be full-hearted from the very beginning. Fasting at such a time probably sharpened their spiritual susceptibilities. Voluntary abstention from those things which minister to bodily needs quickened the senses of the soul and helped them to receive the impress of the Spirit’s gentle guiding pressure.

Paul, later, in a catalogue of the experiences undergone by him in his Gospel labours, mentions ‘fasting’ in the same context with ‘hunger and thirst.’ * [2 Cor. 11: 27.] Clearly, he intends to convey that whilst at times his abstinence from food and drink were enforced by the hard logic of want, at others his abstinence was undertaken voluntarily ; again, probably, in order to increase spiritual fitness in view of some pressing requirement of the moment. It is true that some * [* Matt. 17: 21 ; Mark 9: 29 ; 1 Cor. 7: 5.] of the passages where ‘prayer and fasting’ are linked together have been emended by the Revisers by the omission of the words ‘and fasting,’ they have considered these words to be late glosses, probably of the period that marked the rise of monasticism. Whether these omissions are warranted or not, it remains true that fasting (1) is not forbidden or discountenanced by the Lord’s teaching ; (2) has apostolic example in its favour ; and (3) has a certain spiritual value if undertaken in a right spirit, both as an aid in the growth of the character-completing grace of self-control, and as a means of spiritual fitness at critical times in life’s experience.

Here, however, the same danger threatens as with almsgiving and praying - the temptation to fast in order ‘to be seen of men.’ The Teacher draws another picture, this time to the fasting devotee who announces his fast to everybody by has wan visage and disconsolate mien. A fast which is to receive its reward of the Father must be as truly ‘unto Him’ as must prayer, and must be as sedulously hidden from the gaze of men. The Teacher insists that all necessary steps are to be taken to avoid the announcement to men of the fact that you are fasting - ‘anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou be not seen of men to fast’ ; refrain from advertising your fast : look your best when you feel your worst. If you are sad yourself (for fasting is also connected in Scripture with seasons of grief and mourning,* [* Matt. 9: 15.]) you have no right to make other people sad also.

Having thus described the true expression of the religious spirit and contrasted it with its counterfeit, the Lord proceeds to show that faith in God changes a man’s whole outlook upon life ; henceforth not earth but heaven is the sphere of his ambitions. James, whose Epistle has so many features in common with the Sermon, says that ‘pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.’ * [* James 1: 27.] Here ‘religion’ represents the Greek word threskeia which seems to mean very much what ‘righteousness’ means in Matt. 6: 1. It denotes not the inward spirit of devotion to God, but the outward expression of that spirit in the service of others and in purity of life. Compare Isaiah’s contrast between true and false fasting (58: 3-10) which suggests a possible connection between v. 18 and v. 19 of Matt. 6.

Men of the world pursue money, comfort, position, fame, power. It is true that ‘moth and rust’ do not attack such things, and that houses built of stone or brick cannot be ‘dug through’ ; Westerners, however, need experience no difficulty in recognizing their modern analogies. Slumps, bankruptcies, depressions, make similar havoc of modern treasures. He but repeats an old warning ; His people who refuse His counsel are like men who earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. * [* Haggai 1: 6.]

In so saying the Lord does not encourage idleness or improvidence ; the saving clause is ‘for yourselves.’ If a father is to give his son a fish, or a loaf, or other good gift, he must needs work for money to get it. If a man is to succour those in need he must be an earner himself. This implication is developed by the Apostle in the warning that ‘if any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever,’ and in his declaration that it is the duty of parents to lay up for their children. Knowledge of the precepts of the Lord is not enough, however ; heavenly wisdom is needed for the application of these precepts to daily life. * [* 1 Tim. 5: 8 ; 2 Cor. 12: 14.]

It is related to Dean Swift that when he was asked to preach in the interests of a certain charity, and at the same time was reminded that his sermons were usually prolix, he took for his text Proverbs 19: 17 : ‘He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and his good deed He will repay him again,’ The sermon lost nothing of its effectiveness by complying with the condition of brevity. It ran : ‘If you like the security, down with the dust.’ The Christian has not far to look for an investment, as safe and profitable, for whatever the Lord may have committed to his stewardship. Concerning ‘the man that dealeth graciously,’ it is written, ‘He hath scattered abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness abideth for ever.’ * [* 2 Cor. 9: 9, from Psa. 112 : 9. Which see.]

Concerning the responsibility of the Christian to acknowledge in material things the help received by him in spiritual things, the Apostle writes, ‘Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto (koinôneô share with) him that teacheth in all good things,’ expressing the thought of Matt. 6: 19-20 from a different point of view. He continues, ‘he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal *[aionios, demands to be translated here as ‘age-lasting’, not ‘eternal.’ Those who translate ‘eternal life’ are teaching salvation by works! We do not reap everlasting life, but we can reap a reward in the kingdom.] life.’ To sow to the flesh is to lay up treasure on earth ; the harvest will be gathered here, transient and disappointing. To sow to the spirit is to lay up treasure in heaven ; the harvest cannot miscarry there, nor will it disappoint the faithful sower. * [* Gal. 6: 6-9.]

V. 21. Heart here corresponds with mind in Col. 3: 2 ; it means aim, ambition, purpose. The Christian is learning to prefer eternity to time, heaven to earth, while he uses his opportunities to secure, by faithful stewardship here, the reward of having committed to him larger service, in the eternity to which he in truth belongs. * [* Matt. 25: 21.]

In these words the Lord condemns the desire to be rich (whereof the Apostle Paul has some stern things to say), warning the Christian man in uncompromising language of the particular dangers he actually courts, when he sets his mind on what the world has to offer. The convert to Christianity in any country in the world stands to gain in material things, inasmuch as he cuts out all the expenses, direct and indirect (and they are many and heavy, contributing largely to the state of chronic poverty in countries given to any form of idolatry) involved in the maintenance of his religion, whereas in Christianity he is under no obligation save that which he voluntarily undertakes out of devotion to Christ. Vices, too, are expensive and so, also, are amusements and the ostentation made necessary by the reciprocal obligations of social life ; from all these the Christian is delivered. Thus from an unexpected direction temptation awaits the man who has become a Christian ; he may devote what he saves by his new habits of frugality, to ends purely selfish, though not necessarily grossly evil. Hence the Lord and the Apostles speak so much and so plainly about the dangers attendant on the pursuit of wealth. Not money, but the love of it, is a root of every kind of evil.* [* 1 Tim. 6: 9, 10 ; see also 17-19.]

V. 22. There is an ‘inward man’ a ‘hidden man of the heart’ to which the Lord here refers. *[* Eph. 3: 6 ; 1 Pet. 3: 4.] Like the body it is also an eye that looks out upon life ; its quality, or character, determines the walk of the believer. [The lamp (luchnos) is not the light but the organ that admits the light. A diseased eye diminishes or excludes the light. The light, phôs, is Christ.] When selfishness, like a film, clouds the eye he ‘reels in vision and stumbles in judgment.’ * [* Isa. 28: 7, margin.] If the eye of the inward man is single, if he has but one dominating purpose in life, whether that be expressed as in the context as ‘seeking first God’s Kingdom.’ or, as the Apostle expresses it in 2 Cor. 5: 9, as making it a point of honour to be well-pleasing to the Lord, then life becomes simple. It is when the Christian has a diversity of ends to serve, of ambitions to realize, and these often mutually inconsistent, that life is thrown into confusion and becomes a burden and a disappointment. There is no hearts-ease in the attempt to make the best of both worlds.

It is not possible to serve God and Mammon, for covetousness as the Apostle warns us, is idolatry. The emphasis is upon the conjunction : God you may serve, Gold you may serve, but you cannot serve God and Gold. The [christian] man who chooses Mammon, the man with the ‘evil’ or (marking the antithesis with ‘single’) the ‘double’ eye, who thinks he can make the Lord a liar in this, has elected not to follow Christ but to deny Him, and has shut himself out from the Kingdom of God. * [* Eph. 5: 5, 6.]

The word translated ‘single’ (haplous) however, has another meaning diving an equally good sense, one closely allied to that just presented and with an important bearing on the Christian life. Using the same word James (1: 5) speaks of God giving wisdom ‘liberally’ to such as seek it from Him, and Paul exhorts the Romans (12: 8) and the Corinthians * [* 2 Cor. 8: 2 ; 9: 11, 13.] to be liberal in their giving. In keeping with this meaning of haplous, the word poneros, here rendered ‘evil,’ in Matt. 7: 11 ; 20: 15, evidently bears the sense of selfish, grudging. In which case the idea will be that Prov. 22: 9 : ‘He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed ; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.’

Vv. 23, 24. How, then, can the light be darkness? The reference may be to conscience, to which men often appeal in justification of deeds in themselves plainly evil. The Apostle Paul in his unregenerate days persecuted the saints with a good conscience, supposing that he did God service, even as the Lord foretold would be the case when He said to the disciples that the time would come when ‘whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God.’ * [* John 16: 2.]

V. 25. Nevertheless poverty also has its dangers, and to these the Lord now turns. If the rich are not to lay up treasure for themselves on earth, the poor are not to allow the joy to be eaten out of life by anxious care. For anxious care may be as detrimental to spiritual life as is the love of money. It is to be noted, however, that whereas our Father would have us care-free He would not have us without forethought ; the birds of which the Lord went on to speak build nests in anticipation of the young shortly to appear, and Agur commends the ant for laying up food against the winter, and to the ant our Father sends us to school.* [* Prov. 6: 6-8 ; 30, 25.]

When the Lord said to the Jews, ‘Work not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat which abideth into eternal life,’ He did not thus emphasize the superiority of the claims of the spirit over those of the body. Provision for temporal needs is not to absorb the energies of the Christian ; none the less he is to work with quietness and to eat his own bread, lest he should ‘eat bread for naught at any man’s hand.’ * [* Gen. 3: 17-19.] Such ‘disorderly’ behaviour is not countenanced by the Lord, for ‘If any will not work, neither let him eat.’ * [* 2 Thess. 3: 7-11.]

It is clear that the Lord did not spend in idleness the thirty silent years in Nazareth. He was known as ‘the carpenter’s son,’ He was Himself a ‘carpenter,’ * [* Matt. 13: 55 ; Mark 6: 3.] He knew by experience the exigencies of a working man’s home, and saw daily the difficulties that beset the mother of a large family with a limited income ; and necessarily so if He was to be ‘in all points tempted (that is, tried, or tested) like as we are.’ And thus be able to enter into the trials of the poorest of His people. * [* Heb. 4: 15.]

The Lord Himself did not regard His being ‘on an equality with God’ as a ‘prize,’ ‘a thing to be grasped at,’ nor did He regard poverty as a handicap to be feared and avoided at whatever cost. On the contrary, ‘He emptied Himself’ by ‘taking the form of a servant,’ and ‘though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich,’ * [* Phil. 2: 6, 7 ; 2 Cor. 8: 9.]

Thus in the Christian life an equilibrium is to be attained and to be preserved. Sincere dependence upon our Father for temporal and for spiritual supplies must go hand in hand with that diligence through which the ‘daily bread’ normally comes. The will of God in the matter is as clearly expressed to His people in the old economy as in the new ; the wise man and the Apostle are of a mind ; it is the mind of Christ. ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before obscure men,’ is the assurance to the one, and to the other the exhortation is addressed, ‘whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . . work from the soul, as unto the Lord, and not unto men.’ * [* Prov. 22: 29 ; Col. 3: 17, 23, margin.]

The warnings against the dangers lying on either hand are a further call to maintain the equilibrium of the Christian life ; the will to do is to be reflected in our petitions as it was in that of Agur, ‘Give me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with the food that is needful for me : lest I be full and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and use profanely the Name of my God.’ ‘The care of the age and the deceitfulness of riches’ are equally the enemies of spiritual life ; they ‘choke the word,’ so, that many that received it and promised a harvest of godliness thereto, ‘become unfruitful’ and are known as Christians [disciples] no more.* [* Prov. 30: 8, 9 ; Matt. 13 : 22.]

Vv. 26-34. Because of what they are, and notwithstanding what they have become, God loves men. Made in His image, after His likeness, capable of fellowship with Him, and with possibilities for good beyond our present powers to imagine, man using his rich endowment in his Creator’s despite, fell from his high estate into spiritual death and moral confusion wherein he is dominated by such motives as greed, rear, and credulity. Yet man’s disobedience and rebellion did not provide the love of God with a larger opportunity for its manifestation. God so loved the world, so desired the fellowship of the race He had created for this very purpose, that He gave His Son for the redemption of men, and His Spirit to impart to them a new life, that, in Christ, they might become a new creation, nearer to Himself, with more magnificent possibilities of holiness, fellowship and service, than were theirs before they fell. This is the grace of God ; His love is actively engaged on behalf of those who had forfeited every claim upon Him. Surely an ‘unspeakable gift’! Hence it is seen that men are of more value to God than any other order of His creation.

Having thus enunciated and illustrated the principle of faith in God as the abiding condition of the life that is life indeed, and having urged upon His hearers to keep steadily before them the unfailing care of our Father, Whose equal eye views all without partiality, overlooking none, forgetting none, Whose gifts are perfect and His ways of giving good, *[* James 1: 17.] the Lord went on to point out the danger involved in the temptation to cover our own failure to respond to the call for faith by judging the failure of others.

It will sober our minds and secure our sympathy with the wrong-doer, however, if we remember that as we judge we shall be judged, moreover if we judge ourselves now we shall not be judged then, for true self-judgment leads to confession and the correction and amendment of the things wherein we condemn ourselves. Grace reigns, indeed, but the judgments of God are according to truth.* [* 1 Cor. 11: 31 ; Rom. 2: 2, and cp. 14: 13.]

The parable of the mote and the beam is a striking picture of the folly of judging others, about whom we know little, while we leave ourselves unjudged, whereas were we but honest with ourselves we would discover that in the very things in which we condemn others we are ourselves the more guilty. If any man would test the truth of these words of the Lord, or of the Apostle’s commentary upon them in Rom. 2: 1, let him scrutinize his own ways for twenty-four hours when all doubt will be dispelled! When we are ‘carnal’ and ‘walk as men’ * [* 1 Cor. 3: 3.] we shelter ourselves behind the delinquincies of our neighbours. How uncompromising we can be in condemning those who have been found out!

Moreover, by the appointment of the Father, judgment is the prerogative of the Son ; hence the judgment-seat is forbidden to us, and great though its attraction is to the natural man, the spiritual man resists the temptation to usurp His place or to attempt the discharge of a function for which he has neither warrant nor qualification. * [* John 5: 22.] ‘Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, Who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts.’ * [* 1 Cor. 4: 5.] ‘Before the time.’ For not yet does the Son judge ; ‘if any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not : . . . the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.’ * [* John 12: 47, 48 ; cp. 8: 15.]

Bearing in mind that the Lord is instructing His disciples in individual conduct, it becomes clear that He does not refer to the admninistration of public justice, which is everywhere in Scripture recognized as an institution of divine authority.* [* 2 Chron. 19: 5-10 ; Rom. 13: 1-7.] Neither is His concern with matters of doctrine, or of morals, which affect the well-being of the church ; provision was made for the discharge of such responsibilities in due time, as in 1 Cor. 5, 1 John 2: 22, 23, 2John 8-11, for example.

That there are no obligations to judge imposed upon Christians becomes clear when other words of the Lord, and words of His Apostles, are taken into account, as they must be if we are to ‘prophesy according to the proportion (literally, analogy) of the faith.’ * [* John 7: 24 ; 8: 15, m16, where there may be a reference to 2 Chron. 19: 6.] Scripture holds a mirror to men, reflecting life in its all but infinite variety, and is not concerned to deal with it all at once. For every changing scene there is guidance in the Book, but only to the sincere and diligent seeker for wisdom does it yield its light. The Lord laid down the broad general principle ; judging is not a normal human function. But when men are under obligation to judge one another, let them see to it that they ‘judge not according to appearance, but (that they) ‘judge righteous judgment.’ He condemned the Pharisees, saying to them, ‘Ye judge after the flesh,’ adding, ‘I judge no man.’ Which may mean that He judges not after that fashion, for He adds, ‘yea, and if I judge, My judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me.’ * [* John 5: 20] [It is noteworthy that so far as the record goes, the Lord never told any man that he was a sinner, yet those who came into contact with Him speedily became conscious that they were sinners]. Here, then, is the secret of judgment according to truth where responsibility to judge is clear.

The Son judges in fellowship with the Father ; in this also He walks in the path of dependence on which He entered that the Father might be glorified on the earth. Because He sought not His own will but the will of Him Who sent Him, therefore His judgment was right. * [* John 5: 30.] If He, being what He was made fellowship with His Father the condition of His judgments, how much more we, being what we are, should distrust ourselves and judge only in fellowship with Christ! To judge otherwise is to judge after the flesh, to judge unrighteously. Where the ear is open to His Word, where the heart is attuned to His, by the grace of His spirit our judgments will not be ours but His.

Sympathy is necessary to judgment in truth. Just as it is the sharing of humility that qualifies the Son of God to be the Saviour of men, so also is He qualified to be their Judge. * [* John 5: 27 ; Heb. 2: 14-18.] [In the title the Lord so often used Himself, there is no article before each noun, literally, ‘the son of man.’ In John 5: 27 ; Rev. 1: 14 ; 14: 14, these articles are omitted, literally, ‘son of man.’ The former is a Messianic title, the latter represents the Humanity of the Lord]. In like manner where the grave responsibility of dealing with a brother overtaken in a trespass in involved, those who care for the churches are ‘to restore such a one in a spirit of meekness’ ; they must put themselves in the place of the delinquent if they are to have not their own but the mind of Christ.* [* Gal. 6: 1.] In the things of the spirit godliness and humility of mind turn the scale.

‘Let all that ye do be done in love’ * [* 1 Cor. 16: 14.] - be done, that is to say, not for one’s own gratification or vindication, but always in the interests of, for the profit of, others, applies to our judging also. If a man is conscious of enmity, or prejudice, or antipathy of any kind, he had better leave judgment to those who can approach the matter in fellowship with Him Who is Lord of both judge and judged. The end of all judgment is restoration. Only those who are conscious of their own danger, and of their own need of the upholding hand of God, are competent to judge and to succour their brethren.

V. 6. That the words of the Lord concerning judgment are not to be taken absolutely, as if they admitted of no exception, the words that follow make abundantly evident. Their meaning will be better seen if they are printed thus:

If one give the meat of sacrifice to dogs they will not appreciate it above other meat, nor will they be so moved to gratitude thereby that they will refrain from rending you when they have eaten. If one lays perils in the trough where the swine expected food, so far from recognizing what makes the perils precious to you they will trample them under their feet. Clearly then the Christian is to discriminate, he cannot treat all alike. His first attraction will always be to his brethren, he will desire to ‘follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.’ * [* 2 Tim. 2: 22 ; cp. 1 John 3: 14.] Indwelt by the same Spirit they belong to one family, and among other things, share the family secrets, and prize them above rubies, inasmuch as they have been committed to them by the Father.

While it is true, and indeed because it is true, that ‘the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever’ * [* Deut. 29: 29.] it does not follow that all that has been committed to the Household of the Faith should be proclaimed to the world. The Apostle makes this distinction in his First Letter to the Corinthian Church. When he brought the Gospel to their city for the first time he ‘determined to know nothing among (them) save Christ and Him crucified.’ But if he did not then proclaim ‘the mystery of God,’ it was only held in reserve until the time should be ripe and they able to receive it. ‘Howbeit,’ he goes on, ‘we speak wisdom among the perfect : yet a wisdom not of this age . . . we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden . . . which none of the rulers of this world knoweth.’ [The reference to the ‘mystery’ in ch. 2. Vv. 1 and 7 suggests that the word ‘perfect’ (teleios) here means ‘initiated,’ and is used to describe those who had obeyed the Gospel and who had been baptized].

‘It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs,’ seemed a ‘hard saying’ to the Gentile woman, but truth demanded it and the way was opened for grace! To preach to the unregenerate such things as the doctrine of election, or the Holy Mystery of the manner if the Incarnation, or the doctrine of the Trinity, is to invite their scorn, or worse. [Or, to speak to some of the redeemed, of a ‘prize’ which must be won; and a ‘race’ which must be run according to the rules, if they are to be ‘accounted worthy’ to receive it ; is often met with the same hostile reaction from regenerate Christians who have no appreciation, or understanding of the Scriptural doctrine of rewards: they believe all will be received on the basis of their standing on bare faith alone!] These are [some of the] family secrets, revealed to the children by the Father for their instruction and comfort, and, inasmuch as they [some] are incapable of proof by any method of reasoning, they are receivable by faith alone. To ‘the natural man’ such things are ‘foolishness . . . he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.’ *[* Deut. 29: 29 ; Matt. 15: 26 ; 1 Cor. 2: 6-8, 14 ; Phil. 3: 10-16 ; 1 Cor. 9: 24 ; Luke 20: 35 ; Col. 3: 23-25.]

Vv. 7-10. Earlier in His discourse the Lord outlined the proper subjects of prayer (‘after this manner pray ye’) ; here, He encourages us to present our individual needs, as they appear to us, to our Father. At the close of the previous chapter we were reminded that our real needs are all known to One Who loves, Who knows, and Who cares, and upon Whom we are instantly dependent. Prayer is the exercise of a soul that realizes this dependence, for only those who have learned that they have no good apart from God, and that ‘every good (way of) giving, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,’ will bend the suppliant knee (see James 1: 17). Now these words of the Lord are a categorical statement that all prayer is heard and that there can be no miscarriage of the answer. That, in fact, there is no such thing as unanswered prayer. We ask - for what? We seek - for what? We knock - but what do we suppose lies beyond the closed door? We ask, we seek, we knock for what we conceive to be good for us and for those for whom we intercede. Is our knowledge of that need true and adequate? Is our wisdom as to how best to meet it to be trusted? James warns us of a double danger : we may forbear asking, whether through indolence or through lack of faith in the good will of God to His children. Or we may ask amiss, with a merely selfish end in view, hoping to make the divine power the servant of our pleasure. If our minds be set on earthly things, or if the purpose of our asking be other than that the will of our Father may be done, how can He give what we mistakenly ask, or enable us to find what we mistakenly seek?

Again, the end before our minds may be good in itself, yet, due to our creature state and sinful condition, we may have misconceived the way to that end. Therefore, in order to answer the petition He must lead us by the path that will disappoint us at the outset because of our defective faith, because of our unwillingness to leave all to Him, the end and the means alike. ‘There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.’ Shall not God in His love and wisdom, seeing the end from the beginning, block up our way that He may lead us in His own? * [* Prov. 14: 12.]

The condition of prevailing prayer laid down by the Lord was that we should pray in His Name. This surely means something more than the mere mention of that Name at the close of our petitions! Only as we abide in Him may we ask what we will, for only then shall we desire nothing but what His Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered . . . He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’ Hence we are told to pray always ‘in the Holy Spirit,’ for the object of prayer is not that God may be brought into the current of our poor wills, but that, taught of His Spirit to pray, we may be lifted up into the current of His will, and thus prove in experience that it is indeed both ‘good and acceptable and perfect.’ * [* John 15: 7 ; 16: 24 ; Rom. 8: 26-27 ; 12: 2 ; Jude 20.] James 5: 16 should probably read ‘the inwrought supplication of a righteous man availeth much.’ Prayer inwrought in the heart of a Christian by the Holy Spirit is ‘the prayer of faith.’

When the Lord prayed ‘O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me : nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt,’ He left us an example to which all our prayers should conform ; when our petitions are framed as His were we are touching the depths that lie in the words ‘in My Name,’ The cup did not pass ; was His prayer therefore unanswered? Soon afterwards He said to His disciples, ‘The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?’ He asked, sought, knocked ; three times He prayed ‘saying again the same words,’ but assuredly not in vain. In Gethsemane as at Bethany He knew that His Father heard Him always. * [* Matt. 26: 39-44 ; John 11: 42 ; 18: 11.]

‘The path of life,’ the way to the Right Hand of the Majesty on High, lay for Him through the suffering, the shame, the darkness of the cross. The writer of Hebrews did not think of the petition of Gethsemane as unanswered, for he says that ‘in the days of His flesh’ the Lord ‘offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death,’ and that He was ‘heard for His godly rear,’ that is, for His piety, His devotion to His Father’s will.* [* Psa. 16: 11 ; Heb. 5: 7.] From His experiences, written for our profit, we may learn that relief is given, not by lightening our trials, but by increasing our strength to endure.

Most of the perplexities of the Christian life find their solution at the Cross. When the beloved Son cried for deliverance from the dread cup, the bearing of sin that must entail the averting of the Face of God, the interruption of a communion unbroken hitherto in time as in eternity, did the Father for a loaf give Him a stone, for a fish a scorpion? ‘In the day that I called,’ said the Psalmist, ‘Thou answeredst me, Thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul.’ The cup did not pass from the Lord, indeed, but ‘there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.’ * [* Psa. 138 : 3 ; Luke 22: 43.]

How often in what seems to us unanswered prayer there lies hidden an answer the larger and the richer because it is His planning, not ours - an answer worthy of God! ;The steps of faith fall on the seeming void,’ indeed, but ‘they find the rock beneath.’ The meaning of His acts we do not perceive now, but we shall get to understand hereafter. Meanwhile let us heed the exhortation of the Apostle ‘In nothing be anxious ; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth (that is, which is better than) all understanding, shall guard (garrison) your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.’ * [* John 13: 7 ; Phil. 4: 6, 7.]

V. 11. ‘If ye’ (how significant that He did not say ‘we’ ) ‘being evil.’ No one ever set higher value on mankind, or treated individual men with greater respect, than did the Son of God. None ever loved men as He loved them, for ‘since the children are sharers in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same,’ that it might be possible for Him to bear ‘our sins in His body upon the Tree.’ Nor did any ever speak the truth to men about themselves more plainly than He did. His description of Himself was apt, ‘a Man that hath told you the truth.’ Who that reads His story can fail to see that He spoke the truth in love,’ or doubt that the third chapter of Genesis was in His mind when He described men as evil? * [* John 8: 40 ; 1 Pet. 2: 24.] The word aletheuo * [* Eph. 4: 15] covers actions as well as speech ; compare Gal. 4: 6, margin, ‘deal truly with.’ It does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament.

‘Good gifts . . . good things.’ Two words are translated ‘good’ in the New Testament, agathos (here) which refers to the intrinsic quality of the thing whether it seem to be good or not, and kalos, which refers rather to the appearance, that which is seen to be good because it is good. The latter word is used in Matt 5: 16, ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ The Christian takes ‘thought for things honourable (kalos, good) not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men,’ and in this way takes care that his ‘good (agathos) is not evil spoken of.’ Our Father’s answers to our prayers may come disguised ; they may seem to us evil and not good, but whatever they seem, faith knows that ‘to them that love God, God worketh all things with them for good (agathos).’ * [* 2 Cor. 8: 21 ; Rom. 8: 28 margin ; 14: 16.]

In the parallel passage in Luke (11: 13) the words run, ‘how much more shall your Heavenly Father give (the) Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?’ Each form of the saying casts light upon the other, nor can either be interpreted apart from the other. The words ‘Holy Spirit’ are without articles, pointing to His operations and gifts rather than to Himself, for since the Holy Spirit was given, and came, at Pentecost, we can no more ask that He may be given again than we may ask that the Son of God may be sent again to do the work already accomplished at Calvary. Nor are we ever instructed to ask for the Holy Spirit, though we are encouraged to pray the Father, as Paul did, that we and all saints ‘may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man ; that Christ may dwell in (our) hearts through faith.’ [ No! No! No! We are commanded to ask for the Holy Spirit ; and we are also to pray that He will not be taken from us! ‘Cast me not away from Thy presence ; and take not Thy HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME.’ (Ps. 51: 11). For more information, relative to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer, see (on this website at a later date, D.V., ) the subject (The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit’) expounded by G. H. LANG.] These are among the ‘good things’ the Lord would have us seek ; the ‘all things that pertain unto life and godliness.’ In answering their prayers, as in all His dealings with His children, our Father subordinates every other consideration to His purpose that we should be ‘conformed to the image of His Son,’ that in the day He may ‘be the Firstborn among many brethren.’ * [* Rom. 8: 29 ; Eph. 3: 165, 16 ; 2 Pet. I: 3.]

V. 12. The Golden Rule is not so much original as it is a fresh and succinct expression and interpretation of the law which ‘is summed up in this word, namely, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ It is love in action, for if ‘the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love,’ and if the teaching of the Law and the Prophets is condensed into these words of the Lord, then clearly they also describe the way in which love displays itself. * [* Rom. 13: 9 ; Gal. 5: 14.] Love is the synthesis of the Sermon. To enter the kingdom is to enter the sphere where love is the sole law, comprehending all laws and abolishing them. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of the Son of His love, where love reigns, where love is all, for God is love.

The love of which the Gospel is the revelation is not an emotion, a feeling born of affinity ; it is a deliberate disposition of the will to forget oneself on the service of others. Love was the mind of the Father when ‘He gave His only-begotten Son’ to die for men ; the mind of the Son when ‘He emptied Himself,’ the mind of the Spirit when He led the Son through the wilderness to the Cross.* [* Luke 4: 1 ; Phil. 2: 5 ; Rom. 15: 30 ; Heb. 9: 14.] We must beware of debasing the pure gold of the love of God by giving the word any lesser meaning in such sayings as that of the Lord, ‘By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another,’ and such exhortations as that of the Apostle, ‘Through love be servants one to another.’ ‘Even as I have loved you’ is the new standard that makes the commandment itself a new one.’ * [* John 13: 34, 35 ; Gal. 5: 13.]

Love, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, constrains us not to look ‘each of (us) to his own interests, but each to the interests of others,’ and teaches us ‘not to please ourselves (but to) . . . please (our) neighbour, for that which is good (agathos) unto edifying.’ * [* Phil. 2: 4 ; Rom. 15: 1, 2.] So learning from the word and example of the Lord, constrained by His love, and enabled by His Spirit Who sheds that love abroad in our hearts, we shall ‘become imitators of God as His beloved children,’ and ‘sons of our Father which is in heaven.’ Thus only shall we present to all men the one compelling testimony to the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes on our Lord Jesus Christ. * [* Eph. 5: 1 ; Matt. 5: 44, 45.]

As the Sermon moves to its close it is noticeable that the tone changes from that of Teacher instructing disciples to that of the Preacher exhorting the multitude. [The multitude includes His disciples ; for the sermon is addressed primarily to them : ‘And when He had sat down, his disciples came unto him : and he opened his mouth and taught THEM saying . . .’ ] It is easy to visualize the crowd increasing as the discourse proceeds, and pressing ever more eagerly round the Prophet, until at this point He lifts up His voice to the whole concourse in the challenging call of this closing section.

V. 13. The passage now before us speaks of two paths, of two trees, and of two foundations. There is a path whose end is life it is a narrow path, and even so is not crowded. At the nearer end it is entered by the strait gate of self-renunciation and acceptance of Christ as the Lord of his soul. There is also a broad road entered by a wide gate, at which go in the vast majority of mankind. - [including the vast majority of Christians.] No effort is demanded to begin upon this wide road - the easy-going multitude find themselves effortlessly walking it. It is wide enough to accommodate worldly ambition, to find room for self-seeking, to tolerate worldly standards, to permit the passage of popular wrongs, and to allow folly and reputation to travel together, but, nevertheless, it is the way of which it is written, ‘There is a way which seemeth fight unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.’ * [Prov. 16: 25 ; Rom. 8: 12, 13 ; Gal. 5: 13-21 ; 6: 8 ; Eph. 5: 1-7, 15 ; Phil. 3: 18, 19 ; 1 Thess. 4: 3-8. Etc.]

Purpose, decision, action are called for. To begin demands these things, therefore, [strive to ] enter! Because the way is difficult to walk in - enter! Because the road may be lonely - enter! Yea, and because the alternative is seductively easy - shun it! and, most of all, because the end of that easy way is separation from all that is true, good, just and blessed - yea from all that is of God, and finally, from God Himself - shun it!

‘Get and live,’ says the worldling [and the carnal Christians] : ‘Give and live,’ says Christ. ‘Be ruthless and live,’ says the natural man, ‘Be meek and live,’ says Christ. ‘Strike back and live,’ says the man of the world. ‘The other cheek,’ says Christ, ‘if thou wouldst really know what it is to live.’ - and enter the kingdom.

‘Enter!’ - take this Prophet as true, this King as yours, and begin to-day to walk after the pattern of His teaching, for this is the way that leadeth into life. ‘In the way of righteousness is life ; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.’ * [* Prov. 12: 28.]

Vv. 15-20. Other teachers will seek your allegiance, other voices will call, other philosophers of life will press their claims upon you. Therefore, ‘Beware of false prophets,’* be not deceived by charming manners, high repute, great names, deep learning, or plausible eloquence. Know that the one test that matters is : What moral fruitage does this teaching bear? ‘By their fruits shall ye know them.’ The harvest declares the nature of the tree. If it is by nature an evil tree, then be its foliage never so delightful its fruit will be evil and only evil. On the other hand, however unprepossessing may be the appearance of a tree whose nature is good (agathos, intrinsically good) it will manifest by its fruits its true character in its own time. So also shall evil teachings reveal their true nature by the fruits they bear in the lives of teacher and taught. * [* The ‘false prophets’ are teachers who ignore responsibility truths and conditional promises: the are not all unconverted!]

In the bitterest hour of his life David learned that the mere language of confession does not satisfy God, but that He desires truth in the inward parts. How greatly we too need to lay to heart the fact that the Lord searches and tries the reigns to give to every man according to the fruit of his doings.* [* Psa. 51: 6 ; Jer. 17: 10.]

Vv. 21-23. We have already seen that our Lord lived what He taught. We must realize further that He expects those who name His Name to depart from iniquity, and that if we are to escape the just stigma of hypocrisy, we must set ourselves patiently to follow His steps before we preach His word. ‘Why call ye Me Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ This crushing question is unanswerable. No one save he who does His word may name His Name.

The same note of astounded fear is in our passage, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy Name and by Thy Name cast out demons, and by Thy Name do many mighty works?’ Even closer is the thrust of the parallel passage in Luke 13: 26, ‘We did eat and drink in Thy presence, and Thou didst teach in our streets.’ Expressed in modern phrase : we went to Mass, [or Church] we partook of the Eucharist, [or the Lord’s Supper] , we took the Communion, we ‘broke the bread,’ and sat under Christian teaching. None of these pleas avail, and the professors [together with the slothful, disobedient, unrepentant regenerate servants] find themselves thrust forth, with the words of the Judge following them into the darkness, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.’

The comment of another is to the point here ; " ‘I never knew you’ is but another way of saying ‘Ye never knew Me.’ Not to be known of the Lord is never to have known Him, and is therefore itself the condemnation." [Oh no! There are more than the unregenerate included here in the Lord’s condemnation. There was one (the Apostle Paul) who said, ‘ That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death ; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection (out) from the dead.’ Phil. 3: 10, 11. Disobedient disciples do not know Christ in this deeper sense, attained only by strict compliance to His commandments. And furthermore, eternal issues are not here in the picture at all : it is a matter of entrance or exclusion from the Kingdom. ‘Except your righteousness shall exceed . . . ye shall in no wise enter . . . (5: 20) ‘Seek ye first the kingdom . . ‘ (6: 33) ‘ Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom.’]

It is to be noted that He who utters the Sermon on the Mount calmly asserts that Himself and none other will decide the destiny of every man. What madness unless He really be God as well as man! ‘Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! . . . and then will I profess unto them ; I never knew you, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.’ [ If there be any who maintain that a disciple of Christ cannot ‘work iniquity,’ he is self deluded!] The most impressive claims of Christ are those made indirectly ; as here His claim to Universal Judgeship ; as in 7: 11 where is found His assumption of a sinlessness which separates morally from all other men, ‘If ye being evil, know how to give . . . : and as in 7: 24, 26, ‘these words of Mine’ imply His claim to absolute wisdom.

Vv. 24-27. Lastly, the Lord passes to the test of abidingness as the sure revealer of the nature of conduct. Every man is a builder ; into the house of his life he is putting stone on stone by the acts of each hour. But the principles by which he lives are the foundation on which this house is being erected. In the parable before us the Teacher claims that the only life that has what has been called ‘survival value,’ i.e. qualities that will keep it intact when the tests of time, change and sudden tempest come, is the life founded on the moral principles that have been set forth in this discourse. It is not here a question of faith merely. It is obedience that is emphasized as the true wisdom of the life that will abide the day of crucial trial. ‘Everyone, therefore, which heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man which built his house upon the rock. All opposing ways of life lead to destruction, all differing teachings produce evil fruits, all contrary principles produce a moral order which the judgments will overwhelm, revealing it to have been unstably founded on the sands of popular fashion, or intellectual self-sufficiency, or of personal aggrandisement.

We have seen that in these chapters the teaching stresses, not the gift of [eternal] life by grace, but the proof of life by obedience. The Sermon on the Mount, needless to say, is not the whole of Christian doctrine. Taken alone, beautiful as it is, it were law and not gospel. A greater than Moses is here, promulgating a law higher than that which was given from the Fiery Mount. Natural man finds this Sermon a sin-convicting, soul-humbling proclamation. Well may the world keep asking, ‘Is it practicable?’ Alas for us all if the Christian revelation had ended with the 7^th chapter of Matthew!

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.