1. IN the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples 2 first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known. 3 Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops. 4 And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after 5 that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, 6 Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is for- 7 gotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. 8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of 9 man also confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before men, shall 10 be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy 11 Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, 12 or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. 13 And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide 14 the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge, or a 15 divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought 17 forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I 18 have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take 20 thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast pro- 21 vided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

GREAT wealth is but a great incumbrance, when a man has not learned to wean his affections from it. How can such things be called goods, of which even the abundance vexes and disturbs the mind, which cannot be preserved without great pains and cost, and which, through the fear of losing them, become the torment of him who possesses them? Q.—Where there is little or no strength of religious principle in the soul, an unbroken continuance of worldly happiness will almost infallibly exert a deteriorating influence on the character. Only in proportion as the dew of God’s hidden grace is descending on the heart, can it be safe for a man to be exposed to the hot sun of worldly prosperity; and if that secret element of strength and fertility be not continually supplied, the scorching heat must speedily wither up, in the spiritual soil, every green and beautiful thing. C.

He that has no love of God, no large spiritual affections, no share in the unsearchable riches of Christ, no sympathies with his brethren, is in fact “wretched and miserable, and poor and blind, and naked,” and shall one day find out that he is so, however now he may say, “I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” He only is truly rich, who is rich toward God—who is rich in God—who has made the eternal and the unchangeable the object of his desires and his efforts. He in God possesses all things, though in this world he were a beggar, and for him to die will not be to quit, but to go to, his riches. T.

1-12. The connection may be thus enunciated: Beware of hypocrisy (verse 1), for all shall be made evident in the end (verse 2), and ye are witnesses and sharers in this unfolding of the truth (verse 3). In this your work, ye need not fear men; for your Father has you in his keeping (verses 4-7). And the confession of my name is a glorious thing (verse 8), but the rejection of it (verse 9), and especially the ascription of my works to the evil one (verse 10), is a fearful thing. And in this confession ye shall be helped by the Holy Spirit in the hour of need (verses 11, 12). A.

1. Jesus came out to the multitude with his whole spirit still aglow with the just and mighty indignation by which it had been pervaded. Instantly—addressing primarily his own disciples, but through them the listening thousands—he broke out with a solemn warning, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” F.

5. Fear him.** Only the one fear would effectually expel the other. To play false with one’s convictions to save one’s life, may fall of its end after all, for God can inflict a violent death in some other and equally formidable way. There is a hell, it seems, for the body as well as the soul; consequently, sufferings adapted to the one as well as the other. Fear of hell is a divinely authorized and needed motive of action even to Christ’s “friends.” As Christ’s “meekness and gentleness” were not compromised by such harsh notes as these, so those servants of Christ want their Master’s spirit who soften down all such language. B.

6. These birds are snared and caught in great numbers, but, as they are small and not much relished for food, five sparrows may still be sold for two farthings; and when we see their countless numbers, and the eagerness with which they are destroyed as a worthless nuisance, we can better appreciate the assurance that our heavenly Father, who takes care of them, so that not one can fall to the ground without his notice, will surely take care of us, who are of more value than many sparrows. W. M. T.—7. The providence of God is the comfort of the righteous. His wisdom cannot be surprised, his power cannot be forced, his love cannot forget. He alone knows our value, because he alone knows how much he loves us, and because he is himself the price of our love. Q.

10. Considering the part the Holy Ghost had to act, which was to dictate the doctrines of religion, to work the miracles in evidence of those docdoctrines, and inwardly urge the force of the one, and the excellency of the other, both on the understanding and heart, it seems impossible the Divinity could be equally vilified by any resistance given to the person of the Father, or the Son, who throughout the whole dispensation, whenever the minds of men were to be wrought on, acted by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. To him, therefore, directly, immediately, was this blasphemous insult offered, which could not be offered to any other, and that by men who either knew him, or had sufficient reason for knowing him, to be God. A very high degree of pride, of self-sufficiency, and of presumption, in resisting the evidences of divine truth, which the Spirit of God still affords, partakes in the nature of that sin. Skelton. (For fuller comment, read Section 47.)

12. The knowledge of our own inability would serve only to make us despair, if Christ had not promised that his Spirit should supply all our defects, and do all in us. This Spirit is that perfect Master, who enlightens the understanding, inflames the heart, and forms the very words in our mouth. Q.

13. Some covetous and half-instructed member of the crowd, seeing the listening throngs, hearing the words of authority and power, aware of the recent discomfiture of the Pharisees, determined to utilize the occasion for his own worldly ends. F.—Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me! A request not likely to have been made till Christ’s fairness and fearlessness, in recoil from all falsehood and injustice, had been openly manifested and generally recognized—a request, however, grounded upon a total misconception of the nature and objects of his ministry. The dispute that had taken place between the two brothers was one for the law of the country to settle. For the guidance of men in all the different relations in which they can be placed to one another he announced and expounded the great and broad, eternal and immutable, principles of justice and of mercy. But with the application of these principles to particular cases he did not intermeddle. He carefully and deliberately avoided such intermeddling.

15. Beware of covetousness.** The word here rendered “covetousness” is a peculiar and very expressive one; it means the spirit of greed—that ever-restless, ever-craving, ever-unsatisfied spirit, which, whatever a man has, is ever wanting more, and the more he gets still thirsts for more. A passion which has a strange history; often of honest enough birth—the child of forethought, but changing its character rapidly with its growth—getting prematurely blind—losing sight of the end in the means—till wealth is loved and sought and grasped and hoarded, not for the advantages it confers, the enjoyment it purchases, but simply for itself—to gratify that lust of possession which has seized upon the soul, and makes it all its own. H.—It was covetousness which caused the unjust brother to withhold; it was covetousness which made the defrauded brother indignantly complain to a stranger. Covetousness: the covetousness of the oppressed as well as of the oppressor; for the cry “Divide” has its root in covetousness just as truly as “I will not.” There are no innocent classes; no devils who oppress, and angels who are oppressed. In the original the word means the desire of having more—not of having more because there is not enough; but simply a craving after more. More when a man has not enough. More when he has. More, more. Ever more. Give; give. Divide; divide. F. W. R.

Covetousness is a grand contradiction to Providence, while it terminates wholly within itself. The covetous person lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world; to take in everything and to part with nothing. Charity is accounted no grace with him, nor gratitude any virtue. He is always for making as many poor as he can, but for relieving none whom he either finds or makes so. And he lives and dies as much a debtor to himself as to any one else; while he pines and pinches and denies himself not only in the accommodations but in the very necessities of nature. In the abundance he possesseth. It is not what a man has, but what he is, which must make him happy. The greatest happiness of which this life is capable—the quiet content and inward satisfaction of a man’s mind—may be enjoyed without this abundance; and consequently cannot depend upon it. Every man is happy or miserable as the temper of his mind places him under the influences of the divine nature; which enlighten and enliven the disposed mind with secret, ineffable joys, such as the vicious mind is wholly unacquainted with. R. S.

16. Man’s life is of God, not of his goods, however abundant they may be. And this is the lesson conveyed by the following parable, and lying at the foundation of the still higher lesson conveyed in its application (verse 21). Life here includes time and eternity. A.

17-19. He did not count that he had these from God, but he counted them the products of his own labors; wherefore separating them exclusively for himself, he said, my goods, and my fruits. His plans of felicity rise no higher than to this satisfying of the flesh, so that there is an irony as melancholy as it is profound in making him address this speech, not to his body, but to his soul. The curtain is here drawn back, and we are admitted into the inner council-chamber of a worldling’s heart, rejoicing over his abundance, and realizing to the very letter the making “provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

20. Thou fool. This title is opposed to the opinion of his own prudence and foresight which he entertained—this night, to the many years that he promised to himself—and that soul, which he purposed to nourish and make merry, it is declared shall be inexorably required, and painfully rendered up. T.—His folly is fourfold: he forgets the Giver (my fruits)—he reserves all for himself (I will bestow)—he imagines such things to be food for his soul—he forgets death, which is every day possible. Stier.—21. He who is rich for himself, laying up treasure for himself, is by so much robbing his real inward life, his life in and toward God, of its resources. A.—It is not indicated, any more than in the case of Dives, that his riches were unjustly acquired: his fault lay in his forgetting the Giver; forgetting that he was but a steward of them; forgetting that the soul cannot live by them; forgetting how soon death might make him relax his grasp of them. F.

Section 51.—Unanxious Trust in God. Watching.

Galilee.

22. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap: which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them. How 25 much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can 26 add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, 27 why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 28 like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to- morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful 30 mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father 31 knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, 32 and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your 33 Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, 34 where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35, 36 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he 37 cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those ser- vants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve 38 them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find 39 them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have 40 suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

THERE must be more of secret, continuous and real thinking of Him. If prayer is worship of the heart, meditation is that of the mind. Why is there so little meditation among Christians? such a lack of that quietness and thoughtfulness of soul in which chiefly the dews of the Holy Spirit fall on us, and the life of Christ grows? There is much activity of hands and feet, much listening, far too much talking. Yet where the heart is, there the treasure is; and it is in human nature to think of what we love.

To be a sheep of the good Shepherd, to be a child of the eternal Father, to be a subject of the heavenly kingdom, to be an heir of the exceeding weight of glory, is to have the machinery of the divine government for our protection, the resources of the divine treasury for our provision; now the love of God for our possession, presently the vision of God for our reward. All that God is, all that God has, is for his people. The outward features of our life may not be all that we should choose them to be; there may be things we wish for that never come to us; there may be much we wish away that we cannot part from. The persons with whom we live, the circumstances by which we are surrounded, the duties we have to perform, the burdens we have to bear, may not only be other than what we should have selected for ourselves, but may even seem inconsistent with that formation and discipline of character which we honestly wish to promote. But it is faith that overcomes the world, not a sense of enjoyment. The end of life is not personal happiness; it is the image and glory of God. We need not envy others what God has given them and denied us, as if he were hard to us and kind to them. God is just in his ways with all men; but he is also wise and kind; and knowing us better than we know ourselves, fully understand- ing how greatly we are affected by the outward events and conditions of life, he has ordered them with a view to our entire and final, not only our immediate, happiness; and whenever we can be safely trusted with pastures that are green and waters that are still in the way of earthly blessing, the good Shepherd leads us there. A. W. T.

(Verses 22-34, read Section 39.)

22. Take no thought. The word signifies, be not anxious, miserable about to-morrow. We are bidden not to make ourselves wretched by anxious carings and apprehensions about the future; but, in all cases of difficulty, to perform diligently that which appears wisest and best for us to perform; then to resign the matter into the hands of God; so to use our endeavors, as if they were to effect everything; so to trust in God, as if they were to effect nothing. Horne.

This central and comforting faith, that every concern in our lives is directly contrived for us by an interested and sympathizing God, whose hand is shaping, guiding, and bending every little force and event in our discipline toward a definite and special end—a faith which embosoms us in a care so immediate and so fatherly, that we almost want some warmer word than Providence to express it—this faith is not found, in its most radiant and effective exercise, except in hearts that are most alive with the personal love for Christ. Our life seems never, in any way, to be really hid in God, except with and through his Son—and because that is the divinely ordered way. F. D. H.

If we have faith to receive it, the life of Jesus is at once the type and the pledge of God’s providential care for all his children. Not a head reclines upon the bosom of Christ, but every hair of that head is numbered by his Father and our Father, his God and our God. Not a believer falls asleep in Jesus, but the same fatherly arms are open to receive him. Whether he dies peacefully in his bed, or violently, as his Master did, upon the cross; whether he be buried in his own grave beside kindred dust, or, as his Lord was, in borrowed room belonging to a stranger’s sepulchre; all shall be alike under the ordering of the same God; some fragrant token of God’s special consolation shall be broken over the disciple’s head, as over his Lord’s, and the odors of a love, inspired by God, shall float around the still form of the humblest disciple asleep in Jesus. W. I. B.

23. The life.** That uncrowned and often unacknowledged king, the human soul, stands nevertheless the native and hereditary sovereign of our mortal estate. We may trample its royalty under the feet of our passions; we may fill its throne with those vile usurpers, our sensual desires; yet through all abuses the soul waits, pleading its inborn majesty, appealing to its parentage in God, showing its inalienable and immortal right to rule, and expecting its final coronation. The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment. Not the garments, not the meat, not the skill, nor the pleasure, but the life they strengthen and discipline for eternity! What is wanted is to restore the spiritual life to the sovereignty God has designed for it; to recrown the soul and make it master of the flesh; to estimate it as God estimates it; to seek its regeneration as he did who laid down his life for its sake, and declared, that except a man be thus born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. F. D. H.

24-36. Again he reminded them how God clothes, in more than Solomon’s glory, the untolling lilies, and feeds the careless ravens that neither sow nor reap. Food and raiment, and the multitude of possessions, were not life: they had better things to seek after and to hope for; let them not be tossed on this troubled sea of faithless care; be theirs the life of fearless hope, of freest charity, the life of the girded loin and the burning lamp—as servants watching and waiting for the unknown moment of their lord’s return. F.

32. It is your Father’s good pleasure.** Blessed and thrice happy are that little flock, that have such a Father! He hath promised that he will give them an everlasting kingdom in the heavens; and they may be certain that nothing can keep them from it, nothing can happen that will not help to bring them nearer to it. Beveridge.

33. Sell; provide a treasure in the heavens.** God freely gives his kingdom, and yet it must be purchased. It costs little, if we have but little; much, if we have much. But we must give all, either by actually parting with everything, if God require it of us; or at least by disengaging our heart from everything, if God vouchsafe to be satisfied therewith. We can give nothing but what we have received, and we receive even the grace to give it; and the hundred-fold of that which is given by us we receive again in treasure which is eternal, which faileth not, and which cannot possibly be either lost or corrupted.—34. Your treasure. Every one lays up his treasure on earth, if he take not great care; and this earthly treasure is whatever he loves contrary to the will of God, and in which he seeks his own satisfaction. One person, his gold, silver, furniture; his estate, position, power; his business, diversions, pleasure. Another, his learning, books, reputation, ease; his friends, their esteem, affection, approval, and companionship. Q.

35. Loins be girded.** Girding helps to facilitate motion, and adapts for work. Here accordingly the Lord requires that we should maintain a state of constant readiness to go out to meet him. C. B.—The just and clear image which our divine Master employs may be stated in a single word: Be detached. What hinders us from departing, or departing willingly, or walking with a firm and rapid step when the signal is given, is the attachments which, like the foldings and refoldings of a flowing robe, embarrass and retard us. A. V.—38. Let us not be lulled asleep by his delay. One thing is evident, though he may come in the night, he will bring light with him. C. B.

Section 52.—The Faithful Servant. Divisive Effects of the Gospel.

Galilee.

41. THEN Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43, 44 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth 45 I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men- 46 servants, and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither 47 did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes, for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him will they ask the more. 48, 49 I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! 51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, 52 and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 53 And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, 54 ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, and of the earth; but how is it, that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? 55 When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and 56 the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.

Ir is by no means of so much consequence what a man does as how he does it. Accuracy, perseverance, conscientiousness, patience, industry, are all invaluable properties of human character; and when the King comes to take account of his servants, each faithful servant’s character and powers will at the end of his earthly career come up to judgment, not for condemnation, but for scrutiny; not only in reference to the past, but also to the future. Surely it is a noble and elevating reflection—one, moreover, to give much consolation and light about many otherwise unintelligible circumstances in the providential government of God—that nothing we do or suffer now that pleases God can be lost, or go unrewarded and forgotten. Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor. Humble diligence, uncomplaining patience, cheerful self-denial, unworldly simplicity, are seen of God, if neglected by men; and in the next world, he who has thought most of God and his brother will be found the truly wise man; and in the day when God makes up his jewels to set in his Son’s diadem, those shall be very near the throne who have postponed the praise of men to the praise of God, who have been contented to do modest duties well, rather than important duties badly; who have never suffered any earthly motive to blind their eyes to the seeking of God’s glory, or to blunt their hearts to the sense of his love. A. W. T.

42. He answers Peter’s question indirectly by another. The meaning they were left to gather is this: “To you certainly in the first instance, representing the ‘stewards’ of the ‘household’ I am about to collect, but generally to all ‘servants’ in my house.” Faithful and wise. Fidelity is the first requisite in a servant, wisdom (discretion, and judgment in the exercise of his functions) the next. B.—47, 48. That servant which knew. According to the degree of knowledge which God has afforded to men, so will their crimes receive aggravation of guilt, and be visited with increase of punishment. And the more light and grace he bestows on any, the greater and more perfect Christian performances he will require of them. Hammond.—Few stripes. Degrees of future punishment proportioned to the knowledge sinned against. Even heathens are not without knowledge enough for future judgment; but the reference here is not to such. It is a solemn truth, and though general, like all other revelations of the future world, discloses a tangible and momentous principle in its awards. B.

49. Fire. The highest spiritual element of life which Jesus came to introduce into this earth, with reference to its mighty effects in quickening all that is akin to it and destroying all that is opposed. To cause this element of life to take up its abode on earth, and wholly to pervade human hearts with its warmth, was the lofty destiny of the Redeemer. O.—50. What a pressure of spirit is upon me, till it be over! Before a promiscuous audience, such obscure language was fit on a theme like this; but what surges of mysterious emotion in the view of what was now so near at hand does it reveal! The connection of all this with the foregoing warnings about hypocrisy, covetousness, and watchfulness, is deeply solemn: “My conflict hastens apace; mine over, yours begins; and then, let the servants tread in their Master’s steps, uttering their testimony entire and fearless, neither loving nor dreading the world, anticipating awful wrenches of the dearest ties in life, but looking forward, as I do, to the completion of their testimony, when, reaching the haven after the tempest, they shall enter into the joy of their Lord.” B.

56. Ye do not discern this time? The signs of this time were very plain: the sceptre had departed from Judah: the general expectation of the coming of the Messiah is testified even by profane authors: the prophets had all spoken of him, and the greatest of them, the Baptist, had announced his arrival. 57-59. In what follows, our Lord takes occasion from the request about the inheritance, which had begun this discourse, to pass to infinitely more solemn matters: “Why do ye not discern of yourselves your true state—that which is just—the justice of your case as before God? You are going (the course of your life is the journey) with your adversary (the just and holy law of God) before the magistrate (God himself); therefore by the way take pains to be delivered from him (by repentance, and faith in the Son of God), lest he drag thee to the judge (i. e., the Son, to whom all judgment is committed), and the judge deliver thee to the exactor, and the exactor cast thee into prison.” A.—If thou sin, the word of God is thy adversary. It is the adversary of thy will till it becomes the author of thy salvation. But if thou maintain a good will to thine adversary, and agree with him, instead of a judge, shalt thou find a father; instead of a stern officer, an angel taking thee into Abraham’s bosom; instead of a prison, a paradise. How rapidly hast thou changed all things in the way, because thou hast “agreed with thine adversary!” Aug.

Section 53.—Calamities are not Judgments. The Barren Fig-tree.

Galilee.