7, 8. sacrifice," the requoting of the O. T. saying by our Lord A.D. 28. sugg. of its value as indicating the opp. character of Christianity a Hos. vi. 6; Mat. and Pharisaism. Son.. man," our great Head and representa- ix. 11-13; Pr. tive. Sabbath, hence on that day especially His servants should xxi. 3; He. xiii. work for Him. The Sabbath made for man.-I. Not made for him to abuse by turning it into a day of mere animal rest or recreation; II. But to use for the need of his higher nature-worship, meditation, &c. III. Divine love in consulting man's nature in providing the Sabbath. 16. b Mat. v. 17, 18; Mk. i. 21; ii. 27, 28; Lu. iv. 16; xxiii. 56; Jo. v. 17, 18; xx. 19, 26; Ac. xvi. 13; xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; He. iv. 4, 9; Re. i. 10. "When love be gins to sicken and decay, it an en Mercy and Sacrifice.-Archbishop Tillotson gave the most exemplary proof of his charity, at the revocation of the edict of Nantz, when thousands of Huguenots were driven over to this country, many of whom settled at Canterbury, where their posterity still continue. The king having granted briefs to collect useth alms for their relief, Dr. T. was peculiarly active in promoting mony; there are their success. Dr. Beveridge, one of the prebendaries of Canter- no tricks in plain bury, refusing to read the briefs as being contrary to the rubrics, he was silenced by Dr. Tillotson, with this energetic reply, "Doctor, doctor, charity is above rubrics." forced and cere simp le faith." - Shaks pere. withered Mar. iii. 1, 5; 9, 10. departed, not on the same Sabbath," on way back cure of fr. Judæa to Galilee, aft. the passover. synagogue, His custom man with on Sabbath-day; yet what reasons He might have offered for not hand going. hand, right hand. withered, no feeling or motion (ill. loss of executive power). asked, knowing His tenderness, and seeing what He would do. accuse, of what? of omitting to do good? or not keeping the day aft. their fashion? Withered right hand, represents, I. Loss of moral power; II. Absence of executive power; III. Impotence of whole man in life of faith, obedience, etc. Good deeds and the Sabbath.-A Jew who had done a worthy act on the Sabbath, which others refused to do, was reproached for it, and replied, "Good deeds have no Sabbath." Lu. vi. 6-10. a Lu. vi. 6. b Greswell. Diss. viii. vol. ii. c Lu. vi. 6. Wither, to fade or become dry in the weather. A.-S. wydern, dryness; greyder; Ger. wittern, to weather. Class and Desk. 11-13. man, with any feeling of humanity, or regard for his a This was aft. property. one, only one, the rest being safe. sheep, only an forbidden in the animal, and not very valuable. pit, a very likely thing to happen. only permitted Gemara, and lift.. out, and so violate the day. better,' in how many to lay planks for respects? and hence should be better cared for, and helped out of the beast to come difficulties. lawful.. well.. Sabbath, on no day is it lawful out. to do ill. saith, at same time communicating power. forth, N. T. 53. without fear, in sight of all. restored. . other, such Divine power proving His authority as Lord of Sabbath. Man better than a sheep, in that 1. He is a social; 2. A sympathetic; 3. An intellectual; 4. A moral; 5. A religious; 6. An immortal being. 66 "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how in finite in faculty! in form and mov ing, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel, in ap Dignity of Man.-M. Boudon, an eminent surgeon, was one day sent for by the Cardinal du Bois, prime minister of France, to perform a very serious operation upon him. The Cardinal, on seeing him enter the room, said to him, “ You must not expect to prehension how treat me in the same rough manner as you treat your poor miser-like a God!"able wretches at your hospital of the Hôtel Dieu." replied M. Boudon, with great dignity, 66 My Lord," Shakspere. every one of those miser able wretches, as your Eminence is pleased to call them, is a prime minister in my eyes." G A.D. 28. intrigues of the Phari 14-16. held.. counsel, took counsel, see marg. A.V. It was diff. to carry out the design they had previously a conceived. knew, which He did of His own omniscience, rather than fr. lips of others. withdrew, the time came when He did not Mk. iii. 1-6; Lu. withdraw. thence, to Sea of Galilee. healed, His works of mercy not hindered by threats and plots. not.. known, lest His work as a teacher should be hindered by men who might be more anxious for His cures than His doctrine. sees vi. 11. a Jo. v. 16, 18. b Jo. vii. 6, 8, 30; viii. 20. Plotting and persevering.-I. Pharisees plotting the destruction c Jo. xi. 8, cf. X. of Jesus; II. Christ persevering in works of beneficence and salvation; III. One district suffers, but another gains, by the secret council of the wicked. 31. d Ma. x. 23. e Mk. iii. 7-12. "He whose pride oppresses the humble may, perhaps, be humbled, but will never be humble."-Lava ter. majesty and mercy of Jesus predicted a Is. xlii. 1-4. b Phi. ii. 6, 7; Ma. xx. 28; Mk. x. 45; Zec. iii. 8; Jo. xvii. 4, 6, 38. c Ps. cxlvii. 3; Is. lxi. 1. d Re. iii. 2, 19. "It is by sym- of others, that we are moved, and Pharisaism rebuked.-"It was my custom in my youth," says a celebrated Persian writer, "to rise from my sleep to watch, pray, and read the Koran. One night, as I was thus engaged, my father, a man of practised virtue, awoke. Behold!' said I to him, 'thy other children are lost in religious slumbers, while I alone am awake to praise God.' 'Son of my soul,' said he, 'it is better to sleep than to wake to remark the faults of thy brethren."" 17-21. fulfilled, as every thing, clearly predicted of the Messiah, was fulfilled in Christ. Isaiah (B.c. cir. 712), called the evangelical' prophet, and whose descriptions of Messiah so exactly correspond with the character and life of Jesus, that had they been the work of an eye-witness, they could not have been more exact. servant," note His work, and the spirit in wh. He did it. shew, make known. judgment, He was judge as well as Messiah, majesty and meekness meet in Christ. strive..cry, note fr. v. 17 what sugg. this quotation; and see the force of it in this part esp. streets, as our Lord was not ostentatious Himself, so He would not have others be in His behalf. bruised reed, ill. wounded heart. smoking flax, a good desire almost expired. victory, of justice, truth, and mercy. trust, yet one of a race despised by Gentiles. Weak grace victorious.-Object, "bruised reed;" act, "not are moved as they break;" continuance, "till he send forth." Doctrine.-True, are never suffer- though weak, grace shall be preserved, and in the end prove ed to be indif- victorious. I. The Father engaged to preserve it; His attributes— ferent spectators love, etc.; II. Christ also, as purchaser, actual proprietor - by of almost any-donation, conquest, etc.—as a steward, having authority, ability, can do or suffer. faithfulness; III. Holy Spirit also, His mission, titles, etc., prove For sympathy this. Use of this doctrine-operations of grace may be intermay be con-rupted; comfort of grace may be eclipsed; habit of inherent of substitution, grace cannot be lost; grace, though oppressed, will recover itself; by wh. we are final apostacy of a regenerate man impossible. thing wh. men sidered as a sort put into the place and affected in Sympathy of Christ." Like as if a man be sick of some grievous of another man, disease, and if a friend come unto him that hath been troubled many respects as with the same disease, he will show more compassion than twenty he is affected."-others; even so Christ, having felt in his own body and soul the anguish and the manifold perplexities that we feel in our temptations and afflictions, hath His bowels, as it were, a running towards us, evermore being pressed, and ready to relieve us in all our miseries."g Burke. f Step. Charnock. g Cawdray. blind and dumb man healed 22. possessed, etc. the worst part of his affliction. blind dumb, Lu. says he was dumb, but does not say he was not blind. spake .. saw, the cure extended to the whole of the malady. The triple malady.-I. Nature-evil-spirit, blindness, dumbness; II. Cure-commenced with attacking root of the evil, ended with complete restoration; III. Lessons, an evil spirit productive of sad results. Fruit of evil spirit cured by casting the spirit out. 66 Blindness transient.-" Mother, shall we see in heaven?" was the question of a poor blind girl. Yes, dear: we shall see in heaven. There shall be no night there." 23, 24. all.. people, many witnesses. amazed, all were similarly impressed. son.. David," i.e. the predicted Messiah, who else could He be? Pharisees, who had come to watch. heard, both what Jesus did, and the people said. they said, their prejudice and bigotry furnished a ready reason. This, a contemptuous expression.d cast out, they admitted, therefore, that he was cast out. Beelzebub, see on x. 25. Opposite effects of Christ's manifestations on dif. minds.I. Admiration, indignation; II. Confession, praise-rejection and blasphemy... It argues a devilish mind to represent as Satanic what is Divine.e c Mk. iii. 22. a "Of how great moment a single word may be!" Bengel. Lange. יי! "The envious Calumny.-Apelles painted her thus: There sits a man with great and open ears, inviting Calumny, with his hand held out, to come to him; and two women, Ignorance and Suspicion, stande near him. Calumny breaks out in a fury; her countenance is man is an enemy comely and beautiful, her eyes sparkle like fire, and her face is to himself, for his inflamed with anger; she holds a lighted torch in her left hand, mind is always and with her right twists a young man's neck, who holds up occupied with its spontaneously his hands in prayer to the gods. Before her goes Envy, pale own unhappy and nasty; on her side are Fraud and Conspiracy; behind her thoughts."-Mefollows Repentance, clad in mourning, and her clothes torn, with nander. her head turned backwards, as if she looked for Truth, who f Andrew Tooke. comes slowly after.f Mat. ix. 4; Lu. v. 25, 26. thoughts," and when they saw He had this know-a Ps. cxxxix. 2, ledge, would they not, if unprejudiced, have been convinced? 28; xciv. 11; cf. said, answering their thoughts. desolation.. not stand, 22; v.8; ix. 47; abundantly ill. fr. the history of nations and families. how. stand, and if their surmise was true, should they not rather To be an object rejoice that the kingdom of Satan was falling through internal of hatred and strife? Christ knowing human thoughts.-I. Thought, the seat of greatest sin, of sin that men dare not actually commit or speak; II. Thought, the seat of grandest wishes and holiest aspirations that men have not power to realize. Mk. vii. 12. aversion to their contemporaries, has been the usual fate of all those whose merit has raised them above the common level." "You have learn Envious thoughts.-A Burmese potter, says the legend, became envious of the prosperity of a washerman, and, to ruin him, induced-Thucydides. the king to order him to wash one of his black elephants white, ed by experience that he might be lord of the white elephant. The washerman how much better replied, that, by the rules of his art, he must have a vessel large it is to be envied enough to wash him in. The king ordered the potter to make than pitied." him such a vessel. When made, it was crushed by the first step of the elephant in it. Many trials failed; and the potter was ruined by the very scheme he had intended should crush his enemy. Herodotus. A.D. 28. a Ac. xix. 13. They were said to have used in cantations and invocations com posed by Solo mon. Josephus ; Antiq. viii. 2, 5; Wars, vii. 6, 3. b1 Jo. iii. 8; Ma. x. 7, 8; Lu. xi. 20; Lu. i. 33; Jo. v. 36; Ac. x. 38; Da. ii. 44; vii. 14. Jesus intolerant of neutrality a Lu. xi. 21, 22; Jo. xvi. 11. b He. ii. 14, 15; Re. xx. 2; Is. xlix. 24; liii. 12. c Ro. viii. 7, 9; Mk. ix. 40; Ma. vi. 24; Re. iii. 16; Ga. i. 9; 2 Co. vi. 15. d Stier. There is also "hoist come.. 27, 28. children, i.e. disciples. cast out, some who professed to have this power, travelled about as exorcists." judges, hence, and fr. what follows, the Pharisees were with their own petard." But if, here was a dilemma! you,' and hence they should rather rejoice at their good fortune, than rail against Jesus. The test of familiar things.-I. In this case their children; II. In the case of others, many surrounding and familiar things have a condemning voice. Satan transformed.-A Roman Catholic peasant boy in Ireland is reported to have listened attentively to a priest earnestly denouncing the "revival," and warning the people against it as the work of the devil. Ah, thin, your riverince," replied the lad, "it must be a new divil; for that's not the way the ould divil used to make the people behave themselves." 29, 30. or else," the case now ill. by parable. strong man's, all. the devil. house, all. the soul. goods, all. instruments of Satanic power. with.. against, withholding aid fr. Christ, is so much vantage yielded to the enemy. abroad, i.e." he that gathereth, but not with me, his gathering is itself a scattering.d Neutrality in things spiritual impossible.-I. Christ says so; II. Power not given to the wrong, if withheld fr. the right, leaves the right so much the less strength to cope with the enemy; III. An attitude of neutrality, so called, betrays a heart at enmity against God, and not subject to the law of God. Neutrality. Tell me not of neutrality: it is out of the question. Ah! here is a case of neutrality upon record in this book, "Curse ye, Meroz!" Why? what had they done to expose thority (Justin, themselves to this bitter malediction? Had they taken up arms Irenæus, Origen) against Jehovah ?-No! Had they gone over to the enemy, and for the fact that fought against the chosen people?-No! What, then, had they done?-Nothing! Their neutrality was their crime. "Because they came not up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."e evil spirits were cast out by Jews. See Whitby. e Dr. R. Newton. the unpardonable sin Mk. iii. 28-30; Lu. xii. 10. 31, 32. not.. forgiven, "the sin wh.hath never forgiveness' consists in wilfully and impiously rejecting and reviling what the blasphemer knows in his own conscience to be the testimony of the Holy Spirit and God's truth and grace. . . The impossibility of pardon turns on the impossibility of repentance; so that none "the views of need fear he has committed this sin, who grieves for sin, seeks the best writers." pardon, and longs after truth and righteousness."a a Conder, who thus summarises whose view is See also Whitby, The unpardonable sin.-An individual who conceived that he adopted by M. had been guilty of this sin had an interview with a minister, Henry. See also when the following conversation ensued: "You believe yourself A. Fuller, iii. guilty of the unpardonable sin ?" "I am sure of it." "In what 507 ff. did the sin consist? " "I opposed the work of God." "So did "As men do not Saul." "I denied Jesus Christ." 66 So did Peter." "I doubted give alms to a stout beggar, the power of Jesus Christ after strong evidence in its favour." who, though "So did Thomas." "What are you endeavouring to prove needy, will not confess it, nor ask by such examples that I am a Christian?" "Not at all, I am favour; no more only inquiring into the nature of your guilt, and thus far I see will the Lord give no reason to despair." "I have hated God," rejoined the selfus forgiveness of condemned, "and openly avowed my enmity in sight of His humble ourselves Divine operations." Thus far your case is lamentable indeed; before Him, with but not hopeless still. Our hearts are naturally at enmity with sins unless we 66 "I God, and I do not see why the open avowal of this, drawn out a but the creditor to whom the debt is due; so God only can forgive us our debts, whose debtors we are to an incal culable amount. the tree and vi. 43, 44. a Jer. ii. 21. 33. tree good, by planting, grafting, or culture. all, to a man, a nation, a religion. fruit good, and ye will thus make good words, works, character, etc. tree, its nature, value. known, judged of, prized. fruit, not leaves, or bulk, etc. Like produces like.-Honesty in nature result of finger of God. Only half-blind persons mistake thorns, etc., for figs. Vines of Sodom yield grapes and wine, but see Deut. xxxii. 32. A pure doctrine alone can produce pure thoughts and words. c Is. v. 1-7. A tree strung full of figs, may be a thorn-tree still.< Fruit of the Tree of Life.-In Eastern poetry, they tell of a wondrous tree, on which grew golden apples and silver bells; and, every time the breeze went by and shook the fragrant branches, a shower of these golden apples fell, and the living bells chimed and tinkled forth their airy ravishment. On the gospel tree there grow sweet blossoms, and bells more melodious than those which mingled with the pomegranates on Aaron's vestments,holy feelings, heaven-taught joys; and when the Holy Spirit breathes upon the evangelized soul, there is the shaking down of mellow fruits and the flow of healthy odours all around, and the gush of sweetest music, whose gentle tones and joyful echoes are wafted through all the recesses of the soul. b Ro. xi. 17-24. d Van Doren. "It is vain to expect any advantage fr. our profession of the truth, if we be not sincerely just and honest in our actions."- Arch bishop Sharp. the heart and the mouth Mat. xxiii. 33. a Mat. xv. 18; Ps. 34–37. O .. vipers, the gentleness of speaker intensifies force of this epithet. how.. good, it is contrary to nature. abundance.. heart," the habitual occupants of intellect, heart, will. good.. heart.. things, naturally, freely, spontane-lii. 2; Ro. iii. 13; ously. idle, not merely wicked, but useless, foolish, etc. ac- Job xiv. 4; Co. iv. count, bec. of higher uses for wh. tongue was made. words, 6; Ps. xxxvii. 30, usual conversation. justified, etc., as they express state of 31 Pr. xvi. 21, 24. heart. Solemn view of words.-"Uses and abuses of language. Men must not talk irreligiously about religion. Men may enjoy to the utmost wit and laughter, but are forbidden to talk insincerely or ambiguously upon solemn subjects... Good speaking is enjoined by implication."ƒ A good heart.-There was a great master among the Jews, who bid his scholars consider and tell him what was the best way wherein a man should always keep. One came and said that there was nothing better than a good eye; which is, in their lan b Pr. x. 20, 21; Is. xxxii. 6; Pr. xv. 4, 23, 28; xvi. 21, 22; Mat. xiii. 52; Co. iii. 16. c Ep. v. 4; iv. 29; Co. iv. 5, 6; iii. 17; Jude, 14, 15. d Calvin. e Ro. x. 10; Ja. iii. 2; Lu. xix. 22; 1 Ti. v. 13; Lu. xviii. 9—14; cf. 1 ; |