Matthew 20

1. Fon the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went 2 out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed 3 with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went 4 out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto 5 them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, I will give you. And 6 they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did like- 7 wise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and 8 saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no 9 man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever 10 is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith 11 unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last 12 unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they re- 13 ceived every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should 14 have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they 15 had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last 16 have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne 17 the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do 18 thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go

15 thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do 16 what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Is the vineyard of the Lord there is something for every one to do. No disciple can claim a dignity of position, or a length of service, that should exempt him from the duty of work; nor are any so feeble or so humble that they can do nothing for the Master. Our duty is to work where he has placed us: we can trust his love for the reward. J. P. T.

To see God as he is—this is the reward which he has for all his people, the penny unto all; to each what he would make it. For if the vision of God constitute the blessedness of the future world, then they whose spiritual eye is most enlightened will drink in most of his glory; then, since only like can know like, all advances which are here made in humility, in holiness, in love, are a polishing of the mirror that it may reflect more distinctly the divine image, a purging of the eye that it may see more clearly the divine glory, an enlarging of the vessel that it may receive more amply of the divine fulness; and, on the contrary, all pride, all self-righteousness, all sin of every kind, whether it impair or altogether destroy the capacities for receiving from God, is in its degree a staining of the mirror, a darkening of the eye, a narrowing of the vessel. T.

THIS parable stands in closest connection with the last four verses of the preceding section, and can only be rightly understood by their help. The parable is directed against a wrong temper and spirit of mind, which all men in possession of spiritual privileges have need to be warned against. The warning was primarily addressed to the apostles, as the chiefest and foremost in the Christian Church, the earliest called to labor in the Lord’s vineyard—“the first,” both in time, and in the amount of suffering and toil which they would have to undergo. They had seen the rich young man go sorrowful away, unable to abide the proof by which the Lord had revealed how strongly he was holden to the things of the world. They (for Peter here, as in so many other instances, is the representative and spokesman of all) would fain know what their reward should be, who had done this very thing from which he had shrunk, who had forsaken all for the gospel’s sake. The Lord answers them first and fully, that they and as many as should do the same for his sake, should reap an abundant reward. At the same time the question itself, “What shall we have?” was not a right one; it was putting their relation to their Lord on a wrong footing; there was a tendency in the question to bring their obedience to a calculation of so much work, so much reward. There was also a self-complacency lurking in this speech; a comparison between themselves and the young man who had found the requirement too hard for him.

1. Laborers into his vineyard. In other words, the manner of God’s dealings with those whom he calls to the privileges of working in his Church—that is, his kingdom in its present imperfect development—is similar to that of a householder who went early in the morning to hire laborers. T.

6. We observed every morning (in Persia) before the sun rose a numerous band of peasants with spades in their hands, waiting to be hired for the day to work in the surrounding fields. Passing by the same place late in the day, we found some standing idle, and, on putting this very same question to them, they answered us, “Because no man hath hired us.” Morier.—The greatest man of business in worldly things is a mere idle gazer, if he has not yet entered on the true work which alone is worth anything, or gains any reward. Stier.— None can take encouragement from the eleventh-hour laborer, except those who to the question, Why stand ye here idle? can reply, No man hath hired us. Each laborer went to work at the first call. L. A.

12. The less value we set upon that which we do for God, the greater will its value be in his account. We should employ our minds less on what we do and suffer for his sake than on what he does in us by his grace to enable us; since we have nothing but what we have received, and are still of ourselves but unprofitable servants. Q.

13,14. No wrong. The sum you agreed for is paid you. To grudge the benevolence shown to others, when, by your own showing, you have been honorably dealt with, is both unworthy envy of your neighbor and discontent with the goodness that engaged and rewarded you at all. B.—With mine own. Whatever believers receive from God is of grace, and not of works. What he gives them is not their own, but his own. D. K.

15. Thine eye evil. It was to root out this evil self from us, and to put love in its room, that Christ died and the Holy Ghost comes. Let not that death and that coming be in vain for you. Cease not to cry out, weary the ears of God with prayer, until he frees you from all selfishness, and from that worst mark of it, a grudging and evil eye. A. W. Hare.

16. First shall be last.** The lesson taught to Peter and to all disciples in all times is, that those who seem chiefest in labor, if they forget that the reward is of grace and not of works, and exalt themselves above their fellow-laborers, may altogether lose the things which they have wrought. T.

1-16. How important a thing it is for us that a parable exhibiting the doctrine of free and ununmerited grace, so strongly put forth by Paul, has been preserved to us! Taken in connection with that of the pounds (Section 116), it forms a complete whole (the two parables being mutually complementary to each other) of Christ’s truth: on the one hand, that the gifts of grace are equally bestowed, and are to be received by all alike in humility of heart; and, on the other, that there are various stages of Christian progress, depending upon the use that is made of the grace given: on the one hand, the humble receiving of grace is contrasted with the asserting of one’s own merits; and, on the other, a self-active zeal is opposed to slothful inactivity. N.

Section 114.—The Last Journey. Serving greater than Ruling.

Mk.32 And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed, and as they followed they were afraid. And he took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him; and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be betrayed, and delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him. And he shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.M. 20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children, with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And James and John come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. And the mother saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We are able. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.Mk.39 And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John, and were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever among you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

THE two disciples really mean to be true to his interests; but they are not so far spiritualized as not to be thinking that they can at the same time serve his interests and advance their own. They are following, but following half unconsciously for a personal reward. Christ’s answer is not for these seekers of office only, but for all men who would think of being Christians for a compensation, in whatever form we give that compensation shape—in public prosperity, in agreeable society, in our neighbor’s confidence, votes, trade, esteem, or in personal happiness. He says, Think nothing about sitting on my right and my left, in my new kingdom, which is even far newer and stranger than you imagine. Follow on in my path. Do all the daily work of a disciple. Take up my cross and learn what its great redemption means. Warm and enlarge your hearts with my Holy Spirit. Be concerned about your service and sacrifice, not about the recompense.

Religion will never yield its true rewards to those that seek it for the sake of its rewards. It deals very frankly with us, having no concern to make proselytes under false pretences. It is willing we should understand that those who court it for anything else than its Giver’s sake, will meet perpetual disappointment. Whatever else they may get, it will not be Christian peace. Men may carry their selfishness into their religion, or rather into certain religious formalities and observances, as into everything else. But they will bring, away only what they take in. For of our Christian religion the badge is a cross—even as self-forgetfulness is the spirit, love is the motive, disinterestedness is the principle, faith is the inmost spring, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” the first lesson and the last. F. D. H.

Mk. 32, 33; L. 32-34. Were amazed, and as they followed were afraid. There was that in his aspect, attitude, and actions that filled them with wonder and with awe. It was not long till an explanation was offered them. He took the twelve aside, and, with still greater minuteness of detail, told them what was about to happen within a few days at Jerusalem. H.

Once more—for the third time—with fuller, more startling particulars, he told them that he should be betrayed to the priests and scribes; by them condemned; then handed over to the Gentiles; by the Gentiles mocked, scourged, and—he now for the first time revealed to them, without any ambiguity, the crowning horror—crucified; and that, on the third day, he should rise again. But their minds were full of Messianic hopes; they were so preoccupied with the conviction that now the kingdom of God was to come in all its splendor, that the prophecy passed by them like the idle wind; they could not, and would not, understand. F.—They had so strong a prepossession that the resurrection of Christ (which they, no doubt, understood in a purely Jewish sense) should introduce the earthly kingdom of the Messiah, that no declaration of our Lord could remove it from their minds; they always “understood not what was spoken.” And it is observable that their ambitious disputes concerning primacy or preference usually follow the mention of Christ’s death and resurrection. H. M.

M. 20. The mention of thrones (Section 112), as in reversion for the twelve at “the coming” of their Master in his glory, neutralized this announcement of his death. His open triumph was expected as very near at hand; his death they did not understand, and could not reconcile with his other statements. Dreams of ambition, thus kindled, had risen, especially in the minds of James and John, who, with Peter, were the most honored of the apostles. They had been in a better social position than most of their brethren, and, with Salome, their mother, had given all they had to the cause of their Master. G.—Then came the mother. Salome was, nevertheless, a faithful disciple of Jesus. She was one of those women who ministered of their substance to his support. She forsook him not when he hung on the cross, and sought the sepulchre with purchased spices to anoint his body. But, like all her people and those nearest Christ, she shared in the hope of a visible Messianic kingdom. J. G. B.

Mk. 35. James and John. They had made up their minds that he was the Messiah. He had himself lately confirmed them in that faith. But with their notions of the Messiahship, such sufferings and death as were actually before Jesus were utterly inconsistent. They could be but figurative expressions, then, that he had employed, intended to represent some severe struggle with his adversaries through which he had to pass before his kingdom was set up and acknowledged. One thing alone was clear—that the time so long looked forward to had come at last. This visit to Jerusalem was to witness the erection of the kingdom. All other notions lost in that, the thought of the places they were to occupy in that kingdom entered again into the hearts of two of the apostles. H.

M. 22. Jesus bore gently with their selfishness and error. They had asked in their blindness for that position which, but a few days afterward, they were to see occupied in shame and anguish by the two crucified robbers. Their imaginations were haunted

by twelve thrones; His thoughts were of three crosses. They dreamt of earthly crowns; He told them of a cup of bitterness and a baptism of blood. F.—We are able. Through all the selfishness and ambition, and the ignorance of the future that their request revealed, there shone out in this prompt and no doubt perfectly honest reply a true and deep attachment to their Master, a readiness to suffer with him or for him. And he is far quicker to recognize the one than to condemn the other. H.

Mk. 39. Ye shall drink. One of these brethren was the first of the apostles to drink the cup of suffering and be baptized with the baptism of blood (Acts 12:1); the other had the longest experience among them of a life of trouble and persecution. A.—They cannot do it now, but in due time they shall follow him, they shall rise to their calling and bravely meet all its risks and hardships. He would teach us what great capacities and hidden powers lie in a true disciple’s life, capacities which are never suspected until they are called into exercise. No man knows his own strength, far less is he able to foresee the divine strength which shall be added to his own. When the night comes and the light of our souls has gone down, it is not total darkness forever. God has created other lights to rule the night. New mercies, new sources of light and trust arise, new hopes are awakened, new links between heaven and earth are created, and we learn how little we knew our own capacity for bearing the cross.

40. On my right hand, etc.** In a worldly kingdom, if one sits at the right hand and another on the left, that special honor prevents any one else from obtaining it; but in Christ’s kingdom there is no such exclusiveness. By the very nature of spiritual greatness it seeks to make others as great. The more a man progresses in truth the more does he desire to see all others true; the greater his love to God the more does he long to see this character spread in the earth. Not mine to give. Place and honor are not to be given by him, for the reason that the whole character of such a kingdom as Christ founded is spiritual, and its honors and recompense are spiritual also; and spiritual greatness is something which lies in the heart and life, not in the lot of men. In the kingdom of God the most honorable place is held by those whose character is likest God. Truth, affection, purity, righteousness, charity, are the substance and strength of the kingdom of God; and these are not things to be given as a jewel or a title to an estate can be made over to a friend or favorite. All the best and divinest treasures of God are wrought into the heart and life of good men, and are not merely transferred by his power and will. And no gift or grace is to be appropriated without the secret force of assimilation, and without the operation of God’s law for moulding and perfecting the human spirit. A. W.

Christ puts the disinterested spirit at the very centre and core of the whole message: Drink of my cup, be baptized with my baptism—no matter where you sit, on thrones or footstools! Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great; for ye shall be the children of the Highest. F. D. H.—And so our Lord teaches us that nearness to him in character and life here is the one essential preparation for being with him forever. If we have this character and life we need not ask whether he will acknowledge us. Where Christ’s spirit is there is Christ himself; and he who has the love of God in his heart has within his heart that heaven which now exists, and which can never pass away. A. W.

M. 25. Calling the whole twelve, offenders and offended, round him, therefore, he pointed out how utterly they had misapprehended the nature of his kingdom, notwithstanding all his teaching through the past years. G.—Princes exercise domin-

ion. Ambition and tyranny belong to the world, but in the kingdom of God the duty required is to minister, not to domineer. C. B.—Mk. 43. But so it shall not be among you. In the kingdom about to be set up this principle shall have no place. All my servants shall there be equal; and the only “greatness” known to it shall be the greatness of humility and devotedness to the service of others. He that goes down the deepest in these services of self-denying humility shall rise the highest and hold the “chiefest” place in that kingdom; even as the Son of man, whose abasement and self-sacrifice for others, transcending all, gives him of right a place above all! B.

44. Servant of all.** The word “minister” in the former verse is a name given to any who occasionally attended others, or was statedly employed to render a particular kind of service; but “servant” here (or slave) signifies one whose whole business is to serve, and who is the property of another. The words “of all” increase the gradation. D.

45. To give his life a ransom for.** The sacrificial and vicarious nature of Christ’s death is here expressed by himself as plainly as the manner of his death is foretold a few verses before. B.—The principal uses of ransom are the following: a payment as equivalent for a life destroyed, Ex. 21: 30; the price of redemption of a slave, Lev. 25: 51; “propitiation for,” Prov. 13: 8. For many. Many is placed in opposition to the one life which is given, and not with any distinction from all. In the usage of these two words, as applied to our redemption by Christ, all is the objective, many the subjective designation of those for whom Christ died. He died for all objectively; subjectively, the great multitude, whom no man can number (many), will be the saved by him in the end. A.—In this, as well as in numberless other passages of the New Testament, it is as plain as words can make anything, that the death of Christ is proposed to us as our sacrifice and reconciliation, our atonement and redemption. It is not possible for any one who considers these expressions to imagine that Christ’s death was only a confirmation of his gospel, a pattern of a holy and patient suffering of death, and a clear proof of a resurrection. It is plain that Christ’s death was our sacrifice; by which is meant that God thought fit to offer pardon in such a way as should demonstrate both the guilt of sin and his hatred of it; and yet, with that, his love of sinners, and his compassion toward them. Burnet.

Wonderful is the Saviour of sinners—wonderful in divine power and glory—wonderful in the humility of manhood; example for the highest; consolation for the saddest; companion of the lowliest. No more is he the Redeemer of men by his passion than Leader by his life. No less do they become his disciples when walking in the steps of his ministering, than when baptized with the blood falling from his cross—greatest when ministers to their brethren, chiefs when servants of all, kings and priests of his kingdom and gospel when with his spirit perpetuating one of his own offices. R. B. T.

Section 115.—Bartimeus. Zaccheus.

Jericho.

L. 35 And they came to Jericho; and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, a great multitude followed him. And behold, a certain blind man, Bartimeus, the son of 36 Timeus, sat by the highway side begging. And hearing the multitude pass by he 37 asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And 38 when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou 39 Son of David, have mercy on me. And the multitude which went before rebuked him and charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more a great 40 deal, O Lord, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and com- Mk.49 manded him to be brought unto him. And they call the blind man, saying unto 50 him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose L. 40 and came to Jesus. And when he was come near, Jesus asked him, saying, What wilt 41 thou that I shall do unto thee? And the blind man said unto him, Lord, that I may 42 receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: go thy way: thy faith 43 hath made thee whole and saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. L.1, 2 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named 3 Zaccheus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was: and could not for the press, because he was little of stat- 4 ure. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him; for he was 5 to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy 6, 7 house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be a guest with a man that 8 is a sinner. And Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accu- 9 sation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to 10 this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

THE cure of a man depended upon no uncertain or arbitrary movement of the feelings of Jesus. He was always ready to heal. No one was ever refused who asked him. It rested with the man: the healing could not have its way and enter in, save the man would open his door. Hence the question, and the praise of the patient’s faith. There was no danger then of that diseased self-consciousness which nowadays is always asking, “Have I faith?” searching, in fact, for grounds of self-confidence, and turning away the eyes in the search from the only source whence confidence can flow. How shall faith be born but of the beholding of the faithful? This diseased self-contemplation was not indeed a Jewish complaint at all, nor possible in the bodily presence of the Master. Hence the praise given to a man’s faith could not hurt him; it only made him glad and more faithful still. McD.

Christ’s standard of right was high—higher than ever man had placed it before. Not moral excellence, but heavenly, he demanded. The Sermon on the Mount tells of a purity as of snow resting on an Alpine pinnacle, white in the blue holiness of heaven; and yet he the All-pure had tenderness for what was not pure. He who stood in divine uprightness that never faltered, felt compassion for the ruined, and infinite gentleness for human fall. Broken, disappointed, doubting hearts, in dismay and bewilderment, never looked in vain to him. Very strange, if we stop to think of it, for generally human goodness repels from it evil men; they shun the society and presence of men reputed good. But here was purity attracting evil; that was the wonder. The Son of man was ever standing among the lost, and his ever predominant feelings were sadness for the evil in human nature, hope for the divine good in it, and the divine image never worn out wholly. F. W. R.

L. 35. “As he was come nigh unto Jericho,” are Luke’s words. According to Matthew and Mark this healing occurred “as he went out of Jericho.” This discrepancy has not been satisfactorily explained. Further, Matthew mentions “two blind men,” while Mark and Luke (whose narrative we have given above) speak only of one, by name. Concerning this difference, Archbishop Trench remarks: “The silence of one narrator is not to be assumed as the contradiction of the statement of another; thus Mark and Luke, making especial mention of one blind man, do not contradict Matthew, who mentions two.” Dr. Brown observes: “Many ways of accounting for slight divergences of detail have been proposed. Perhaps, if we knew all the facts, we should see no difficulty; but that we have been left so far in the dark shows that the thing is of no moment any way. One thing is plain, there could have been no collusion among the authors of these gospels.” And Dr. Fisher, while asserting that “the discrepancy confirms rather than weakens the evidences of Christianity,” adds: “Richard Baxter in his day complained of those who assert that the Bible presents no signs of human imperfection, stake the truth of the Christian religion upon the correctness of every item of history, genealogy, number, or word, and assert that every one who doubts that a single word is true, or was dictated by the Holy Spirit, may with equal reason doubt the whole gospel. And here, says Baxter, I must tell you a great and needful truth, which ignorant Christians, fearing to confess, by overdoing tempt men to infidelity. The Scripture is like a man’s body, where some parts are for the preservation of the rest, and may be maimed without death. The sense is the soul of Scripture, and the letters but the body or vehicle. Now, as always, it is essential to remember that the letter killeth. Concessions which the progress of Bible criticism renders imperative, deprive infidelity of its most available weapon of attack upon the general credibility of the gospel history.” J. G. B.

37. They told. This divine, disinterested Redeemer, who had come from heaven to speak to what was deepest and best in their hearts, to take all their burdens and sicknesses upon himself that he might call them more effectually to honor and immortality, was walking their streets and waiting at their doors. It was told along the highways, in villages and cities, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” They neither hindered nor followed him. The routine of the day’s business, family festivities, social pleasure, bargains to be begun or closed in the market, each one’s little busy world of care or display or profit, was enough. What if the Lord of all life, the healer of all miseries, and final judge of all souls, is passing by? Let him pass. Give us a little more of this world; give us the meat that perisheth; give us popular envy and ascendancy; give us to-day’s abundance. What is Nazareth or its prophet to us? Answer him as he stands at the door and knocks, and tell him there is no room for him in our houses; we are engaged and cannot see him; in this great tavern of a world, as in the inn at Bethlehem, there is no room for him. The world ignores its King. F. D. H.

38. It was a great act of faith in this blind man to call him the Son of David, whom the people pointed out as being JESUS OF NAZARETH. Beng.—The cry was a recognition of his dignity as the Messiah; for this name, “Son of David,” was the popular designation of the Messiah, as the one who should come, according to the words of Isaiah, to give sight to the blind. T.—Have mercy on me. The emphasis naturally falls on the word “me,” for Bartimeus, hearing “that it was Jesus” and knowing his own disadvantage from his blindness in the crowd, fears he may be overlooked. O. E. D.

41. The Lord’s question, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” is, in part, an expression of his readiness to aid, in part uttered for the calling out into yet livelier exercise the faith and expectation of the petitioner. T.—Blindness of heart is the only blindness of which men very seldom complain, and from which they scarcely ever beg to be delivered. It is one part of this blindness not to perceive it, and to think that our sight is good. Q.

1. It was necessary to rest at Jericho before entering on the rocky gorge which led from it to Jerusalem, and formed a rough, almost continuous, ascent of six hours, from six hundred feet below to

Blind Bartimeus.

nearly three thousand feet above the level of the Mediterranean. F.—Coming from Jerusalem the gorge opens suddenly at a turn of the path about two miles before reaching the plain of Jericho, where the traveller finds himself in front of a precipice five hundred feet high, pierced by many inaccessible caverns, and with a steep, rugged hill above. From the top of the gorge we enjoyed one of the finest views in Southern Palestine. At our feet lay stretched a bright-green forest. Beyond it a long brown expanse which divides it from the Jordan, whose course we could just trace by the depression marked by a dark-green line of trees. Beyond rose a little higher the plains of Moab, green, rich, and wooded as they retire from the river; and above these stood out clear and sharp the long even range of the hills of Moab. To the right was the calm Dead Sea. H. B. T.

The small but rich plain sloping gently upward from the level of the Dead Sea, 1,350 feet under the Mediterranean, to the stern background of the hills of Quarantana, had the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed the vegetation of the tropics. Its fig-trees were famous: it was unique in its groves of palms of various kinds: its crops of dates were a proverb: the balsam-plant, which grew principally here, furnished a costly perfume, and was in great repute for healing wounds: maize yielded a double harvest: and wheat ripened a whole month earlier than in Galilee. Rising like an amphitheatre from amidst this luxuriant scene, lay Jericho, the chief place east of Jerusalem—at seven miles’ distance from the Jordan—on swelling slopes, seven hundred feet above the bed of the river. G.—It was directly on the road from the lower Jordan to Jerusalem; and the Galileans, on their way south to the annual festivals, were accustomed, in order to avoid Samaria, to cross the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, descend by the river on its eastern side, and recross it to the west on reaching Judea—passing up to Jerusalem through Jericho. N. C. B. (See maps, pages 50 and 395.)

Jericho was a Levitical city, and hence the residence of a great many priests: its position as the centre of an exceptionally productive district, and also of the import and export trade between the two sides of the Jordan, made it also a city of publicans. It had much the same place in Southern Palestine as Capernaum—the centre of the trade between the sea-coast and the northern interior, as far as Damascus—held in Galilee. The transit to and fro of so much wealth brought with it proportionate work and harvest for the farmers of the revenue. Hence, a strong force of customs and excise collectors was stationed in it, under a local head, named Zaccheus. G.—Whether he was one of the publicani, the farmers of the revenue, or held some intermediate rank between these and the portitores, the actual collectors of the customs and taxes, is uncertain; but the latter is the more probable supposition. T.

4. The sycomore, or “Egyptian fig”—not to be confounded with the sycamine-tree or “mulberry” of L. 17: 6, or with the sycomore—is exceedingly easy to climb. F.

5. He, who knows how to find his own in the most unlikely places, who had seen Nathanael under the fig-tree, with sure and unerring glance discerned Zaccheus in the sycomore. To-day I must abide at thy house. Words of an extraordinary grace, for while the Lord accepted many invitations into the houses of men, yet we do not read that he honored any but this one by thus offering himself to his hospitality. T.—If Zaccheus had not been alert now, he would have failed of his only opportunity. That is always a memorable time in any man’s history, when, through a book, a letter, a personal interview, a sermon, a special providence, he is brought into contact with that spiritual power which arrests his waywardness and changes the whole current of his being. W. A.

6. Earthly goodness draws admiration on itself. The heavenly imparts itself—inspires a spirit. And such preëminently was the holiness of Christ. Had some earthly great or good one come to Zaccheus’s house, his feeling would have been, “What condescension is here!” But when he came whose every word and act had in it life and power, no such barren reflection was the result; but, instead, the beauty of holiness had become a power within him, and a longing for self-consecration. F. W. R.

8. Fourfold. The Roman law required this; the Jewish law, but the principal and a fifth more. There was no demand made for either; but, to testify the change he had experienced, besides rendering the half of his fair gains to the poor, he voluntarily determines to give up all that was ill-gotten, quadrupled. B.—He had been hitherto no extortioner. Had he been conscious that his were in the main treasures of wickedness, gotten together by fraud and wrong, it would have been ridiculous to offer as a gift half of them to the poor, before it was seen whether the whole might not be swallowed up in acts of restitution, with such addition as the law required. Without having been this extortioner, he yet feels that, according to that higher standard of right which he recognizes now, some of his gains may prove to have been unfairly acquired. Any such injustice he will make largely good. T.

One particular and eminent fruit of true repentance is the making satisfaction and restitution to those whom we have injured. And this, as it is one of the best signs and proofs of a true repentance, so is it one of the most proper and genuine effects of it: for this is, as much as in us lies, to undo what we have done, and to unsin our sins. Tillotson.—All this which he now announces of a giving of his own, and a restoring of that which is another’s, is rather to be taken as the first-fruits of Christ’s visit, the outward utterance of the mighty inward change that had passed upon him. T.—A new man is this, a converted man, a Christianized publican; and in all these purposes which he avows there is an air of honesty, a whole-heartedness, which proves that the change is thorough and worthy to be recorded. This avowal is the free act of a grateful and penitent sinner; it is the evidence of a new affection; it is the cheerful resolution of a man who has come to see how much he owes to that mercy by which he is forgiven and saved. W. A.

9. These words are spoken to Zaccheus, but in the hearing of the multitude, and for them no less than for him. This appears in the third person, under which he is addressed. As meant for him, they are an acceptance, on the Lord’s part, of this offering of his goods as the true expression of a higher offering, even of a dedication of himself to God: “This day is salvation come to this house.” As addressed to the multitude, they contain a further justification of the grace shown to this man that was a sinner. Sinner as he is, salvation has yet come to his house, “forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” T.—10. His repentance and faith should secure to him the gracious promises made to Abraham, his father. And then he added, You see the end of the Son of man’s coming on the earth: he came to save that which was lost. W. G.

THUS it is, as the time is now so near, that he holds up his death as the payment of the great price of our redemption, the ransom given by the Living One for the lost.—Such is the free spontaneous mercy in either case exercised by our Lord; such is the way in which he meets simplicity of faith, ardor of desire, strenuousness of effort, as seen in the blind beggar and in the rich publican. Two better instances illustrative of how the sinner and the Saviour are brought together, of what true faith is, and what true repentance, you could not well desire, than those of Bartimeus and Zaccheus. Let us but be as earnest to see him as those two men were, as careless of what others say or do, as resolute to overcome all difficulties, and we shall find that he will be as ready to hear, to heal, to come to us, to take up his abode with us, to bring salvation with him, to gather us, the lost, into the fold of the saved. . . . Jericho is changed from what it was. So little is left of the city, of its hippodrome and amphitheatre, its towers and its palaces, that it is difficult to determine its site. Its gardens and its groves are gone, not one solitary palm-tree for a blind beggar to sit beneath, nor a sycomore for any one to climb. The City of Fragrance it was called of old. There remains now but the fragrance of those deeds of grace and mercy done there by him who in passing through it closed his earthly journeyings, and went up thence to Jerusalem to die. H.

Section 116.—The Pounds.

Jericho.