A.D. 30.

False friends.-"Friends!' said Socrates, there is no friend.' "Let him that is Another says, ' A friend is a changeable creature, like the colours wretched and of the peacock.' Many friends are not more fickle than false; beggared try like deep ponds, clear at the top, and muddy at the bottom. Try everybody, and then his friends." before you trust, and, when you have tried, trust not over far, less you cry out as Queen Elizabeth, 'In trust, I have found treason; or as Julius Cæsar, when stabbed by Brutus, 'What! thou, Brutus!' He received twenty-three wounds, mostly at the hands of those whose lives he had spared." 8

-Italian.

Peter's sword

a Jo. xviii. 10. b Ecc. iii. 7.

c Lu. xxii. 36, 38.

51, 52. one, Peter." When Mat. and Mk. wrote prob. both Peter and Malchus were living, hence they are not named till later by John. Note the tenderness of the Holy Spirit-the Comforter-in suppressing the name for the present. There is a time to be silent, as well as a time to speak. sword," whence did he obtain it, and why? ear, which Jesus at once healed. e Alford; see Ben-place, "the sheath is the place for the Christian's sword."e "The great empires take.. sword, as a general principle. which have been cemented by blood have been dissolved in blood."

d Lu. xxii. 51.

gel.

f1 Pe. ii. 23; Ge. ix. 6; Ro. xii. 19;

2 Co. x. 4.

g Conder.

h Lange.

i Dr. Godwin. k Osiander.

of truth are the

Worldly swords-men.-" All who take the sword," etc.: I. A sacred law; II. A half-fulfilled prediction."-"Force is not a fit means for the advancement of His kingdom."i" Provocation to anger and vengeance the most deadly temptations of Satan in the time of external tribulation. Young and rash preachers are too apt to brandish Peter's sword bef. they have learned to use the "The triumphs sword of the Spirit. When our carnal zeal smites wrongly, the most glorious, injury is done to the ear, wh. should hear the Word of God." chiefly because Sir Walter Raleigh on War.-Sir Walter Raleigh, a scholar, they are the most a statesman, and a soldier, delares "there is no profession more bloodless of all unpropitious than that of warriors. Besides the envy and jealousy ing their highest of men, the spoils, rapes, famine, slaughter of the innocent, lustre from the devastations and burnings, with a world of miseries laid on the number of the labouring man, they are so hateful to God, as with good reason saved, not of the slain."-Colton. did Monluc, the marshal of France, confess, that, were not the mercies of God infinite, it were in vain for those of his profession to hope for any portion of them, seeing the cruelties by them permitted and perpetrated are also infinite.'"

victories, deriv

a Jo. xi. 42.

b Ps. ciii. 20.

c 2 K. xix. 35;

Ma. iv. 11; 2 K. vi. 17; Da. vii. 10.

d Jo. x. 35; xviii. 11.

e Homilist vii.289,

first ser.

f Simeon,

Hor.

53, 54. pray, note his trust in the Father, and power of prayer." legions, a Rom. legion=6,000 infantry, besides cavalry. angels, one sufficed to destr. a vast army. fufilled, will of God the highest law.

Trials of the good.-I. God continues His fatherly character toward the good in trial. This is in harmony with 1. Reason; 2. Revelation; 3. Experience. II. Amidst the utmost material destitution of the good, there are immense invisible resources for their relief-1. The invisible is greater than the visible; 2. Invisible resources of the good, greater than the visible. III. Prayer is the settled condition by wh. relief is obtained in trial. IV. Considerations of personal convenience should always be held subor"They are called dinate to those of the Divine Will. Christ's apprehension.— the chariots of I. How easily our Lord could have rescued Himself: 1. God God, i.e. they are pleased to work by ministry of angels; 2. Our Lord might have the chariots of had any number. II. Why He forbore to rescue Himself—that bear His will the Scriptures might be fulfilled. III. Practical observations;

Hom. vii. 322.

g Spencer.

His will, they

1. Prayer will extricate us fr. trouble; 2. Be contented to go to heaven in God's way; 3. Christ's solicitude for fulfilment of Scripture, a pledge of His anxiety for their accom. in all that relates to our salvation.

A.D. 30.

about to every

part of the uni

verse. This is

who vouchsafes

ful

filled God's mes

sent

Ministry of angels. In the ecclesiastical history of Socrates, their delight. there is mention made of one Theodorus, a martyr put to extreme They bless God, torments by Julian the Apostate, and dismissed again by him thus to employ when he saw him unconquerable. Rufinus, in his history, saith, them. But when that he met with this martyr a long time after his trial, and asked they have him whether the pains he felt were not insufferable. He answered, sage, then they that at first it was somewhat grievous; but, after awhile, there return back to seemed to stand by him a young man in white, who, with a soft Him by whom and comfortable handkerchief, wiped off the sweat from his body forth. They rethey were (which through extreme anguish was little less than blood), and turn back to Him, bade him be of good cheer, insomuch as then it was rather a punish- and stand before Him, drinking in ment than a pleasure to him to be taken off the rack when the fresh streams of tormentors had done, the angel was gone. Thus it is that the blessed angels of God have ministered from time to time to His people, in the days of their distress. They pity our human frailties, and secretly suggest comfort, when we perceive it not; they are as ready to help us as the bad angels are to tempt us; always they stand looking on the face of God to receive orders. which they no sooner have than they readily despatch.

life, and strength, and purity, and from His

joy

presence."- Hare.

55, 56. thief, a man of violence, who would resist arrest, address to or try to escape. no hold," not being able. A reminder of their the multitude weakness. but.. this, etc., query, are these the words of Jesus continued fr. v. 55, or words of Mat.? disciples. . fled," after all their indignation at Judas, and all they had promised on their own behalf.

a Lu. xxii. 53.

dient in action.

Thomas.

b Jo. xviii. 16. "What is wrong in principle can Apostasy. Herein we see four things:-I. Base ingratitude: never be expe1. They had received special favours fr. Him; 2. Were under What is really the greater obligation; 3. Tendency of gratitude to bind to bene-right is for ever factor. II. Rash impulsiveness, prob. roused by, 1. Disappoint- politic." — Dr. ment; 2. Alarm. III. Involuntary influence. One fled, then all c Homilist, vii. 205, fled. This should, 1. Act as incentive to become thoroughly sound first ser. in character; 2. Make us cautious as to associations we form. Proverbs IV. False policy. Doing wrong to save the body, 1. Injures the Friendship:soul; 2. Endangers it. Learn-1. Importance of cherishing a will not be the practical impression of our obligations to Christ; 2. Of cultivating heir-Latin. The the habit of acting fr. intelligent conviction; 3. Of habitually dead and the abrealising the principle, that the path of duty is the path of safety.c

on

He that is absent

sent have no friends. Spanish. The absent are

Friends

the

agree

your neighbour, but do not pull down the hedge. Let the guest go before the storm Better be unman

Fickle friends.-The bees were haunting the flowering trees in always in crowds, humming among the branches, and gathering honey wrong. - French. in the flowers. Said Gotthold, "Here is an image of temporal best at a distance. prosperity. So long as there is blossom on the trees, and honey-English. Love in the blossom, the bees will frequent them in crowds, and fill the place with their music; but when the blossom is over, and the honey gone, they, too, will disappear. The same happens in the world, among men. In the abodes of fortune and pleasure, friends will be found in plenty; but, when fortune flies away, they depart along with it. Temporal gain is the world's honey and the allurement with which you may entice it whithersoever you will; but where the gain terminates, there, likewise, do the love and friendship of the world stop. For this reason, let all good men

P

bursts.-German.

nerly

than

troublesome. Too much familiarity

breeds contempt. -English

A.D. 30.

trial of Jesus. Sanhedrim

Caiaphas

Mk. xiv. 53-65;
Lu. xxii. 54, 55,

63-65.

be advised to fly to Christ crucified, who never forsakes in their distress those who truly seek Him.”

57, 58. Caiaphas (see on v. 3), they led Him first to Annas," who sent Him to C. afar off, this was a denying spirit." palace, where the Sanhedrim had assembled. sat..servants, the society he chose led to the sin he committed.c

A distant following of Christ.-I. The symptoms. Many gradations: 1. Self-confidence; 2. Ignorant zeal and use of carnal weapons; 3. Abandonment of cause he had espoused. II. The a Jo. xviii. 13, 24. sad consequences: 1. Grows worse and worse; 2. Brings its own punishment; 3. Unspeakably offensive to Christ. III. The remedy: 1. Consider whom you profess to follow; 2. The obligation to follow the Lord closely; 3. Advantages to be derived; adds wings to the 4. The promise of help. Learn: If the consequences of followheels, and some-ing Christ afar off be so dreadful, what must be the consequences times nails them of not following Him at all! d

b Pr. xxix. 25. c Ma. vi. 13.

"Fear sometimes

to the ground,

and fetters them Following afar off.-During a revival, a proud-spirited young from moving."- man was convicted; but pride and the fear of his associates Montaigne. prevented his yielding to Christ. A few years later, when on his d Rev. J. Sherman. bed of death, he saw his folly, and exclaimed, "Oh! if I could be raised up, I would not be ashamed to be a Christian!"

false wit

nesses

a Nu. xi. 16; cf. Ex. xxiv. 1, 9.

Sanhedrim, lit. a

59-61. council, the Sanhedrim, or great ecclesiastical court of the Jews, consist. of ab. seventy members, inclu. (1) chief priests, (2) elders, (3) scribes. The orig. of the S. is involved in obscurity. Moses' council of seventy," which Michaelis thinks a temporary court, Lightfoot regards as the orig. of S. false sitting together. Heb. witness, a court, whose duty it was to punish those who witsanhedrin, borrowed fr nessed falsely, seeking false witnesses! none, i.e. none whose Jewish writers. false statements agreed. last.. two, whose evidence agreed in Gk. sunedrion part. destroy.. build, even here the truth was misrep

-sun, together; hedria, a seat.

b Laws of M. ii.

6, 6.

c Ex. xx. 16; De. v. 20; Ma.xix. 18; De. xix. 16, 18.

d Mk. xiv. 56; De.

xvii. 6.

e Mk. xiv. 58, 59. f Jo. ii. 19-21.

g Lange.

d

The judgment of the world upon the Judge of the world.-I. The false witnesses and the Faithful Witness of God; II. The criminal occupying the seat of the high priest, and the High Priest standing in the criminal's place; III. Blasphemy in the garb of zeal for God, and the loftiest praise of God designated as blasphemy; IV. The suicide of the world in the sentence pronounced upon the Prince of Life, and the life of the world in the readiness of Christ to submit unto death; V. The picture of hell and the picture of heaven in the insults heaped upon the Lord.g

Bearing false witness.-The minister of the seminary at Clermont, France, having been seized at Autun by the populace, the "When truth is mayor, who wished to save him, advised him not to take the revealed, let cus-oath, but to allow him to tell the people that he had taken it. tom give place; let no man prefer "I would myself make known your falsehood to the people," custom before replied the clergyman: "it is not permitted me to ransom my life and by a lie. The God who prohibits my taking this oath will not truth."- Augus-allow me to make it believed that I have taken it." The mayor was silent, and the minister was martyred.

reason

tine.

mony, wh. admits

Buxtorf cites 62, 63. arose, with indignation, to add force to his words. Rabbinical testi- held.. peace, not in silent contempt, behind wh. phrase men the subornation may sometimes conceal their inability to reply; but bec. (1) they of false witnesses disagreed; (2) He knew that no reply would avail against His against Christ, death wh. they had already determined to compass. adjure and wh. vindi- thee, I require of Thee on oath. Usual form of administering

an oath, it was called the oath of adjuration." Christ, the Messiah; (1) if He said "yes," then the charge would be blasphemy; (2) if "no," it would be imposition.

A.D. 30.

cates it by law. on the ground of His intro. a new

worship (ie., of wh. they counted Himself as divine)

The judgment of man on the Saviour-a judgment of God.I. The world given up to complete and full blindness and guilt unto death; II. The Son of God given up to complete and full suffering unto redemption.-The holy silence of the Lord a most idolatry. solemn utterance-I. Concerning the guilt of the world and His own innocence; II. Concerning its implacableness and His gracious compassion.d

a Nu. v. 19, 21;

Josh. vii. 19; 1

K. xxii. 16.

Adjure, to charge

swear.

b Le. xxiv. 16.

68.

Cf. Lu. xxii. 67,

Wisdom of silence.-A courtier in the retinue of Alexander the Great paid a visit to the studio of Apelles, the celebrated painter, on oath. L. ad, to; and was received with the consideration due to his rank. This juro, juratum, to excited his vanity and talkativeness, which, unhappily, sallied forth upon the fine art in question, exposing his ignorance in a variety of questions and criticisms. Apelles interrupted him at length in an undertone: "Do you see those boys that are grinding my colours? While you were silent, they admired d Lange. you, dazzled with the splendour of the purple and gold with which your habit glitters; but ever since you began to talk about what you do not understand, they have done nothing but laugh at you."

that this is the

64. Thou.. said,a i.e. it is so as thou hast said. "Jesus, in a "We are inreply to the question of Caiaphas, declares Himself to be the formed by the Christ, as if the question had assumed the fact." neverthe-traveller Äryda. less, although the Son of God appears in this lowly guise. "As prevailing mode the passion advances, its amazing contrasts grow in affecting interest. The Deliverer in bonds; the Judge attainted; the Prince of Glory scorned; the Holy One condemned for sin; the Son of God as a blasphemer; the Resurrection and the Life sentenced to die! The High Priest for ever condemned by the high priest of that one year." power.. heaven, in contrast to what thou

now seest.

с

d

of a person's expressing his assent or affirma

tion to this day

in the vicinity of Mt. Lebanon, esp where he does

not wish to assert anything in ex

xi. 180.

b Camerarius.

c Stier.

d Ps. cx. 1; Lu.

1 Th. iv. 16; Re. i. 7.

e Is. xlv. 13.

iii. 14.

The holy utterance of the Lord after His holy silence.-His press terms."oath in taking it, Jesus, the Eternal One, swore by Himself.-Jahn, Bib. Ant. I. The oath of Jesus, the seal of truth.-The Faithful Witness, who seals and confirms all that God has said. "There are times when accusations should not be answered.-There are times when truth should be declared, though death follow.” h Superiority of Christ.-Everything in Christ astonishes me. xxii. 69; He. i. 3; His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. His ideas and His sentiments, the truths which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human observation, or the nature of things. His birth, and the history of His life; 2 Co. i. 20; Re. the profundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mightiest difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the most admirable 9 Lange. solution; His gospel, His apparition, His empire, His marchh Godwin. across the ages and the realms,-everything is for me a prodigy, i Napoleon I. a mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverie from which "Silence is a trick I cannot escape-a mystery which is there before my eyes, a when it imposes. mystery which I can neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing human. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine. Everything is above me. Everything remains grand, -of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man.i

Pedants and scholars, churchmen and physicians, aboun! in silent pride."

Zimmerman.

A.D. 30.

a 1 Mac. xi. 7.

6 Le. x. 6; xxi. 10. e Jahn; cf. 2 K.

xviii. 37.

d Jo. xix. 7; Le. xxiv. 16.

e Lange.

f Godwin. g Bonar.

to

"To what amazing heights of piety may some be thought mount, raised on the wings of flaming zeal, and distinguished by uncommon pre

65, 66. rent.. clothes. "It was customary for a person to rend his clothes when he heard blasphemy. This was done by the h. priest himself," who was forbidden by law to indulge in the usual expressions of grief, even for the dead." blasphemy, see note on ix. 3. need.. we, he meant that they all were witnesses. what think, give your opinion. guilty, i.e. deserving.

Unrighteous zeal.-The assumed appearance of zeal, and genuine holy indignation-"What further need?" etc.; or, how malice always betrays itself. Christ's abiding consciousness of His royal rank as appearing in, and standing the test of, the hour of His severest trial. The appeal of Christ to His own judgment-seat, as unto the tribunal of God. He was unjustly condemned, who will be the righteous Judge of all."

66

False zeal.-A false zeal in religion is always, in some respect or other, a misdirected zeal, or a zeal not according to knowledge; a zeal seeking some false end, or, while proposing to itself a good end, seeking its promotion in some unauthorised way. Jehu had a good zeal, which he called zeal for the Lord of Hosts. His fault was not that he was too zealous, but that his zeal was really ciseness and se- directed to his own advancement. The Jews, in the days of verity about little Christ, had a zeal for God; but it was so misdirected as to fire things, who all the while, perthem with a frenzy to destroy the Son of God, and extinguish the haps, cannot Light of the world. There are countless forms of false zeal now govern one pas- at work; but, in all cases, they sin not by excess, but by mission, and appear direction. Some are flaming with a zeal to spread some of the yet ignorant of, and slaves to, corruptions of Christianity, and to carry men away from its great their darling ini- and cardinal truths. Some are equally zealous to build up a sect quity!'-Mason.

buffeted and
spit upon
a Lu. xxii. 63;
see Alford.

or a party on other foundations than those which God has laid in Zion; and that which taints their zeal is the purpose to which they employ it, and not any excessive fervour of their zeal itself.s

67, 68. they, the guards." spit.. face, an expression of loathing and contempt; a direct insult. buffeted, struck with clenched fist. smote.. hands, on face, adding insult to injury, "No blow more disgraceful can be inflicted." prophesy.. who, tell us the smiter's name. He was blindfolded, they were Buffet, a buff, or strangers. If He was the Son of God, He would know notwithdull, heavy blow. standing. He would not answer, they assumed that He could Old Fr. buffet- not.

b De. xxv. 9; Is. 1. 6.

buffe, 8 blow; Ger. puff, fr. buff, formed fr. the sound of a blow. c Chrysostom. d Lu. xxii. 64. "A man bound with cords even a child can beat." -Old Prov. e Lange.

f Godwin.

The insults offered to the Lord, so the bitter mocking of Satan in the fury of man. How hell seeks to scoff at the King of Heaven. The dark shadows wh. ever follow hypocritical religiosity. I. It is always connected with coarseness and rudeness. II. It seems to take pleasure in Satanic malice and love of mischief."-" He receiveth the grossest dishonour, who will receive the highest honour."f

Bearing insults.-A person having behaved very rudely to Mr. Boswell, he went to Dr. Johnson, and talked of it as a serious distress. Dr. Johnson laughed, and said, " Consider, sir, how insignificant this will appear twelve months hence."-"Were this consideration (says Mr. Boswell) applied to most of the little vexations of life, by which our quiet is too often disturbed, it would prevent many painful sensations. I have tried it frequently, and with good effect."