wmss&mm Willi s aMM PPfo ^ftAMft'^iAi-'A^iTAAi^Ay ^ttSffl WiYiiraMM siM^ «¦ 'A Vft'fl', OTllillllH ¦I^iyetAtfe Baol so much of Scripture is passed over without distinct exercise of faith, 585. The Father looking upon the Son as a man walking here below, never found the slightest deflection, 586. The love of one.'s neighbour, and Christian love, 587- The love looked for now is such as Christ manifested, 588. And this brings out the world's hatred, 589. Christ gives us His own portion, whether from the world or from the Father, 590. Judging sin by right and wrong, by law or by conscience, all falls short of sin, judged by the love and light revealed in the person of Christ, 591. Chapter xv. sets forth fruit-bearing ; chapter xvi. testimony, 592. A two-fold testimony — Christ seen and His words heard, 593. The Holy Ghost sent by the Father, and sent by the Son ; not the same thing, though both quite consistent, 594. The testimony of Christ on earth contrasted with the testimony of Christ in heaven, 595. How Jewish hatred of a full testimony to Christ peeps out, spite of the professed liberalism of the day, 596. The reason is, they know not the Father nor the Son, 597. The Holy Ghost's office to convict the world of sin, 598. All that is outside the sphere of His operation during this present period, 699. The two-fold conviction of righteousness, 599. The world has lost Christ, 600: Of judgment — the world's fate sealed already, 601. The spirit of the world, when sanctioned, invariably tends to destroy the knowledge of the Father, and proper relation ship with Him even among His real children, because it neces sarily slips more or less into Judaism, 602. " He shall not speak of Himself" explained, 603. What we mean when we say, " God," 604. Martha's use of the word airway, 605. The Lord's prayer, 606. The Christian state, 607. How traditional views slight unwittingly the infinite efficacy and value of what Christ has wrought, 608. The disciples' mistake when they thought they understood clearly, 609. \6-/ov and pi/para, 610. IpiorA rind 9s\u>, 611. The Father's love as the Son knew it, the secret source of all blesBing and glory, 612. The Lord a willing prisoner and a willing victim, 613. His personal dignity and His CONTENTS. XX1L1 conscious relationship both preserved in the presence of the cup given Him to drink, 614. The glory of the Son too bright for Jewish eyes, 615. He who made the worlds says, " It is finished," 616. Belief in the word of God has moral value, because it gives God credit for truth, irrespective of a judgment formed on a matter of fact, 617. Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, 618. The assembly's power to remit or retain sins, 619. Christian faith is essentially a belief in Him whom we have not seen, 620. The age to come contrasted with this age, 621. Conclusion, 622. EBEATA. Page 176, for "jailor,'' read ruler. „ 419, for "lawlessness," read lawless ones. ,, 530, dele "either." „ 533, for "had He," read He had. „ 556, for " alone,** read along. INTKODUCTOKY LECTURES ON THE GOSPELS. i. MATTHEW I.-VII. God has been pleased, in the separate accounts He has given us of our Lord Jesus, to display not only His own grace and wisdom, but the infinite excel lency of His Son. It is our wisdom to seek to profit by all the light He has afforded us ; and, in order to this, both to receive implicitly, as the simple Christian surely does, whatever God has written for our instruction in these different gospels, and also by comparing them, and comparing them ac cording to the special point of view which God has communicated in each gospel, to see concentrated the varying lines of everlasting truth which there meet in Christ. Now, I shall proceed with all simplicity, the Lord helping me, first taking up the gospel before us, in order to point out, as far as I am enabled to do, the great distinguishing features, as well as the chief contents, that the Holy Ghost has here been pleased to communicate. It is well to B 2 INTKODUCTOKY LECTURES bear in mind, that in this gospel, as in all the rest, God has in nowise undertaken to present everything, but only some ehosen discourses and facts ; and this is the more remarkable, inasmuch as in some cases the very same miracles, etc., are given in several, and even in all, the gospel's. The gospels are short ; the materials used are not numerous; but what shall we say of the depths of grace that are there disclosed ? "What of the immeasurable glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, which everywhere shines out in them? The undeniable certainty that God has been pleased to confine .Himself to a small portion of the circumstances of the life of Jesus, and, even so, to repeat the same discourse, miracle, or whatever other fact is brought before us, only brings out, to my mind, more distinctly the manifest design of God to give expression to the glory of the Son in each gospel according to a special point of view. Now, looking at the gospel of Matthew as a whole, and taking the most enlarged view of it before we enter into details, the question arises, what is the main idea before the Holy Ghost ? It is surely the lesson of simplicity to learn this from God, and, once learnt, to apply it steadily as a help of the most manifest kind ; full of interest, as well as of the weightiest instruction, in examining all the incidents as they come before us. What, then, is that which, not merely in a few facts in particular chapters, but throughout, comes before us in the ON THE GOSPELS. 3 gospel of Matthew ? It matters not where we look, whether at the beginning, the middle, or at the end, the same evident character proclaims itself. The prefatory words introduce it. Is it not the Lord Jesus, Son of David, Son of Abraham — Messiah ? . But, then, it is not simply the anointed of Jehovah, but One who proves HimseK, and is declared of God, to be Jehovah-Messiah. No such testimony appears elsewhere. I say not that there is no evidence in the other gospels to demonstrate that .He is really Jehovah and Emmanuel too, but that nowhere else have we the same fulness of proof, and the same manifest design, from the very start ing point of the gospel, to proclaim the Lord Jesus as being thus a divine Messiah — God with us. The practical object is equally obvious. The com mon notion, that the Jews are in view, is quite correct, as far as it goes. The gospel of Matthew bears internal proof that God specially provides for the instruction of His own among those that had been Jews. It was written more particularly for leading Jewish Christians into a truer understanding of the glory of the Lord Jesus.. Hence, every testi mony that could convince and satisfy a Jew, that could correct or enlarge his thoughts, is found most fully here; hence the precision of the quotations from the Old Testament; hence the converging of prophecy on the Messiah; hence, too, the manner in which the miracles of Christ, or the incidents of His life, are here grouped together. To Jewish B 2 4 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES difficulties all this pointed with peculiar fitness. Miracles we have elsewhere, no doubt, and pro phecies occasionally; but where is there such a profusion of them as in Matthew ? Where, in the mind of the Spirit of God, such a continual, con-* spicuous point of quoting and applying Scripture in all places and seasons to the Lord Jesus ? To me, I confess, it seems impossible for a simple mind to resist the conclusion. But this is not all to be noticed here. Not only does God deign to meet the Jew with these- proofs from prophecy, miracle, life, and doctrine, but He begins with what a Jew would and must demand — the question of genealogy. But even then the answer of Matthew is after a divine sort. " The book," he says, " of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." These are the two principal landmarks to which a Jew turns : — royalty given by the grace of God in the one, and the original depositary of the promise in the other. Moreover, not only does God condescend to notice the line of fathers, but, if He turns aside for a moment now and then for aught else, what instruction, both in man's sin and need? and in His own grace, does thus spring up before us from the mere course of His genealogical tree! He names in certain cases the mother, and not the father only ; but never without a divine reason. There are four women alluded to. They are not such as any of ON THE GOSPELS. 5 us, or perhaps any man, would beforehand have thought of introducing, and into such a genealogy, of all others. But God had His own sufficient motive ; and His was one not only of wisdom, but of mercy; also, of special instruction to the Jew, as we shall see in a moment. First of all, who but God would have thought it necessary to remind us that Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar? I need not enlarge; these names in divine history must speak for themselves. Man would have hidden all this assuredly; he would have preferred to put forth either some flaming account of aneient and august ancestry, or to concentrate all the honour and glory in one, the lustre of whose genius eclipsed all antecedents. But God's thoughts are not our thoughts; neither are our ways His ways. Again, the allusion to such persons thus introduced is the more remarkable because others, worthy ones, are not named. There is no mention of Sarah, no hint of Rebecca, no notice whatever of so many holy and illustrious names in the female line of our Lord Jesus. But Thamar does appear thus early (v. 3); and so manifest is the reason, that one has no need to explain further. I am persuaded that the name alone is sufficient intimation to any Christian heart and conscience. But how significant to the Jew ! What were his thoughts of the Messiah? Would he have put forward the name of Thamar in such a connection? Never. He might not have been able to deny the fact; but as to bringing it out b INTRODUCTORY LECTURES thus, and drawing special attention to it, the Jew was the last man to have done it. Nevertheless, the grace of God in this is exceeding good and wise. But there is more than this. Lower down we have another. There is the name of Bachab, a Gentile, and a Gentile bringing no honourable reputation along with her. Men may seek to pare it down, but it is impossible either to cloak her shame, or to fritter away the grace of God. It is not to be well or wisely got rid of, who and what Eachab publicly was; yet is she the woman that the Holy Ghost singles out for the next place in the ancestry of Jesus. Ruth, too, appears — Ruth, of all these women — most sweet and blameless, no doubt, by the working of the divine grace in her, but still a daughter of Moab, whom the Lord forbade to enter His congre gation to the tenth generation for ever. And what of Solomon himself, begotten by David, the king, of her that had been the wife of Uriah ? How humiliating to those who stood on human righteousness ! How thwarting to mere Jewish expectations of the Messiah ! He was the Messiah, but such He was after God's heart, not man's. He was the Messiah that somehow would and could have relations with sinners, first and last; whose grace would reach and bless Gentiles — a Moabite — anybody. Room was left for intimations of such compass in Matthew's scheme of His ancestry. Deny it they might as to doctrine and fact now; ON THE GOSPELS. 7 they could not alter or efface the real features from the genealogy of the true Messiah ; for in no other line but David's, through Solomon, could Messiah be. And God has deemed it meet to recount even this to us, so that we may know and enter into His own delight in His rich grace as He speaks of the ancestors of the Messiah. It is thus, then^ we come down to the birth of Christ. Nor was it less worthy of God that He should make most plain the truth of another remarkable conjuncture of predicted circumstances, seemingly beyond reconcilement, in His entrance into the world. There were two conditions absolutely requisite for the Messiah: one was, that He should be truly born of a — rather of the — Virgin ; the other was, that He should inherit the royal rights of the Solomon-branch of David's house, according to promise. There was a third too, we may add, that He who was the real son of His virgin-mother, the legal son .of His Solomon-sprung father, should be, in the truest and highest sense, the Jehovah of Israel, Emmanuel — God with us. All this is crowded into the brief account next given us in Matthew's gospel, and by Matthew alone. Accordingly, " the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." This- latter trjith, that is, of the Holy Ghost's action as to it, we shall find, has a still 8 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES deeper and wider import assigned to it in the gospel of Luke, whose office is to show us the Man Christ Jesus. I therefore reserve any observations that this larger scope might and ought, indeed, to give rise to, till we have to consider the third gospel. But here the great thing is the relationship of Joseph to the Messiah, and hence he is the one to whom the angel appears. In the gospel of Luke it is not to Joseph, but to Mary. Are we to think that this variety of account is a mere accidental circumstance ? or that if God has thus been pleased to draw out two distinct lines of truth, we are not to gather up the divine principle of each -and all ? It is impossible that God could do what even we should be ashamed of. If we act and speak, or forbear to do either, we ought to have a sufficient reason for one or other. And if no man of sense doubts that this should be so in our own case, has not God always had His own perfect mind in the various accounts He has given us of Christ ? Both are true, but with distinct design. It is with divine wisdom that Matthew mentions the angel's visit to Joseph; with no less direction from on high does Luke relate Gabriel's visit to Mary (as before to Zacharias) ; and the reason is plain. In Matthew, while he not in the least degree weakens, but proves the fact that Mary was the real mother of our Lord, the point was, that He inherited the rights of Joseph. And no wonder; for no matter how truly our Lord had been the Son of Mary, He had not thereby an ON THE GOSPELS. » indisputable legal right to the throne of David. This never could be in virtue of His descent from Mary, unless He had also inherited the title of the royal stem. As Joseph belonged to the Solomon- branch, he would have barred the right of our Lord to the throne, looking at it as a mere question now of His being the Son of David ; and we are entitled so to take it. His being God, or Jehovah, was in no way of itself the ground of Davidical claim, though otherwise of infinitely deeper moment. The ques tion was to make good, along with His eternal glory, a Messianic title that could not be set aside, a title that no Jew on his own ground could impeach. It was His grace so to stoop ; it was His own all- sufficient wisdom that knew how to reconcile con ditions so above man to put together. God speaks, and it is done. Accordingly, in the gospel of Matthew, the Spirit of God fixes our attention upon these facts. Joseph was the descendant of David, the king, through Solomon: the Messiah must therefore, somehow or other, be the son of Joseph ; yet had He really been the son of Joseph, all would have been lost. Thus the contradictions looked hopeless; for it seemed, that in order to be the Messiah, He must, and yet He must not, be Joseph's son. But what are diffi culties to God ? With Him all things are possible ; and faith receives all with assurance. He was not only the son of Joseph, so that no Jew could deny it, and yet not so, but that He could be in the fullest 10 ' INTRODUCTORY LECTURES manner the Son of Mary, the Seed of the woman, and not literally of the man. God, therefore, takes particular pains, in this Jewish gospel, to give all importance to His being strictly, in the eye of the law, the son of Joseph; and so, according to the flesh, inheriting the rights of the regal branch; yet here He takes particular care to prove that He was not, in the reality of His birth as man, Joseph's son. Before husband and wife came together, the espoused Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Such was the character of the conception. Besides, He was Jehovah. This comes out in His very name. The Virgin's Son was to be called "Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." He shall not be a mere man, no matter how miraculously born; Jehovah's people, Israel, are His; He shall save His people from their sins. This is yet more revealed to us by the prophecy of Isaiah cited next, and particularly by the appli cation of that name found nowhere else but in Matthew: "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Verses 22, 23.) This, then, is the introduction and the great foun dation in fact. The genealogy is, no doubt, forme'd peculiarly according to the Jewish manner; but this very shape serves rather as a confirmation, I will not say to the Jewish mind alone, but to every honest man of intelligence. The spiritual mind, of course, has no difficulty — can have none by the very fact that it is spiritual, because its confidence is in ON THE GOSPELS. 11 God. Now there is nothing that so summarily banishes a doubt, and silences every question of the natural man, as the simple but happy assurance that what God says must be true, and is the only right thing. No doubt God has been pleased in this genealogy to do that which men in modern times have cavilled at ; but not even the darkest and most hostile Jews raised such objections in former days. Assuredly they were the persons, above all, to have exposed the character of the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, if vulnerable. But no ; this was reserved for Gentiles. They have made the notable discovery that there is an omission ! Now in such lists an omission is perfectly in analogy with the manner of the Old Testament. All that was demanded in such a genealogy was to give adequate landmarks so as to make the descent clear and unquestionable. Thus, if you take Ezra, for instance, giving his own genealogy as a priest, you find that he omits not three links only in a chain, but seven. Doubtless there may have been a special reason for the omis sion; but whatever may be our judgment of the true solution of the difficulty, it is evident that a priest who was giving his own genealogy would not put it forward in a defective form. If in one who was of that sacerdotal succession where the proofs were rigorously required, where a defect in it would destroy his right to the exercise of spiritual func tions — if in such a case there might legitimately be an omission, clearly there might be the same in 12 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES regard to the Lord's genealogy; and the more, as this omission was not in the part of which the Scripture speaks nothing, but in the centre of its historical records, whence the merest child could supply the missing links at once. Evidently, there fore, the omission was not careless or ignorant, but intentional. I doubt not myself that the design was thereby to intimate the solemn sentence of God on the connection with Athaliah of the wicked house of Ahab, the wife of Joram. (Compare verse 8 with 2 Chron. xxii-xxvi.) Ahaziah vanishes, and Joash, and Amaziah, when the bine once more re appears here in Uzziah. These generations God blots out along with that wicked woman. There was literally another reason lying on the surface, that required certain names to drop out. The Spirit of God was pleased to give, in each of the three divisions of the Messiah's genealogy, four teen generations, as from Abraham down to David, from David to the captivity, and from the captivity to Christ. Now, it is evident, that if there were in fact more links in each chain of generation than these fourteen, all above that number must be omitted. Then, as we have just seen, the omission is not haphazard, but made of special moral force. Thus, if there was a necessity because the Spirit of God limited Himself to a certain number of generations, there was also divine reason, as there always is in the word of God, for the choice of the names which had to be omitted. ON THE GQSPELS. 13 However this may be, we have in this chapter, besides the genealogical line, the person of the long- expected son of David ; we have Him introduced precisely, officially, and fully as the Messiah; we have His deeper glory, not merely that which He took but who He was and is. He might be styled, as indeed He was, "the son of David, the son of Abraham ;" but He was, He is, He could not but be, Jehovah -Emmanuel. How all-important this was for a Jew to believe and confess, one need hardly stop to expound : it is enough to mention it by the way. Evidently Jewish unbelief, even where there was an acknowledgment of the Messiah, turned upon this, that the Jew looked upon the Messiah purely according to what He deigns to be come as the great King. They saw not any deeper glory than His Messianic throne, not more than an offshoot, though no doubt one of extraordinary vigour, from the root of David. Here, at the very starting-point, the Holy Ghost points out the divine and eternal glory of Him who deigns to come as the Messiah. Surely, too, if Jehovah condescended to be Messiah, and in order to this to be born of *the Virgin, there must be some most worthy aims in finitely deeper than the intention, however great, to sit upon the throne of David. Evidently, therefore, the simple perception of the glory of His person overturns all conclusions of Jewish unbelief; shews us that He whose glory was so bright must have a work commensurate with that glory; that He 14 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES whose personal dignity was beyond all time and even thought, who thus stoops to enter the ranks of Israel as Son of David, must have had some ends in coming, and, above all, to die, suitable to such glory. All this, it is plain, was of the deepest possible moment for Israel to apprehend. It was precisely what the believing Israelite did learn; even as it was just- the rock of offence on which unbelieving Israel fell and was dashed to pieces. The next chapter shows us another characteristic fact in reference to this gospel ; for if the aim of the first chapter was to give us proofs of the true glory and character of the Messiah, in contrast with mere Jewish limitation and unbelief about Him, the second chapter shows us what reception Messiah would find, in contrast with the wise men from the East, from Jerusalem, from the king and the people, and in the land of Israel. If His descent be sure as the royal son of David, if His glory be above all human lineage, what was the place that He found, in fact, in His land and people ? Indefeasible was His title : what were the circumstances that met Him when He was found at length in Israel ? The answer is, from the very first He was the rejected Messiah. He was rejected, and most emphatically, by those whose re sponsibility it was most of all to reoeive Him. It was not the ignorant; it was not those that were besotted in gross habits ; it was Jerusalem — it was the scribes and Pharisees. The people, too, were all moved at the very thought of Messiah's birth. ON THE GOSPELS. 15 What brought out the unbelief of Israel so dis tressingly was this — God would have a due testi mony to such a Messiah; and if the Jews were unready, He would gather from the very ends of the earth some hearts to welcome Jesus^-Jesus- Jehovah, the Messiah of Israel. Hence it is that Gentiles are seen coming forth from the East, led by the star which had a voice for their hearts. There had ever rested traditionally among Oriental nations, though not confined to them, the general bearing of Balaam's prophecy, that a star should arise, a star connected with Jacob. I doubt not that God was pleased in His goodness to give a seal to that prophecy, after a literal sort, not to speak of its true symbolic force. In His condescending love, He would lead hearts that were prepared of Him to desire the Messiah, and come from the ends of the earth to welcome Him. And so it was. They saw the star ; they set forth to seek the Messiah's king dom. It was not that the star moved along the way; it roused them and set them going. They recognized the phenomenon as looking for the star of Jacob; they instinctively, I may say, certainly by the good hand of God, connected the two together. From their distant home they made for Jerusalem ; for even the universal expectation of men at the time pointed to that city. But when they reached it, where were faithful souls awaiting the Messiah? They found active minds — not a few that could tell them' clearly where the Messiah was to be born : for this 16 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES God made them dependent upon His word. When they came to Jerusalem, it was not any longer an out ward sign to guide. They learnt the scriptures as to it. They learnt from those that cared neither for it nor for Him it concerned, but who, nevertheless, knew the letter more or less. On the road to Bethlehem, to their exceeding joy, the star re-appears, confirm ing what they had received, till it rested over where the young child was. And there, in the presence of the father and the mother, they, Easterns though they were, and accustomed to no small homage, proved how truly they were guided of God ; for neither father nor mother received the smallest of their worship.: all was reserved for Jesus — all poured out at the feet of the infant Messiah. Oh, what a withering refutation of the foolish men of the West ! Oh, what a lesson, even from these dark Gentiles, to self- complacent Christendom in East or West ! Spite of what men, might look down upon in these proud days, their hearts in their simplicity were true. .It was but for Jesus they came; it was on Jesus that their worship was spent; and so, spite of the parents being there, spite of what nature would prompt them to do, in sharing, at least, something of the worship on the father and mother with the Babe, they produced their treasures and worshipped the young child alone. This is the more remarkable, because in the gospel of Luke we have another scene, where we see that same Jesus, truly an infant of days, in the ON THE GOSPELS. 17 hands of an aged one with far more divine intelli gence than these Eastern sages could boast. Now we know what would have been the prompting of affection and of godly desires in the presence of a babe; but the aged Simeon never pretends to bless Him. Nothing would have been more simple and natural, had not that Babe differed from all others, had He not been what He was, and had Simeon not known who He was. But he did know it. He saw in Him the salvation of God; and so, though he could rejoice in God, and bless God, though he could in another sense bless the parents, he never presumes so to bless the Babe. It was indeed the blessing that he had got from that Babe which enabled him to bless both God and His parents ; but he blesses not the Babe even when he blesses the parents. It was God Himself, even the Son of the Highest that was there, and his soul bowed before God. We have here, then, the Easterns worshipping the Babe, not the parents ; as in the other case we have the blessed man of God blessing the parents, but not the Babe : a most striking token of the remark able difference which the Holy Ghost had in view when inditing these histories of the Lord Jesus. Further, to these Easterns intimation is given of God, and they returned another way, thus defeating the design of the treacherous heart and cruel head of the Edomite king, notwithstanding the slaughter of 'the innocents. Next comes a remarkable prophecy of Christ, of C 18 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES which we must say a word — the prophecy of Hosea. Our Lord is carried outside the reach of the storm into Egypt. Such indeed was the history of His life; it was continual pain, one course of suffering and shame. There was no mere heroism in the Lord Jesus, but the very reverse. Nevertheless, it was God shrouding His Majesty; it was God in the person of man, in the Child that takes the lowliest place in the haughty world. Therefore, we find no more a cloud that covers Him, no pillar of fire that shields Him. Apparently the most exposed, He bows before the storm, retires, carried by His parents into the ancient furnace of affliction for His people. Thus even from the very first our Lord Jesus, as a babe, tastes the hate of the world — what it is to be thoroughly humbled, even as a child. The prophecy, therefore, was accom plished, and in its deepest meaning. It was not merely Israel that God called out, but His Son out of Egypt. Here was the true Israel ; Jesus was the genuine stock before God. He goes through, in His own person, Israel's history. He goes into Egypt, and is called out of it. Returning, in due time, to the land of Israel at the death of him that reigned after Herod the Great, His parents are instructed as we are told, and turn aside into the parts of Galilee. This is another important truth; for thus was to be fulfilled the word, not of one prophet, but of all— "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the pro- ON THE GOSPELS. 19 phets, He shall be called a Nazarene." It was the name of man's scorn; for Nazareth was the most despised place in that despised land of Galilee. Such, in the providence of God, was the place for Jesus. This gave an accomplishment to the general voice of the prophets, who declared Him despised and rejected of men. So He was. It was true even of the place in which He lived, " that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." We enter now upon the announcement of John the Baptist. The Spirit of God carries us over a long interval, and the voice of John is heard pro claiming, " Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Here we have an expression which must not be passed over — all-important as it is for the understanding of the gospel of Matthew. John the Baptist preached the nearness of this kingdom in the wilderness of Judsea. It was clearly gathered from the Old Testament prophecy, particularly from Daniel, that the God of heaven would set up a kingdom ; and more than this, that the Son of man was the person to administer the kingdom. "And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Such was the kingdom of heaven. It c 2 20 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES was not a mere kingdom of the earth, neither was it in heaven, but it was heaven governing the earth for ever. It would appear that, in John the Baptist's preaching it, we have no ground for supposing that either he believed at this time, or that any other men till afterwards were led into the under standing of the form which it was to assume through Christ's rejection and going on high as now. This our Lord divulged more particularly in chapter xiii. of this gospel. I understand, then, by this expression, what might be gathered justly from Old Testament prophecies; and that John, at this time, had no other thought but that the king dom was about to be introduced according to expec tations thus formed. They had long looked for the time when the earth should no longer be left to itself, but heaven should be the governing power; when the Son of man should control the earth; when the power of hell should be banished from the world ; when the earth should be put into association with the heavens, and the heavens, of course, therefore, be changed, so as to govern the earth directly through the Son of man, who should be also King of restored Israel. This, substantially, I think, was in the mind of the Baptist. But then he proclaims repentance; not here in view of deeper things, as in the gospel of Luke, but as a spiritual preparation for Messiah and the king dom of heaven. That is, he calls man to confess his ON THE GOSPELS. 21 own ruin in view of the introduction of that king dom. Accordingly, his own life was the witness of what he felt morally of Israel's then state. He re tires into the wilderness, and applies to himself the ancient oracle of Isaiah — "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." The reality was coming : as for him, he was merely one to announce the advent of the King. All Jerusalem was moved, and multi tudes were baptized by him in Jordan. This gives occasion to his stern sentence upon their condition in the sight of God. But among the crowd of those who came to him was Jesus. Strange sight ! He, even He, Emmanuel, Jehovah, if He took the place of Messiah, would take that place in lowliness on the earth. For all things were out of course; and He must prove by His whole life, as we shall find by-and-by He did, what the condition of His people was. But, indeed, it is but another step of the same infinite grace, and more than that, of the same moral judgment on Israel; but along with it the added and most sweet feature — 'His association with all in Israel who felt and owned their condition in the sight of God. It is what no saint can afford lightly to pass over ; it is what, if a saint recognize not, he will understand the Scripture most imper fectly ; nay, I believe he must grievously misunder stand the ways of God. But Jesus looked at those who came to the waters of Jordan, and saw their hearts touched, if ever so little, with a sense of 22 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES their state before God; and His heart was truly with them. It is not now taking the people out of Israel, and bringing them into a position with Himself — that we shall find by-and-by; but it is the Saviour identifying Himself with the godly- feeling remnant. Wherever there was the least action of the Holy Spirit of God in grace in the hearts of Israel, He joined Himself. John was astonished; John the Baptist himself would have refused, but, " Thus," said the Saviour, " it becometh us" — including, as I apprehend, John with Himself. " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." It is not here a question of law; it was too late for this — ever a ruinous thing for the sinner. It was a question of another sort of righteousness. It might be the feeblest recognition of God and man; it might be but a remnant of Israelites; but, at least, they owned the truth about themselves ; and Jesus was with them in owning the ruin fully, and felt it all. No need was in Himself — not a particle ; but it is precisely when the heart is thus perfectly free, and infinitely above ruin, that it can most of all descend and take up what is of God in the hearts of any. So Jesus ever did, and did it thus publicly, joining Himself with whatever was excel lent on the earth. He was baptized in Jordan — an act most inexplicable for those who then or now might hold to His glory without entering into His heart of grace. To what painful feelings it might give rise ! Had He anything to confess ? Without ON THE GOSPEL'S. 23 a single flaw of His own He bent down to confess what was in others ; He owned in all its extent, in its reality as none did, the state of Israel, before God and man ; He joined Himself with those who felt it. But at once, as the answer to any and every unholy misapprehension that could be formed, heaven is opened, and a twofold testimony is rendered to Jesus. The Father's voice pronounces the Son's relationship, and His own complacency; while the Holy Ghost anoints Him as man. Thus, in His full personality, God's answer is given to all who might otherwise have slighted either Himself or His baptism. The Lord Jesus thence goes forth into another scene — the wilderness — to be tempted of the devil; and this, mark, now that He is thus publicly owned by the Father, and the Holy Ghost had descended on Him. It is indeed, I might say, when souls are thus blessed that Satan's temptations are apt to come. Grace provokes the enemy. Only in a measure, of course, can we thus speak of any other than Jesus ; but of Him who was full of grace and truth, in whom, too, the fulness of the Godhead dwelt — even so, of Him it was fully true. The principle, at least, applies in every case. He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be there tried of the devil. The Holy Spirit has given the temptation to us in Matthew, according to the order in which it occurred. But here, as elsewhere, the aim is dispensational, not 24 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES historical, as far as intention goes, though really so in point of fact; and I apprehend, specially with this in view, that it is only at the last temptation our Lord says, " Get thee hence, Satan." We shall see by and by why this disappears in the gospel of Luke. There is thus the lesson of wisdom and patience even before the enemy; the excellent, matchless grace of patience in trial ; for what more likely to exclude it than the apprehension that it was Satan all the while ? But yet our Saviour was so perfect in it, that He never uttered the word "Satan" until the last daring, shameless effort to tempt Him to render to the evil one the very worship of God Himself. Not till then does our Lord say, "Get thee hence, Satan." We shall dwell a little more upon the three tempta tions, if the Lord will, as to their intrinsic moral im port, when we come to the consideration of Luke. I content myself now with giving what appears to me the true reason why the Spirit of God here adheres to the order of the facts. It is well, however, to remark, that the departure from such an order is precisely what indicates the consummate hand of God, and for a simple reason. To one who knew the facts in a human way, nothing would be more natural than to put them down just as they occurred. To depart from the historical order, more parti cularly when one had previously given them that order, is what never would be thought of, unless there were some mighty preponderant reason in the ON THE GOSPELS. 25 mind of him who did so. But this is no uncommon thing. There are cases where an author necessarily departs from the mere order in which the facts took place. Supposing you are describing a certain character ; you put together striking traits from the whole course of his Hfe ; you do not restrain your self to the bare dates at which they occurred. If you were only chronicling the events of a year, you keep to the order in which they happened; but when ever you rise to the higher task of bringing out moral features, you may be frequently obliged to abandon the consecutive order of events as they occurred. It is precisely this reason that accounts for the change in Luke ; who, as we shall find when we come to look at his gospel more carefully, is especially the moralist. That is to say, Luke characteristically looks upon things in their springs as well as effects. It is not his province to regard the person of Christ peculiarly, i. e., His divine glory ; neither does he occupy himself with the testimony or service of Jesus here below, of which we all know Mark is the exponent. Neither is it true, that the reason why Matthew occasionally gives the order of time, is because such is always his rule. On the contrary, there is no one of the gospel writers who departs from that order, when his subject demands it, more freely than he, as I hope to prove to the satisfaction of those open to conviction, before we close. If this be so, assuredly there must be some key to these phenomena, some reason sufficient to explain why 26 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES sometimes Matthew adheres to the order of events, why he departs from it elsewhere. I believe the real state of the facts to be this: — first of all, God has been pleased, by one of the evangelists (Mark), to give us the exact historical order of our Lord's eventful ministry. This alone would have been very insufficient to set forth Christ. Hence, besides that order, which is the most elementary, however important in its own place, other presentations of His life were due, according to various spiritual grounds, as divine wisdom saw fit, and as even we are capable of appreciating in our measure. Accordingly, I think it was owing to special considerations of this sort that Matthew was led to reserve for us the great lesson, that our Lord had passed through the entire temptation — not only the forty days, but even that which crowned them at the close; and that only when an open blow was struck at the divine glory did His soul at once resent it with the words, " Get thee hence, Satan." " Luke, on the contrary, in asmuch as he, for perfectly good and divinely given reason, changes the order, necessarily omits these words. Of course, I do not deny that similar words appear in your common English Bibles (in Luke iv. 8) ; but no scholar needs to be informed that all such words are left out of the third gospel by the best authorities, followed by almost every critic of note, save the testy Matthsei, though scarce one of them seems to have understood the true reason why. ON THE GOSPELS. 27 Nevertheless, they are omitted by Catholics, Luther ans, and Calvinists ; by High Church, and Low Church; by Evangelicals, Tractarians, and Ration alists. It does not matter who they are, or what their system of thought may be : all those who go upon the ground of external testimony alone are obliged to leave out the words in Luke. Besides, there is the clearest and the strongest evidence internally for the omission of these words in Luke, contrary to the prejudices of the copyists, which thus furnishes a very cogent illustration of the action of the Holy Spirit in inspiration. The ground of omitting the words lies in the fact, that the last temptation occupies the second place in Luke. If the words be retained, Satan seems to hold his ground, and renew the temptation after the Lord had told him to retire. Again, it is evident that, as the text stands in the received Greek text and our common English Bible, " Get thee behind me, Satan," is another mistake. In Matt. iv. 10, it is, rightly, " Get thee hence." Remem ber, I am not imputing a shade of error to the Word of God. The mistake spoken of lies only in blun dering scribes, critics, or translators, who have failed in doing justice to that particular place. " Get thee hence, Satan," was the real language of the Lord to Satan, and is so given in closing the literally last temptation by Matthew. When it was a question, at a later day, of His servant Peter, who, prompted by Satan, had fallen into human thoughts, and would have dissuaded 28 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES his Master from the cross, He does say, " Get thee behind me." For certainly Christ did not want Peter to go away from Him and be lost, which would have been its effect. " Get thee [not hence, but] behind me," He says. He rebuked His follower, yea, was ashamed of him ; and He desired that Peter should be ashamed of himself. " Get thee behind me, Satan," was thus appropriate language then. Satan was the source of the thought couched in Peter's words. But when Jesus speaks to him whose last trial thoroughly betrays the adversary of God and man, i.e., the literal Satan, His answer is not merely, " Get thee behind me," but, " Get thee hence, Satan." Nor is this the only mistake, as we have seen, in the passage as given in the authorised version; for the whole clause should disappear from the account in Luke, according to the weightiest testimony. Be sides, the reason is manifest. As it stands now, the passage wears this most awkward appearance, that Satan, though commanded to depart, lingers on. For in Luke we have another temptation after this ; and of course, therefore, Satan must be presented as abiding, not as gone away. The truth of the matter, then, is, that with matchless wisdom Luke was inspired of God to put the second temptation last, and the third temptation in the second place. Hence (inasmuch as these words of the third trial would be wholly incongruous in such an inversion of the historic order), they are ON THE GOSPELS. 29 omitted by him, but preserved by Matthew, who here held to that order. I dwell upon this, because it exemplifies, in a simple but striking manner, the finger and mind of God; as it shows us, also, how the copyists of the scriptures fell into error, through proceeding on the principle of the har monists, whose great idea is to make all the four gospels practically one gospel ; that is, to fuse them together into one mass, and make them give out only, as it were, a single voice in the praise of Jesus. Not so ; there are four distinct voices blending in the truest harmony, and surely God Himself in each one, and equally in all, but, withal, showing out fully and distinctively the excellencies of His Son. It is the disposition to blot out these differences, which has wrought such exceeding mischief, not merely in copy ists, but in our own careless reading of the gospels. What we need is, to gather up all, for all is worthy; to delight ourselves in every thought that the Spirit of God has treasured up — every fragrance, so to speak, that He has preserved for us of the ways of Jesus. Turning, then, from the temptation (which we may hope to resume in another point of view, when the gospel of Luke comes before us and we shall have the different temptations on the moral side, with their changed order), I may in passing notice, that a very characteristic difference in the gospel of Matthew meets us in what follows. Our Lord enters upon His pubHc ministry as a minister of the circum cision, and calls disciples to follow Him. It was not 30 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES His first acquaintance with Simon, Andrew, and the rest, as we know from the gospel of John. They had before known Jesus, and, I apprehend, savingly. They are now called to be His companions in Israel; formed according to His heart as His servants here below ; but before this we have a remarkable Scrip ture applied to our Lord. He changes his place of sojourn from Nazareth to Capernaum. And this is the more observable, because, in the gospel of Luke, the first opening of His ministry is expressly at Nazareth ; while the point of emphasis in Matthew is, that He leaves Nazareth, and comes and dwells in Capernaum. Of course, bot^h are equally true ; but who can say that they are the same thing ? or that the Spirit of God had not His own blessed reasons for giving prominency to both facts ? Nor is the reason obscure. His going to -Capernaum was the accomplishment of the word of Isaiah ix., specifically mentioned for the instruction of the Jew, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, " The land of Zebulun, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people which sat in darkness saw great light ; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." That quarter of the land was regarded as the scene of darkness; yet was it- just there that God suddenly caused light to arise. Nazareth was in lower, as Capernaum was in upper- Galilee. But more than this, it was the seat, above all others in ON THE GOSPELS. 31 the land, frequented by Gentiles — Galilee ("the circuit") of the Gentiles: Now, we shall find throughout this gospel that which may be well stated here, and will be abundantly confirmed every where — that the object of our gospel is not merely to prove what the Messiah was, both according to the flesh and according to His own divine intrinsic nature, for Israel; but also, when rejected by Israel, what the consequences of that rejection would be for the Gentiles, and this in a double aspects — whether as introducing the kingdom of heaven in a new form, or as giving occasion for Christ's building His Church. These were the two main consequences of the rejection of the Messiah by Israel. Accordingly, as in chapter ii. we found Gentiles from the East coming up to own the born King Of the Jews, when His people were buried in bondage and Rabbinic tradition — in heartless heedlessness, too, while boasting of their privileges ; so here our Lord, at the beginning of His public ministry, as recorded in Matthew, is seen taking up His abode in these despised districts of the north, the way of the sea, where especially Gentiles had long dwelt, and on which the Jews looked down as a rude and dark spot, far from the centre of religious sanctity. There, according to prophecy, light was to spring up ; and how brightly was it now accomplished ? Next, we have the call of the disciples, as we have seen. At the end of the chapter is a general summary of the 32 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Messiah's ministry, and of its effects, given in these words : "And Jesus went- about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria ; and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, 'and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Gahlee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusa lem, and from Judsea, and from beyond Jordan." This I read, in order to show that it is the purpose of the Spirit, in this part of our gospel, to gather a quantity of facts together under one head, entirely regardless of the question of time. It is evident, that what is here described in a few verses must have demanded a considerable space for its accom plishment. The Holy Ghost gives it all to us as a connected whole. The self-same principle applies to the so-called sermon on the mount, on which I am about to say a few words. It is quite a misapprehension to sup pose that Matt, v.-vii. was given all in a single, unbroken discourse. For the wisest purposes, I have no doubt, the Spirit of God has arranged and conveyed it to us as one whole, without notice of the interruptions, occasions, etc.; but it is an un- ON THE GOSPELS. 33 warrantable conclusion for any to draw, that our Lord Jesus delivered it simply and solely as it stands in Matthew's gospel. What proves the fact is, that in the gospel of Luke we have certain portions of it clearly pertaining to this very sermon (not merely similar, or the same truth preached at other times, but this identical discourse), with the particular circumstances which drew them out. Take the prayer, for instance, that was here set before the disciples, (ch. vi.) As to this, we know from Luke xi. there was a request preferred by the disciples which led to it. As to other instruction, there were facts or questions, found in Luke, which drew out the remarks of the Lord, common to him and Matthew, if not Mark. If it be certain that the Holy Ghost has been pleased to give us in Matthew this discourse and others as a whole, leaving out the originating cir cumstances found elsewhere, it is a fair and in teresting inquiry why such a method of grouping with such omissions is adopted. The answer I conceive to be this, — that the Spirit in Matthew loves to present Christ as the One like unto Moses, whom they were to hear. He presents Jesus not merely as a legislating prophet -king like Moses, but greater by far; for it is never forgotten that the Nazarene was the Lord God. Therefore it is that, in this discourse on the mountain, we have throughout the tone of One who was consciously God with men. If Jehovah called Moses up to 34 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the top of one mount, He who then spake the ten words sat now upon another mount, and taught His disciples the character of the kingdom of hea ven, and its principles introduced as a whole, just answering to what we have seen of the facts and effects of His ministry, entirely passing by all intervals or connecting circumstances. As we had His miracles all put together, as I may say, in the gross, so with His discourses. We have thus in either case the same principle. The substantial truth is given to us without noticing the immediate occasion in- particular facts, appeals, etc. What was uttered by the Lord, according to Matthew, is thus presented as a whole. The effect, therefore, is, that it is much more solemn, because unbroken, carrying its own majesty along with it. The Spirit of God imprints on it purposely this character here, as I have no doubt there was an intention that it should be so reproduced for the instruction of His own people. The Lord, in short, was here accomplishing one of the parts of His mission according to Isaiah liii., where the work of Christ is twofold. It is not, as the authorized version has it, " By His know ledge shall my righteous servant justify many;" for it is unquestionable that justification is not by His knowledge. Justification is by faith of Christ, we know; and as far as the efficacious work on which it depends is concerned, it is clearly in virtue of what Christ has suffered for sin and sins before God. ON THE GOSPELS. 35 But I apprehend that the real force of the passage is, "By His knowledge shall my righteous servant in struct many in righteousness." It is not "justify" in the ordinary forensic sense of the word, but rather instructing in righteousness, as the context here requires, and as the usage of the word else where, as in Dan. xii., leaves open. This seems to be what is meant of our Lord here. In the teaching on the mount He was, in fact, instructing the disciples in righteousness: hence, too, one reason why we have not a word about redemption. There is not the slightest reference to His suffering on the cross; no intimation of His blood, death, or resurrection : He is instructing, though not merely in righteousness. To the heirs of the kingdom the Lord is unfolding the principles of that kingdom — most blessed and rich instruction, but instruction in righteousness. No doubt there is also the declaration of the Father's name, as far as could be then; but, still, the form taken is that of "instructing in righteousness." Let me add, as to the passage of Isa. liii., that the remainder of the verse also accords with this : not "for," but, "and He shall bear their iniquities." Such is the true force of it. The one was in His life, when He taught His own ; the other was in His death, when He bore the iniquities of many. Into the details of the discourse on the mount I cannot enter particularly now, but would just say a few words before I conclude to-night. In its preface D 2 36 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES we have a method often adopted by the Spirit of God, and not unworthy of our study. There is no child of God that cannot glean blessing from it, even through a scanty glance; but when we look into it a little more closely, the instruction deepens immensely. First of all He pronounces certain classes blessed. These blessednesses divide into two classes., The earlier character of blessedness savours particularly of righteousness, the later of mercy, ,, which are the two great topics of the Psalms. These are both taken up here: "Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled." In the fourth case righteousness comes in expressly, and closes that part of the subject; but it is plain enough that all these four classes consist in sub stance of such as the Lord pronounces blessed, because they are righteous in one form or another. The next three are founded upon mercy. Hence we read as the very first — "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Of course, it would be impossible to attempt more than a sketch at this time. Here, then, occurs the number usual in all these syste matic partitions of Scripture; there is the customary ON THE GOSPELS. 37 and complete seven of Scripture. The two supple mentary blessednesses at the end rather confirm the case, though at first sight they might appear to offer an exception. But it is not so really. The exception proves the rule convincingly ; for in verse 10 you have, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake;" which answers to the first four. Then, in verses 11 and 12, you have, "Blessed are ye for my sake;" which answers to the higher mercy of the last three. "Blessed are ye, [there is thus a change. It is made a direct personal address] when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Thus it is the very consum mation of suffering in grace, because it is for Christ's sake. Hence the twofold persecutions (10-12) bring in the double character we find in the epistles — suffering for righteousness' sake, and suffering for Christ's sake. These are two perfectly distinct things ; because, where it is a question of righteous ness, it is simply a person brought to a point. If I do not stand and suffer here, my conscience will be defiled; but this is in no way suffering for Christ's sake. In short, conscience enters where righteous ness is the question ; but suffering for Christ's sake is not a question of plain sin, but of His grace and its claims on my heart. Desire for His truth, desire for His glory, carries me out into a certain path that exposes me to suffering. I might merely do my 38 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES duty in the place in which I am put ; but grace is never satisfied with the bare performance of one's duty. Fully is it admitted that there is nothing like grace to meet duty ; and doing one's duty is a good thing for a Christian. But God forbid that we should be merely shut up to duty, and not be free for the flowing over of grace which carries out the heart along with it. In the one case, the believer stops dead short: if he did not stand, there would be sin. In the other case, there would be a lack of testimony for Christ, and grace makes one rejoice to be counted worthy of suffering for His name : but righteousness is not in question. Such, then, are the two distinct classes or groups of blessedness. First, there are the blessednesses of righteousness, to which the persecution for right eousness' sake pertains; next, the blessednesses of mercy or grace. Christ instructs in righteousness according to prophecy, but He does not confine Himself to righteousness. This never could be con sistent with the glory of the person who was there. Accordingly, therefore, while there is the doctrine of righteousness, there is the introduction of what is above it and mightier than it, with the cor responding blessedness of being persecuted for Christ's sake. All here is grace, and indicates mani fest progress. The same thing is true of what follows : " Ye are the salt of the earth" — it is that which keeps pure what is pure. Salt will not communicate ON THE GOSPELS. 39 purity to what is impure, but it is used as the pre servative power according to righteousness. But light is another thing. Hence we hear, in the 14th verse, " Ye are the light of the world." Light is not that which simply preserves what is good, but is an active power, which casts its bright shining into what is obscure, and dispels the darkness from before it. Thus it is evident that in this further word of the Lord we have answers to the differences already hinted at. Much of the deepest interest might be found in the discourse; only this is not the occasion for entering into particulars. We have, as usual, right eousness developed according to Christ, which deals with man's wickedness under the heads of violence and corruption; next come other new principles of grace infinitely deepening what had been given under law. (ch. v.) Thus, in the former of these, a word detects, as it were, the thirst of blood, as cor ruption lies in a look or desire. For it is no longer a question of mere acts, but of the soul's condition. Such is the scope of the fifth chapter. As earlier (verses 17, 18) the law is fully maintained in all its authority, we have later on (verses 21-48) superior principles of grace, and deeper truths, mainly founded upon the revelation of the Father's name — the Father which is in heaven. Consequently it is not merely the question between man and man, but the Evil One on one side, and God Himself on the other ; and God Himself, as a Father, disclosing and 40 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES proving the selfish condition of fallen man upon the earth. In the second of these chapters (ch. vi.) com posing the discourse, two main parts appear. The first is again righteousness. "Take heed [He says] that you do not your righteousness before men." Here it is not "alms," but "righteousness," as you may see in the margin. Then the righteousness spoken of branches out into three parts: — alms, which is one part of it; prayer, another part; and fasting,' a part of it not to be despised. This is our righteous- ¦'¦ ness, the especial point of which is, that it should he not a matter of ostentation, but before our Father who sees in secret. It is one of the salient features of Christianity. In the latter part of the chapter, we have entire confidence in our Father's goodness to us, counting upon His mercy, certain that He regards us as of infinite value, and that, therefore, we need not be careful as the Gentiles are, because our Father knows what we have need of. It is enough for us to seek the kingdom of God, and His righteousness: our Father's love cares for all the rest. The last chapter (vii.) presses on us the motives of heart in our intercourse with men and brethren, as well as with God, who, however good, loves that we should ask Him, and earnestly too, as to each need; the adequate consideration of what is due to others, and the energy that becomes ourselves; for the gate is strait, and narrow the way that leads to ON THE GOSPELS. 41 life ; warnings against the devil and the sugges tions of his agents, the false prophets, who betray themselves by their fruits; and, lastly, the all- importance of remembering that it is not a thing of knowledge, or of miraculous power even, but of doing God's will, of a heart obedient to Christ's sayings. Here, again, if I be not mistaken, righteousness and grace are found alternating ; for the exhortation against a censorious • spirit is grounded on the cer tainty of retribution from others, and paves the way for an urgent call to self -judgment, which in us precedes all genuine exercise of grace, (verses 1-4.) Further, the caution against a lavishing of what was holy and beautiful on the profane is followed by rich and repeated encouragements to count on our Father's grace, (verses 5-11.) Here, however, I must for the present pause, though one can only and deeply regret being obliged to pass so very cursorily over the ground ; but 1 have sought in this first lecture to give thus far as simple, and at the same time as complete, a view of this portion of Matthew as I well coidd. I am perfectly aware that there has not been time for comparing it much with the others; but occasions will, I trust, offer for bringing into strong contrast the different aspects of the various gospels. However, my aim is also that we should have before us our Lord, His person, His teaching, His way, in every gospel. I pray the Lord that what has been put, however scantily, before souls may at least stir up enquiry 42 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. on the part of God's children, and lead them to have perfect, absolute confidence in that word which is of His grace indeed. We may thus look for deep profit. For, although to enter upon the gospels before the soul has been founded upon the grace of God will not leave us without a blessing, yet I am per suaded that the blessing is in every respect greater, when, having been attracted by the grace of Christ, we have at the same time been established in Him with all simplicity and assurance, in virtue of the accomplished work of redemption. Then, set free and at rest in our souls, we return to learn of Him, to look upon Him, to follow Him, to hear His word, to delight ourselves in His ways. The Lord grant that thus it may be, as we pursue our path through these different gospels which our God has vouchsafed to us. H. MATTHEW YIII.-XX. 28. Chapter viii., which opens the portion that comes before us to-night, is a striking illustration as well as proof of the method which God has been pleased to employ in giving us the apostle Matthew's account of our Lord Jesus. The dispensational aim here leads to a more manifest disregard of the bare circumstance of time than in any other specimen of these gospels. This is the more to be noticed, inasmuch as the gospel of Matthew has been in general adopted as the standard of time, save by those who have rather inclined to Luke as supplying the desideratum. To me it is evident, from a careful comparison .of them all, as I think it is capable of clear and adequate proof to an unprejudiced Christian mind, that neither Matthew nor Luke confines him self to such an order of events. Of course, both do preserve chronological order when it is compatible with the objects the Holy Spirit had in inspiring them ; but "in both the order of time is subordinated to still greater purposes which God had in view. If we compare the eighth chapter, for example, with 44 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the corresponding circumstances, as far as they appear, in the gospel of Mark, we shall find the latter gives us notes of time, which leave no doubt on my mind that Mark adheres to the scale of time : the design of the Holy Ghost required it, instead of dispensing with it in his case. The question fairly arises, Why it is that the Holy Ghost has been pleased so remarkably to leave time out of the question in this chapter, as well as in the next? The same indifference to the mere sequence of events is found occasionally in other parts of the gospel ; but I have purposely dwelt upon this chapter viii., because here we have it throughout, and at the same time with evidence exceedingly simple and convincing. The first thing to be remarked is, that the leper was an early incident in the manifestation of the healing power of our Lord. In his defilement he came to Jesus and sought to be cleansed, before the delivery of the sermon on the mount. Accordingly, notice that, in the manner in which the Holy Ghost introduces it, there is no statement of time whatever. No doubt the first verse says, that "when He was eome down from the mount, great multitudes followed Him ;" but then the second verse gives no intimation that the subject which follows is to be taken as chronologically subsequent. It does not say, that "then there came a leper," or "immediately there came a leper." No word whatever implies that the cleansing of the leper happened at that time. It ON THE GOSPELS. 45 says simply, "And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Verse 4 seems quite adverse to the idea that great multitudes were witnesses of the cure ; for why " tell no man," if so many knew it already ? Inattention to this has perplexed many. They have not seized the aim of each gospel. They have treated the Bible either with levity, or as too awful a book to be apprehended really; not with the reverence of faith, which waits on Him, and fails not in due time to understand His word. God does not permit Scripture to be thus used without losing its force, its beauty, and the grand object for which it was written. If we turn to Mark, chap, i., the proof of what I 'have said will appear as to the leper. At its close we see the leper approaching the Lord, after He had been preaching throughout Galilee and casting out devils. In the second chapter it says, "And again he entered into Capernaum." He had been there before. Then, in chapter iii., there are notes of time more or less strong. In verse 13 our Lord "goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would : and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." To him who compares this with the sixth chapter of Luke> there need not remain a question as to the identity of the scene. They are the circumstances that preceded the discourse upon the mount, as given in Matt. 46 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES v.-vii. It was after our Lord had called the twelve, and ordained them — not after He had sent them forth, but after He had appointed them apostles — that the Lord comes down to a plateau upon the mountain, instead of remaining upon the more elevated parts where He had been before. Descend ing then upon the plateau, He delivered what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. Examine the Scripture, and you will see for your selves. It is not a thing that can be settled by a mere assertion. On the other hand, it is not too much to say, that the same Scriptures which convince one unbiassed mind that pays heed to these notes of time, will produce no less effect on others. If I assume from the words "set forth in order," in the beginning of Luke's gospel, that therefore . his is the chrono logical account, it will only lead me into confusion, both as to Luke and the other gospels ; for proofs abound that the order of Luke, most methodical as he is, is by no means absolutely that of time. Of course, there is often the order of time, but through the central part, and not unfrequently elsewhere, his setting forth in order turns on another principle, quite independent of mere succession of events. In other words, it is certain that in the gospel of Luke, in whose preface we have expressly the words "set in order," the Holy Ghost does in no way tie Himself to what, after all, is the most elementary form of arrangement; for it needs little observation to see, that the simple sequence of facts as they occurred ON THE GOSPELS. 47 is that which demands a faithful enumeration, and nothing more. Whereas, on the contrary, there are other kinds of order that call for more profound thought and enlarged views, if we may speak now after the manner of men ; and, indeed, I deny not that these the Holy Ghost employed in His own wisdom, though it is hardly needful to say He could, if He pleased, demonstrate His superiority to any means or qualifications whatsoever. He could and did form His instruments according to His own sovereign will. It is a question, then, of internal evidence, what that particular order is which God has employed in each different gospel. Particular epochs in Luke are noted with great care ; but, speaking now of the general course of the Lord's life, a little attention will discover, from the immensely greater preponderance paid to the consideration of time in the second gospel, that there we have events from first to last given to us in' their consecutive order. It appears to me, that the nature or aim of Mark's gospel demands this. The grounds of such a judgment will naturally come before us ere long : I can merely refer to it now as my conviction. If this be a sound judgment, the comparison of the first chapter of Mark affords decisive evidence that the Holy Ghost in Matthew has taken the leper out of the mere time and circumstances of actual occur rence, and has reserved his case for a wholly different service. It is true that in this particular instance Mark no more surrounds the leper with notes of 48 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES time and place than do Matthew and Luke. We are dependent, therefore, for determining this case, on the fact that Mark does habitually adhere to the chain of events. But if Matthew here laid aside all ques tion of time, it was in view of other and weightier considerations for his object. In other words, the leper is here introduced after the sermon on the mount, though, in fact, the circumstance took place long before it. The design is, I think, manifest : the Spirit of God is here giving a vivid picture of the manifestation of the Messiah, of His divine glory, of His grace and power, with the effect of this mani festation. Hence it is that He has grouped together circumstances which make this plain, without rais ing the question of when they occurred; in fact, they range over a large space, and, otherwise viewed, are in total disorder. Thus it is easy to see, that the- reason for here putting together, the leper and the centurion lies in the Lord's dealing with the Jew, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, in His deep grace working in the Gentile's heart, and forming his faith, as well as answering it, according to His own heart. The leper approaches the Lord with homage, but with a most inadequate belief in His love and readiness to meet his need. The Saviour, while He puts forth His hand, touching him as man, and yet as none but Jehovah might dare to do, dis pels the hopeless disease at once. Thus, and after the tenderest sort, there is that which evidences the Messiah on earth present to heal His people who ON THE GOSPELS. 49 appeal to Him; and the Jew, above all counting upon His bodily presence — demanding it, I may say, according to the warrant of prophecy, finds in Jesus not merely the man, but the God of Israel. Who but God could heal? Who could touch the leper save Emmanuel? A mere Jew would have been defiled. He who gave the law maintained its authority, and used it as an occasion for testifying His own power and presence. Would any man make of the Messiah a mere man and a mere subject of the law given by Moses ? Let them read their error in One who was evidently superior to the condition and the ruin of man in Israel. Let them recognize the power that banished the leprosy, and the grace withal that touched the leper. It was true that He was made of woman, and made under the law; but He was Jehovah Himself, that lowly Nazarene. However suitable to the Jewish expectation that He should be found a man, undeniably there was that apparent which was infinitely above the Jew's thought; for the Jew showed his own degradation and unbelief in the low ideas he entertained of the Messiah. He was really God in man ; and all these wonderful features are here presented and com pressed in this most simple, but at the same time significant, action of the Saviour — the fitting frontis piece to Matthew's manifestation of the Messiah to ¦ Israel. In immediate juxtaposition to this stands the Gentile centurion, who seeks healing for his servant. E 50 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Considerable time, it is true, elapsed between the two facts; but this only makes it the more sure and plain, that they are grouped together with a divine purpose. The Lord then had been shown such as He was towards Israel, had Israel in their leprosy come to Him, as did the leper, even with a faith exceedingly short of that which was due to His real glory and His love. But Israel had no sense of their leprosy; and they valued not, but despised, their Messiah, albeit divine — I might almost say because divine. Next, we behold Him meeting ; the centurion after another manner altogether. If He offers to go to his house, it was to bring out the faith that He had created in the heart of the cen turion. Gentile as he was, he was for that very reason the less narrowed in his thoughts of the Saviour by the prevalent notions of Israel, yea, or even by Old Testament hopes, precious as they are. God had given his soul a deeper, fuller sight of Christ ; for the Gentile's words prove that he had apprehended God in the man who was healing at that moment all sickness and disease in Galilee. I say not how far he had realized this profound truth ; I say not that he could have defined his thoughts ; but he knew and declared His command of all as truly God. In him there was a spiritual force far beyond that found in the leper, to whom the hand that touched, as well as cleansed, him proclaimed- Israel's need and state as truly as Emmanuel's grace. As for the Gentile, the Lord's proffer to go and heal ON THE GOSPELS. 51 his servant brought out the singular strength of his faith. " Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof." He had only to say in a word, and his servant should be healed. The bodily presence of the Messiah was not needed. God could not be limited by a question of place; His word was enough. Disease must obey Him, as the soldier or the servant obeyed the centurion, their superior. What an anticipation of the walk by faith, not by sight, in which the Gentiles, when called, ought to have glorified God, when the rejection of the Messiah by His own ancient people gave occasion to the Gentile call as a distinct thing ! It is evident that the bodily presence of the Messiah is the very essence of the former scene, as it ought to be in dealing with the leper, who is a kind of type of what Israel should have been in seeking cleansing at His hands. So, on the other hand, the centurion sets forth with no less aptness the characteristic faith that suits the Gentile, in a simplicity which looks for nothing but the word of His mouth, is perfectly content with it, knows that, whatever the disease may be, He has only to speak the word, and it is done according to His divine will. That blessed One was here whom he knew to be God, who was to him the impersona tion of divine power and goodness — His presence was uncalled for, His word more than enough. The Lord admired the faith superior to Israel's, and took that occasion to intimate the casting out of the sons or natural heirs of the kingdom, and the entrance of " E 2 52 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES many from east and west to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of the hea vens. What can be conceived so perfectly to illus trate the great design of the gospel of Matthew ? Thus, in the scene of the leper, we have Jesus presented as "Jehovah that healeth Israel," as man here below, and in Jewish relationships, still main taining the law. Next, we find Him confessed by the centurion, no longer as the Messiah, when actually with them, confessed according to a faith which saw the deeper glory of His person as supreme, competent to heal, no matter where, or whom, or what, by a word ; and this the Lord Himself hails as the fore shadowing of a rich incoming of many multitudes to the praise of His name, when the Jews should be cast out. Evidently it is the change of dispen- 1 sation that is in question and at hand, the cutting | off of the fleshly seed for their unbelief, and the bringing in of numerous believers in the name of j the Lord from among the Gentiles. Then follows another incident, which equally proves that the Spirit of God is not here reciting the facts in their natural succession ; for it is assuredly not at this moment historically that the Lord goes into the house of Peter, sees there his wife's mother laid sick of a fever, touches her hand, * and raises her up, so that she ministers unto them at once. In this we have another striking illustration of the same principle, because this miracle, in point of fact, was wrought long before the healing of the ON THE GOSPELS. 53 centurion's servant, or even of the leper. This, too, we ascertain from Mark i, where there are clear marks of the time. The Lord was in Capernaum, where Peter lived ; and on a certain Sabbath-day, after the call of Peter, wrought in the synagogue mighty deeds, which are here recorded, and by Luke also. Verse 29 gives us strict time. "And forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John; but Simon's wife's mother was sick of a fever, and anon they tell Him of her. And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them." It would require the cre dulity of a sceptic to believe that this is not the self-same fact that we have before us in Matthew viii. I feel sure that no Christian harbours a doubt about it. But if this be so, there is here absolute certainty that our Lord, on the very Sabbath in which He cast out the unclean spirit from the man in the synagogue of Capernaum, immediately after quitting the synagogue, entered the house of Peter, and that there and then He healed Peter's wife's mother of the fever. Subsequent, considerably, to this was the case of the centurion's servant, preceded a good while before by the cleansing of the leper. How are we to account for a selection so marked, an elimination of time so complete? Surely not by inaccuracy ; surely not by indifference to order, but contrariwise by divine wisdom that arranged the facts 54 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES with a view to a purpose worthy of itself: God's arrangement of all things — more particularly in this part of Matthew — to give us an adequate manifes tation of the Messiah ; and, as we have seen, first, what He was to the appeal of the Jew ; next, what He was and would be to Gentile faith, in still richer form and fulness. So now we have, in the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, another fact containing a prin ciple of great value, — that His grace towards the Gentile does not in the least degree blunt His heart to the claims of relationship after the flesh. It was clearly a question of connection with the apostle of the circumcision (i.e., Peter's wife's mother). We have the natural tie here brought into prominence; and this was a claim that Christ slighted not. For He loved Peter — felt for him, and his wife's mother was precious in His sight. This sets forth not at all the way in which the Christian stands related to Christ ; for even though we had known Him after the flesh, henceforth know we Him no more. But it is ex pressly the pattern after which He was to deal, and will deal, with Israel. Zion may say of the Lord who laboured in vain, whom the nation abhorred, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath for gotten me." Not so. " Can a woman forget her sucking child ? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Thus it is shown that, though we have rich grace to the Gentile, there is the remembrance of natural relationship still ON THE GOSPELS. 55 In the evening multitudes are brought, taking advantage of the power that had so shown itself, publicly in the synagogue, and privately in the house of Peter; and the Lord accomplished the words of Isaiah liii. 4: "Himself," it is said, "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," an oracle we might do well to consider in the light of its application here. In what sense did Jesus, our Lord, take their infirmities, and bear their sick nesses? In this, as I believe, that He never employed the virtue that was in Him to meet sickness or infirmity as a matter of mere power, but in deep compassionate feeling He entered into the whole reality of the case. He healed, and bore its burden on His heart before God, as truly as He took it away from men. It was precisely because He was Himself untouchable by sickness and infirmity, that He was free so to take up each consequence of sin thus. Therefore it was not a mere simple fact that He banished sickness or infirmity, but He carried them in His spirit before God. To my mind, the depth of such grace only enhances the beauty of Jesus, and is the very last possible ground that justifies man in thinking lightly of the Saviour. After this our Lord sees great multitudes following Him, and gives commandment to go to the other side. Here again is found a fresh case of the same remarkable principle of selection of events to form a complete picture, which I have maintained to be the true key of all. The Spirit of God has been 56 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES pleased to cull and class facts otherwise uncon nected ; for here follow conversations that took place a long time after any of the events we have been occupied with. When do you suppose these conversations actually occurred, if we go to the question of their date ? Take notice of the care with which the Spirit of God here omits all reference to this : " And a certain scribe came." There is no note of the time when he came, but simply the fact that he did come. It was really after the transfiguration recorded in chapter xvii. of our gospel. Subsequently to that, the scribe offered to follow Jesus whithersoever He went. We know this by comparing it with the gospel of Luke. And so with the other conversation : " Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father;" it was after the glory of Christ had been witnessed on the holy mount, when man's selfishness of heart shewed itself in contrast to the grace of God. Next, the storm follows. "There arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves ; but he was asleep." When did this take place, if we enquire into it merely as a matter of historical fact ? On the evening of the day when He delivered the seven parables given in Matthew xiii. The truth of this is apparent, if we compare the gospel of Mark. Thus, the fourth chapter of Mark coincides, marked with such data as can leave no doubt. We have, first, the sower sowing the word. Then, after the parable of the ON THE GOSPELS. 57 mustard seed (ver. 33), it is added, "And with many such parables spake He the word unto them .... and when they were alone, He expounded all things to His disciples [in both the parables and the ex planations alluding to what we possess in Matthew xiii.]. And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. [There is what I call a clear, unmistakable note of time.] And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also with Him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow : and they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him ? " After this (what makes it still more unquestionable) comes the case of the demoniac. It is true, we have only one in Mark, as in Luke; whereas in our gospel we have two. Nothing can be simpler. There were two; but the Spirit of God chose out, in Mark and Luke, the more remarkable of the two, and traces for us his history, a history of no small interest and import- 58 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ance, as we may feel when we come to Mark ; but it was of equal moment for the gospel of Matthew that the two demoniacs should be mentioned here, although one of them was in himself, as I gather, a far more strikingly desperate case than the other. The reason I consider to be plain; and the same principle applies to various other parts of our gospel where we have two cases mentioned, where in the other gospels we have only one. The key to it is this, that Matthew was led by the Holy Ghost to keep in view adequate testimony to the Jewish people; it was the tender goodness of God that would meet them in a manner that was suitable under the law. Now, it was an established principle, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should be established. This, then, I apprehend to be the reason why we find two demoniacs mentioned; whereas, in Mark or Luke for other purposes, the Spirit of God only draws' attention to one of the two. A Gentile (indeed, any mind not under any kind of legal prejudice or difficulty) would be far more moved by a detailed account of what was more conspicuous. The fact of two without the personal details would not powerfully tell upon mere Gentiles perhaps, though to a Jew it might be for some ends necessary. I do not pretend to say this was the only purpose served ; far be it from me to' think of restraining the Spirit of God within the narrow bounds of our vision. Let none suppose that, in giving my own convictions, I have the presumptuous ON THE GOSPELS. 59 thought of putting these forward as if they were the sole motives in God's mind. It is enough to meet a difficulty which many feel by the simple plea that the reason assigned is in my judgment a valid explana tion, and in itself a sufficient solution of the apparent discrepancy. If it be so, it is surely a ground of thankfulness to God ; for it turns a stumbling-block into an evidence of the perfection of Scripture. Reviewing, then, these closing incidents of the chapter (ver. 19-22), we find first of all the utter worthlessness of the flesh's readiness to follow Jesus. The motives of the natural heart are laid bare. Does this scribe offer to follow Jesus ? He was not called. Such is the perversity of man, that he who is not called thinks he can follow Jesus whithersoever He goes. The Lord hints at what the man's real desires were — not Christ, not heaven, not eternity, but present things. If he were willing to follow the Lord, it was for what he could get. The scribe had no heart fpr the hidden glory. Surely, had he seen this, every thing was there ; but he saw it not, and so the Lord spread out His actual portion, as it literally was, without one word about the unseen and eternal. " The foxes," says He, " have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." He takes accordingly the title of the " Son of man " for the first time in this gospel. He has His rejection before His eyes, as well as the presumptuous unbelief of this sordid, and self-confident, would-be follower. 60 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Again, when we listen to another (and now it is one of His disciples), at once faith shows its feeble ness. "Suffer me first," he says, "to go and bury my father." The man that was not called promises to go anywhere, in his own strength ; but the man that was called feels the difficulty, and pleads a natural duty before following Jesus. Oh, what a heart is ours ! but what a heart was His ! In the next scene, then, we have the disciples as a whole tried by a sudden danger to which their sleep ing Master paid no heed. This tested their thoughts of the glory of Jesus. No doubt the tempest was great ; but what harm could it do to Jesus ? No doubt the ship was covered with the waves ; but how could that imperil the Lord of all? They forgot His glory in their own anxiety and selfishness. They measured Jesus by their own impotence. A great tempest and a sinking ship are serious diffi culties to a man. " Lord, save us ; we perish," cried they, as they awoke Him; and He arose and re buked the winds and the sea. Little faith leaves us as fearful for ourselves as dim witnesses of His glory whom the most unruly elements obey. In what follows we have that which is necessary to complete the picture of the other side. The Lord works in delivering power ; but withal the power of Satan fills and carries away the unclean to their own destruction. Yet man, in face of all, is so deceived of the enemy, that he prefers to be left with the demons rather than enjoy the presence of the Deliverer. Such ON THE GOSPELS. 61 was and is man. But the future is in view also. The delivered demoniacs are, to my mind, clearly the foreshadow of the Lord's grace in the latter days, separating a remnant to Himself, and banishing the power of Satan from this small but sufficient witness of His salvation. The evil spirits asked leave to pass into the herd of swine, which thus typify the final condition of the defiled, apostate mass of Israel ; their presumptuous and impenitent unbelief reduces them to that deep degradation — not merely the un clean, but the unclean filled with the power of Satan, and carried down to swift destruction. It is a just prefiguration of what will be in the close of the age — the mass of the unbelieving Jews, now impure, but then also given up to the devil, and so to evident perdition. ' Thus, in the chapter before us, we have a very comprehensive sketch of the Lord's manifestation from that time, and in type going on to the end of the age. In the chapter that follows we have a companion picture, carrying on, no doubt, the Lord's presentation to Israel, but from a different point of view ; for in chapter ix. it is not merely the people tried, but more especially the religious leaders, till all closes in blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. This was testing matters more closely. Had there been a single thing good in Israel, their choicest guides would have stood that test. The people might have failed, but, surely, there were some differences — surely those that were honoured and 62 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES valued were not so depraved ! Those that were priests in the house of God — would not they at least receive their own Messiah? This question is accordingly put to the proof in the ninth chapter. To the end the events are put together, just as in chap, viii., without regard to the point of time when they occurred. "And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city." Having left Naza reth, as we saw, He takes up His abode in Capernaum, which was henceforth " His own city." To the proud inhabitant of Jerusalem, both one and the other were but a choice and change within a land of darkness. But it was for a land of darkness and sin and death that Jesus came from heaven — the Messiah, not according to their thoughts, but the Lord and Saviour, the God-man. So in this case there was brought to Him a paralytic man, lying upon a bed, " and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Most clearly it is not so much a question of sin in the aspect of uncleanness (typifying deeper things, but still connected with the ceremonial requirements of Israel, as we find from what our Lord said in the chapter to the cleansed leper). It is more particularly sin, viewed as guilt, and consequently as that which absolutely breaks and destroys all power in the soul towards both God and man. Hence, here it is a question not merely of cleansing, but of forgiveness, and forgiveness, too, ON THE GOSPELS. 63 as that which precedes power, manifested before men. There never can be strength in the soul till forgive ness is known. There may be desires, there may be the working of the Spirit of God, but there can be no power to walk before men and to glorify God thus till there is forgiveness possessed and enjoyed in the heart. This was the very blessing. that aroused, above all, the hatred of the scribes. The priest, in chap, viii, could not deny what was done in the case of the leper, who showed himself duly, and brought his offering, according to the law, to the altar. Though a testimony to them, still it was in the result a recognition of what Moses commanded. But here pardon dispensed on earth arouses the pride of the religious leaders to the quick, and implacably. Nevertheless, the Lord did not withhold the infinite boon, though He knew too well their thoughts ; He spoke the word of forgiveness, though He read their evil' heart that counted it blasphemy. This utter, growing rejection of Jesus was coming out now — rejection, at first allowed and whispered in the heart, soon to be pronounced in words like drawn swords. "And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth." Jesus blessedly answered their thoughts, had there only been a con science to hear the word of power and grace, which brings out His glory the more. "That ye may know," He says, " that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins," &c. He now takes His place of rejection ; for Him it is manifest even now by their 64 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES inmost thoughts of Him when revealed. " This man blasphemeth." Yet is He the Son of man who hath power on earth to forgive sins ; and He uses His authority. "That ye may know it (then saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house." The man's walk before them testifies to the reality of his forgiveness before God. It ought to be so with every forgiven soul. This as yet draws out wonder, at least from the witness ing multitudes, that God had given such power unto men. They glorified God. On this the Lord proceeds to take a step farther, and makes a deeper inroad, if possible, upon Jewish prejudice. He is not here sought as by the leper, the centurion, the friends of the palsied man ; He Himself calls Matthew, a publican — just the one to write the gospel of the despised Jesus of Nazareth. What instrument so suitable? It was a scorned Messiah who, when rejected of " His own people, Israel, turned to the Gentiles by the will of God : it was One who could look upon pub licans and sinners anywhere. Thus Matthew, called at the very receipt of custom, follows Jesus, and makes a feast for Him. This furnishes occasion to the Pharisees to vent their unbelief : to them nothing is so offensive as grace, either in doctrine or in practice. The scribes, at the beginning of the chapter, could not hide from the Lord their bitter rejection of His glory as man on earth entitled, as His humiliation and cross would prove, to forgive. Here, too, these Pharisees ON THE GOSPELS. 65 question and reproach His grace, when they see the Lord sitting at ease in the presence of publicans and sinners, who came and sat down with Him in Matthew's house. They said to His disciples, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" The Lord shows that such unbelief justly and neces sarily excludes, itself, but not others, from blessing. To heal was the work for which He was come. It was not for the whole the Physician was needed. How little they had learnt the divine lesson of grace, not ordinances ! " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Jesus was there to call, not righteous men, but sinners. Nor was the unbelief confined to these religion ists of letter and form ; for next (verse 14) the question comes from John's disciples : " Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?" Throughout it is the religious kind that are tested and found wanting. The Lord pleads the cause of the disciples. " Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Fasting, indeed, would follow when the Bridegroom was taken from them. Thus He points out the utter moral incongruity of fasting at that moment, and intimates that it was not merely the fact that He was going to be rejected, but that to conciliate His teaching and His will with the old thing was hopeless. What He w.as introducing could not mix with Judaism. Thus it was not merely that there was an evil heart of unbelief in the Jew par- F 66 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ticularly, but law and grace cannot be yoked to gether. " No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse." Nor was it only a difference in the forms the truth took ; but the vital principle which Christ was diffusing could not be so maintained. " Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish ; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." The spirit, as well as the form, was alien. But at the same time it is plain, although He bore the consciousness of the vast change He Was introducing, and expressed it thus fully and early in the history, nothing turned away His heart from Israel. The very next scene, the case of Jairus, the ruler, shows it. " My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live." The details, found elsewhere, of her being at the point of death — then, before reaching the house, the news that she was dead, are not here. What ever the time may have been, whatever the incidents added by others, the account is given here for the purpose of showing, that as Israel's case was despe rate, even unto death, so He, the Messiah, was the giver of life, when all, humanly speaking, was over. He was then present, a man despised, yet with title to forgive sins, proved by immediate power to heal. If those who trusted in themselves that they were ON THE GOSPELS. 67 wise and righteous would not have Him, He would call even a publican on the spot to be among the most honoured of His followers, and would not dis dain to be their joy when they desired His honour in the exercise of His grace. Sorrow would come full soon when He, the Bridegroom of His people, should be taken away; and then should they fast. Nevertheless, His ear was open to the call on behalf of Israel perishing, dying, dead. He had been pre paring them for the new things, and the impossibility of making them coalesce with the old. But none the less do we find His affections engaged for the help of the helpless. He goes "to raise the dead, and the woman with the issue of blood touches Him by the way. No matter what the great purpose might be. He was there for faith. Far different this was from the errand on which He was intent ; but He was there for faith. It was His meat to do the will of God. He was there for the express purpose of glorifying God. Power and love were come for any one to draw on. If there were, so to speak, a justification of circumcision by faith, undoubtedly there was also the justification of uncircumcision through their faith. The question was not who or what came in the way ; whoever appealed to Him, there. He was for them. And He was Jesus, Emmanuel. When He reaches the house, minstrels were there, and people, making a noise : the expression, if of woe, certainly of impotent despair. They mock the calm .utterance of Him' who chooses things, that are not; i 2 68 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES and the Lord turns out the unbelievers, and demon strates the glorious truth that the maid was not dead, but living. Nor is this all. He gives sight to the blind. " And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." It was necessary to complete the picture. Life had been imparted to the sleeping maid of Zion — the blind men call on Him as the Son of David, and not in vain. They confess their faith, and He touches their eyes. Thus, whatever the peculiarity of the new blessings, the old thing could "be taken up, though upon new grounds, and, of course, on the confession that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The two blind men called upon Him as the Son of David ; a sample this of what will be in the end, when the heart of Israel turns to the Lord, and the vail is done away. "According to your faith be it done unto you." It is not enough that Israel be awakened from the sleep of death, and see aright. There must be the mouth to praise the Lord, and speak of the glorious honour of His majesty, as well as eyes to wait on Him. So we have a farther scene. Israel must give full testimony in the bright day of His coming. Ac cordingly, here we have a witness of it, and a witness so much the sweeter, because the present total re jection that was filling the heart of the leaders surely testified to the Lord's heart of that which was at hand. But nothing turned aside the purpose of ON THE GOSPELS. 69" God, or the activity of His grace. " As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was come out, the dumb spake : and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel." (See Matt. ix. 32, 33.) The Pharisees were enraged at a power they could not deny, which rebuked themselves so much the more on account of its per-* sistent grace ; but Jesus passes by all blasphemy as yet, and goes on His way — nothing hinders His course of love. He "went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sick ness and every disease among the people." The faithful and true witness, it was His to display that power in goodness which shall be put forth fully in the world to come, the great day when the Lord will manifest Himself to every eye as Son of David, and Son of man too. At the close of this chapter ix., in His deep com passion He bids the disciples pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest. At the beginning of chapter x. He Himself sends forth themselves as labourers. He is the Lord of the har vest. It was a grave step this, and in view of His rejection now. In our gospel we have not seen the apostles called and ordained. Matthew gives no such details, but call and mission are together here. But, as I have stated, the choice and ordination of the twelve apostles had really taken place before the 70 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES sermon on the mount, though not mentioned in Matthew, but in Mark and Luke. (Compare Mark iii. 13-19, and vi. 7-11 ; Luke vi. and ix.) The mission of the apostles did not take place till after wards. In Matthew we have no distinction of their call from their mission. But the mission is given here in strict accordance with what the gospel demands. It is a summons from the King to His people Israel. So thoroughly is it in view of Israel, that our Lord does not say one word here about the Church, or the intervening condition of Christen dom. He speaks of Israel then, and of Israel before He comes in glory, but He entirely omits any notice of the circumstance^ which were to come in by the way. He tells them that they should not have gone over (or finished) the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come. Not that His own rejection was not before His spirit, but here He looks not beyond that land and people ; and, as far as the twelve were con cerned, He sends them on a mission which goes on to the end of the age. Thus, the present dealings of God in grace, the actual shape taken by the kingdom of heaven, the calling of the Gentiles, the formation of the Church, are all passed completely over. We shall find something of these mysteries later on in this gospel ; but here it is simply a Jewish testimony of Jehovah -Messiah in His unwearied love, through His twelve heralds, and in spite of rising unbelief, maintaining to the end what His grace had in view for Israel. He would send fit messengers, nor would ON THE GOSPELS. 71 the work be done till the rejected Messiah, the Son of man, came. The apostles were then sent thus, no doubt, forerunners of those whom the Lord will raise up for the latter day. Time would fail now to dwell on this chapter, interesting as it is. My object, of course, is to point out as clearly as possible the structure of the gospel, and to explain according to my measure why there are these strong differences between the gospels of Matthew and the rest, as compared with one another. The ignorance is wholly on our side : all they say or omit was owing to the far-reaching and gracious wisdom of Him who in spired them. The eleventh chapter, exceedingly critical for Is rael, and of surpassing beauty, as it is, must not be passed over without some few words. Here we find our Lord, after sending out the chosen witnesses of the truth (so momentous to Israel, above all) of His own Messiahship, realizing His utter rejection, yet rejoicing withal in God the Father's counsels of glory and grace, while the real secret in the chapter, as in fact, was His being not Messiah only, nor Son'of man, but the Son of the Father; whose person none knows but Himself. But, from first to last, what a trial of spirit, and what triumph ! Some consider that John the Baptist enquired solely for the sake of his dis ciples. But I see no sufficient reason to refuse the impression that John found it hard to reconcile his continued imprisonment with a present Messiah ; nor do I discern a sound judgment of the case, or 72 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES a profound knowledge of the heart, in those who thus raise doubts as to John's sincerity, any more than they appear to me to exalt the character of this honoured man of God, by supposing him to play a part which really belonged to others. What can be simpler than that John put the question through his disciples, because he (not they only) had a question in the mind ? It probably was no more than a grave though passing difficulty, which he desired to have cleared up with all fulness for their sakes, as well as his own. In short, he had a question because he was a man. It is not for us surely to think this impossible. Have we, spite of superior privileges, such unwavering faith, that we can afford to treat the matter as incredible in John, and therefore only capable of solution in his staggering disciples ? Let those who have so little experience of what man is, even in the regenerate, beware lest they impute to the Baptist such an acting of a part as shocks us, when Jerome imputed it to Peter and Paul in the censure of Gal. ii. The Lord, no doubt, knew the heart of His servant, and could feel for him in the effect that circumstances took upon him. When He uttered the words, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me," it is to me evident that there was an allusion to the wavering, let it be but for a moment, of John's soul. The fact is, beloved bre thren, there is but one Jesus ; and whoever it may be, whether John the Baptist, or the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, after all it is divinely-given ON THE GOSPELS. , 73 faith which alone sustains : else man has to learn painfully somewhat of himself; and what is he to be accounted of? Our Lord then answers, with perfect dignity, as well as grace ; He puts before the disciples of John the real state of the case ; He furnishes them with plain, positive facts, that could leave nothing to be desired by John's mind when he weighed all as a testimony from God. This done, with a word for the conscience appended, He takes up and pleads the cause of John. It ought to have been John's place to have proclaimed the glory of Jesus ; but all things in this world are the reverse of what they ought to be, and of what will be when Jesus takes the throne, coming in power and glory. But when the Lord was here, no matter what the unbelief of others, it was only an opportunity for the grace of Jesus to shine out. So it was here ; and our Lord turns to eternal account, in His own goodness, the shortcoming of John the Baptist, the greatest of women-born. Far from lowering the position of His servant, He declares there was none greater among mortal men. The failure of this greatest of women- born only gives Him the just occasion to show the total change at hand, when it should not be a ques tion of man, but of God, yea, of the kingdom of heaven, the least in which new state should be greater than John. And what makes this still more striking, is the certainty that the kingdom, bright as it is, is by no means the thing nearest to 74 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Jesus. The Church, which is His body and bride, has a far more intimate place, even though true of the same persons. Next, He lays bare the capricious unbelief of man, only consistent in thwarting every thing and one that God employs for his good ; then, His own entire re-. jection where He had most laboured. It was going on, then, to the bitter end, and surely not without such suffering and sorrow as holy, unselfish, obedient love alone can. know. Wretched we, that we should need such proof of it"; wretched, that we should be so slow of heart to answer to it, or even to feel its immensity! "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein ; most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not : Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, 0 Father." What feelings at such a time ! Oh, for grace so to bow and bless God, even when our little travail seems in vain ! At that time Jesus answered, "I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things i from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." We seem completely borne away from ON THE GOSPELS. 75' the ordinary level of our gospel to the higher region of the disciple whom Jesus loved. We are, in fact, in the presence of that which John so loves to dwell on — Jesus viewed not merely as Son of David or Abraham, or Seed of the woman, but as the Father's Son, the Son as the Father gave, sent, appreciated, and loved Him. So, when more is added, He says, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This, of course, is not the moment to unfold it. I merely indicate by the way how the thorough increasing rejection of the Lord Jesus in His lower glory has but the effect of bringing out the revelation of His higher! So, I believe now, there is no attempt ever made on the Name of the Son of God, there is not a single shaft levelled at Him, but the Spirit turns to the holy, and true, and sweet task of asserting anew and more loudly His glory, which enlarges the expression of His grace to man. Only tradition will not do this work, nor will human thoughts or feelings. In chap. xii. we find not so much Jesus present and despised of men, as these men of Israel, the rejectors, in the presence of Jesus. Hence, the Lord Jesus is here disclosing throughout, that the doom of Israel was pronounced and impending. If it was His re jection, these scornful men were themselves rejected 76 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES in the very act. The plucking of the corn, and the healing of the withered hand, had taken place long before. Mark gives them in the end of his second and the beginning of his third chapters. Why are they postponed here ? Because Matthew's object is the display of the change of dispensation through, or consequent on, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. Hence, he waits to present their rejection of the Messiah, as morally complete as possible in his statement of it, though necessarily not complete in outward accomplishment. Of course, the facts of the cross were necessary to give it an evident and literal fulfilment ; but we have it first apparent in His life, and it is blessed to see it thus accomplished, as it were, in what passed with Himself; fully realized in His own spirit, and the results exposed before the external facts gave the fullest expression to Jewish unbelief. He was not taken by surprise; He knew it from the beginning. Man's implacable hatred is brought about most manifestly in the ways and spirit of His rejectors. The Lord Jesus, even before He pronounced the sentence, for so it was, indicated what was at hand in these two instances of the Sab bath-day, though one may not now linger on them. The first is the defence of the disciples, grounded on analogies taken from that which had the sanction of God of old, as well as on His own glory now. Re ject Him as the Messiah; in that rejection the moral glory of the Son of man would be laid as the foun dation of His exaltation and manifestation another ON THE GOSPELS. 77 day ; He was Lord of the Sabbath-day. In the next incident the force of the plea turns on God's good ness towards the wretchedness of man. It is not only the fact that God slighted matters of prescrip tive ordinance because of the ruined state of Israel, who rejected His true anointed King, but there was this principle also, that certainly God was not going to bind Himself not to do good where abject need was. It might be well enough for a Pharisee ; it might be worthy of a legal formalist, but it would never do for God ; and the Lord Jesus was come here not to accommodate Himself to their thoughts, but, above all, to do , God's will of holy love in an evil, wretched world. " Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased." In truth, this was Emmanuel, God with us. If God was there, what else could He, would He do ? Lowly, noiseless grace now it was to be, according to the prophet, till the hour strikes for victory in judgment. So He meekly retires, healing, yet forbidding it to be blazed abroad. But still, it was His carrying on the great process of shewing out more and more the total rejection of His rejec^ tors. Hence, lower down in the chapter, after the demon was cast out of the blind and dumb man before the amazed people, the Pharisees, irritated by their question, Is not this the Son of David ? essayed to destroy the testimony with their utmost and blas phemous contempt. " This [fellow]," &c. The English translators have thus given the sense 78 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES well; for the expression really conveys this slight, though the word "fellow" is printed in italics. The Greek word is constantly so used as an expression of contempt, "This [fellow] doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." The Lord now lets them know their mad folly, and warns them that this blasphemy was about to culminate in a .still deeper, deadlier form when the Holy Ghost should be spoken against as He had been. Men little weigh what their words will sound and prove in the day of judgment. He sets forth the sign of the prophet Jonah, the repentance of the men of Nineveh, the preaching of Jonah, and the earnest zeal of the queen of the South in Solomon's day* when an incomparably greater was there despised. But if He here does not go beyond a hint of that which the Gentiles were about to receive on the ruinous unbelief and judgment of the Jew, He does not keep back their own awful course and doom in the figure that follows. Their state had long been that of a man whom the unclean spirit had left, after a former dwelling in him. Outwardly it was a condition of comparative cleanness. Idols, abomina* tions, no longer infected that dwelling as of old. Then says the unclean spirit, " I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is ON THE GOSPELS. 79 worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." Thus He sets forth both the past, the present, and the awful future of Israel, before the day of His own coming from heaven, when there will be not only the return of idolatry, solemn to say, but the full power of Satan associated with it, as we see in Dan. xi. 36-39 ; 2 Thess. ii. ; Rev. xiii. 11-15. It is clear 'that the unclean spirit, return ing, brings idolatry back again. It is equally clear that the seven worse spirits mean the complete energy of the devil in the maintenance of Antichrist against the true Christ : and this, strange to say, along with idols. Thus the end is as the beginning, and even far, far worse. On this the Lord takes another step, . when one said to Him, " Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee." A double action follows. " Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren?" said the Lord; and then stretched forth His hand toward His disciples with the words, " Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Thus the old link with the flesh, with Israel, is now disowned ; and the new relationships of faith, founded on doing the will of His Father (it is not a question of the law in any sort), are alone acknowledged. Hence the Lord would raise up a fresh testimony altogether, and do a new work suitable to it. This would not be a legal claim on man, but the scattering of good seed, life and 80 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES fruit from God, and this in the unlimited field of the world, not in the land of Israel merely. In chapter xiii. we have the well-known sketch of these new ways of God. The kingdom of heaven assumes a form unknown to prophecy, and, in its successive mysteries, fills up the interval between the rejected Christ's going to heaven, and His returning again in glory. Many words are not now required for that which is happily familiar to most here. Let me passingly notice a very few particulars. We have here not only our Lord's ministry in the first parable, but in the second parable that which He does by His servants. Then follows the rise of what was great in its littleness till it became little in its greatness, in the earth; and the development and spread of doctrine, till the measured space assigned to it is brought under its assimilating influence. It is not here a question of life (as in the seed at first), but a system of christian doctrine; not life germinating and bearing fruit, but mere dogma — natural mind — which is exposed to it. Thus the great tree and the leavened mass are in fact the two sides of Christen dom. Then inside the house we have not only the Lord explaining the parable, the history from first to last of the tares and wheat, the mingling of evil with the good which grace had sown, but more than that, we have the kingdom viewed according to divine thoughts and purposes. First of these comes the treasure hidden in the field, for which the man ON THE GOSPELS. 81 sells all he had, securing the field for the sake of the treasure. Next is the one pearl of great price, the unity and beauty of that which was so dear to the merchantman. Not merely were there many pieces of value, but one pearl of great price. Finally, we have all wound up, after the going forth of a testi mony which was truly universal in its scope, by the judicial severance at the close, when it is not only the good put into vessels, but the bad dealt with by the due instruments of the power of God. In chapter xiv. facts are narrated which manifest the great change of dispensation that the Lord, in setting forth the parables we have just noticed, had been preparing them for. The violent man, Herod, guilty of innocent blood, then reigned in the land, in contrast with whom goes Jesus into the wilderness, showing who and what He was; — the Shepherd of Israel, ready and able to care for the people. The disciples most inadequately perceive His glory; but the Lord acts according to His own mind. After this, dismissing the multitudes, He retires alone, to pray, on a mountain, as the disciples toil over the storm-tossed lake, the wind being contrary. It is a picture of what was about to take place when the Lord Jesus, quitting Israel and the earth, ascends on high, and all assumes another form — not the reign upon earth, but intercession in heaven. But at the end, when His disciples are in the extremity of trouble, in the midst of the sea, the Lord walks on the sea toward them, and bids them not fear; for G 82 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES they were troubled and afraid. Peter asks a word from his Master, and leaves the ship to join Him on the water. There will be differences at the close. All will not be the wise that understand, nor those who instruct the mass in righteousness. But every Scripture that treats of that time proves what dread, what anxiety, what dark clouds will be ever and anon. So it was here. Peter goes forth, but losing sight of the Lord in the presence of the troubled waves, and yielding to his ordinary experience, he fears the strong wind, and is only saved by the outstretched hand of Jesus, who rebukes his doubt. Thereon, coming into the ship, the wind ceases, and the Lord exercises His gracious power in beneficent effects around. It was the little foreshadowing of what will be when the Lord has joined the remnant in the last days, and then fills with blessing the land that He touches. In chapter xv. we have another picture, and two fold. Jerusalem's proud, traditional hypocrisy is exposed, and grace fully blesses the tried Gentile. This finds its fitting place, not in Luke, but in Matthew, particularly as the details here (not in Mark, who only gives the general fact) cast great light upon God's dispensational ways. Accordingly, here we have, first, the Lord judging the wrong thoughts of "Scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem." This gives an opportunity to teach what truly defiles — not things that go into the man, but those things which, proceeding out of the mouth, ON THE GOSPELS. 83 come forth from the heart. To eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. It is the death-blow to human tradition and ordinance in divine things, and in reality depends on the truth of the absolute ruin of man — a truth which, as we see, the disciples were very slow to recognize. On the other side of the picture, behold the Lord leading on a soul to draw on divine grace in the most glorious manner. The woman of Canaan, out of the borders of Tyre and Sidon, appeals to Him ; a Gentile of most ominous name and belongings — a Gentile whose case was desperate; for she appeals on behalf of her daughter, grievously vexed with a devil. What could be said of her intelligence then? Had she not such confusion of thought that, if the Lord had heeded her words, it must have been destruction to her? "Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David ! " she cried ; but what had she to do with the Son of David ? and what had the Son of David to do with a Canaanite ? When He reigns as David's Son, there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts. Judgment will have early cut them off. But the Lord could not send her away without a blessing, and without a blessing reaching to His own glory. Instead of giving her at once a reply, He leads her on step by step ; for so He can stoop. Such is His grace, such His wis dom. The woman at last meets the heart and mind of Jesus in the sense of all her utter nothingness before God ; and then grace, which had wrought all G 2 84 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES up to this, though pent-up, can flow like a river; and the Lord can admire her faith, albeit from Himself, God's free gift. In the end of this chapter (xv.) is another mira cle of Christ's feeding a vast multitude. It does not seem exactly as a pictorial view of what the Lord was doing, or going to do, but rather the repeated pledge, that they were not to suppose that the evil He had judged in the elders of Jerusalem) or the grace freely going out to the Gentiles, in any way led Him to forget His ancient people. What special mercy and tenderness, not only in the end, but also in the way the Lord deals with Israel ! In chapter xvi. we advance a great step, spite (yea, because) of unbelief, deep and manifest, now on every side. The Lord has nothing for them; or for Him, but to go right on to the end. He had brought out the kingdom before in view of that which betrayed to Him the unpardonable blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. The old people and work then closed in principle, and a new work of God in the kingdom of heaven was disclosed. Now He brings out not the kingdom merely, but His Church; and this not merely in view of hopeless unbelief in the mass, but of the confession of His own intrinsic glory as the Son of God by the chosen witness. No sooner had Peter pronounced to Jesus the truth of His person, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," than Jesus holds the secret no longer. "Upon this rock," says He, "I will build my Church, ON THE GOSPELS. 85 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." He also gives Peter the keys of the kingdom, as we see afterwards. But first appears the new and great fact, that Christ was going to build a new building, His . assembly, on the truth and confession of Him self, the Son of God. Doubtless, it was contingent upon the utter ruin of Israel through their unbelief; but the fall of the lesser thing opened the way for the gift of a better glory in answer to Peter's faith in the glory of His person. The Father and the Son have their appropriate part, even as we know from elsewhere the Spirit sent down from heaven in due time was to have His. Had Peter confessed who the Son of man really is ? It was the Father's revelation of the Son; flesh and blood had not revealed it to Peter, but, "my Father, which is in heaven." Thereon the Lord also has His word to say, first reminding Peter of his new name suitably to what follows. He was going to build His Church " upon this rock " — Himself, the Son of God. Henceforth, too, He forbids the disciples to proclaim Him as the Messiah. That was all over for the moment through Israel's blind sin; He was going to suffer, not yet reign, at Jerusalem. Then, alas ! we have in Peter what man is, even after all this. He who had just confessed the glory of the Lord would not hear His Master speaking thus of His going to the cross (by which alone the Church, or even the kingdom, could be established), and sought to swerve Him from it. But the single eye of Jesus at once detects the 86 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES snare of Satan into which natural thought led, or at least exposed, Peter to fall. And so, as savouring not divine but human things, he is bid to go behind (not from) the Lord as one ashamed of Him. He, on the contrary, insists not only that He was bound for the cross, but that its truth must be made good in any who will come after Him. The glory of Christ's person strengthens us, not only to under stand His cross, but to take up ours. In chapter xvii. another scene appears, promised in part to some standing there in chapter xvi 28, and connected, though as yet hiddenly, with the cross. It is the glory of Christ; not so much as Son of the living God, but as the exalted Son of man, who once suffered here below. Nevertheless, when there was the display of the glory of the kingdom, the Father's voice proclaimed Him as His own Son, and not merely as the man thus exalted. It was not more truly Christ's kingdom as man than He was God's own Son, His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased, who was now to be heard, rather than Moses or Elias, who disappear, leaving Jesus alone with the chosen witnesses. Then the pitiable condition of the disciples at the: foot of the hill, where Satan reigned in fallen ruined man, is tested by the fact, that notwithstanding all the glory of Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, the disciples rendered it evident that they knew not how to bring His grace into action for others ; yet was it precisely their place and proper function here below. ON THE GOSPELS. 87 The Lord, however, in the same chapter, shows that it was not a question alone of what was to be done, or to be suffered, or is to be by-and-by, but what He was, and is, and never can but be. This came out most blessedly through the disciples. Peter, the good confessor of chapter xvi., cuts but a sorry figure in chapter xvii.; for when the demand was made upon him as to his Master's paying the tax, surely the Lord, he gave them to know, was much too good a Jew to omit it. But our Lord with dignity demands of v Peter, "What thinkest thou, Simon?" He evinces, that at the very time when Peter forgot the vision and the Father's voice, virtually reducing Him to mere man, He was God manifest in the flesh. It is always thus. God proves what He is by the revelation of Jesus. " Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom ? of their own children, or of strangers?" Peter answers, " Of strangers." "Then," said the Lord, " are the children free. Notwithstand ing, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take and give unto them for me and thee." , Is it not most sweet to see, that He who proves His divine glory at once associates us with Himself? Who but God could command not only the waves, but the fish of the sea ? As to any one else, even the most liberal gift that ever was given of God to fallen man on earth, to the golden head of the Gentiles, exempted 88 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the deep and its untamed inhabitants. If Psalm viii. goes farther, surely that was for the Son of man, who for the suffering of death was exalted. Yes, it was His to rule and command the sea, even as the land and all that in them is. Neither did He need to wait for His exaltation as man ; for He was ever God, and God's Son, who therefore, if one may so say, waits for nothing, for no day of glory. The manner, too, was in itself remarkable. A hook is cast into the sea, and the fish that takes it produces the required money for Peter as for his gracious Master and Lord. A fish was the last being for man to make his banker of; with God all things are possible, who knew how to blend admirably in the same act divine glory, unanswerably vindicated, with the lowliest grace in man. And thus He, whose glory was so forgotten by His disciples — Jesus Himself — thinks of that very disciple, and says, "For me and thee." The next chapter (xviii.) takes up the double thought of the kingdom and the Church, showing the requisite for entrance into the kingdom, and display ing or calling forth divine grace in the most lovely manner, and that in practice. The pattern is the Son of man saving the lost. It is not a question of bringing in law to govern the kingdom or guide the Church. The unparalleled grace of the Saviour must form and fashion the saints henceforth. . In the end of the chapter is set forth parabolically the un limited forgiveness that suits the kingdom ; here, I ON THE GOSPELS. 89 cannot but think, looking onward in strict fulness to the future, but with distinct application to the moral need of the disciples then and always. In the kingdom so much the less sparing is the retribu tion of those who despise or abuse grace. All turns on that which was suitable to such a God, the giver of His own Son. We need not dwell upon it. Chapter xix. brings in another lesson of great weight. Whatever might be the Church or the king dom, it is precisely when the Lord unfolds His new glory in both the kingdom and the Church that He maintains the proprieties of nature in their rights and integrity. There is no greater mistake than to suppose, because there is the richest development of God's grace in new things, that He abandons or weakens natural relationships and authority in their place. This, I believe, is a great lesson, and too often forgotten. Observe that it is at this point the chapter begins with vindicating the sanctity of marriage. No doubt it is a tie of nature for this life only. None the less does the Lord uphold it, purged of what accretions had come in to obscure its original and proper character. Thus the fresh revela tions of grace in no way detract from that which God had of old established in nature ; but, contrari wise, only impart a new and greater force in assert ing the real value and wisdom of God's way even in these least things. A similar principle applies to the little children, who are next introduced; and the same thing is true substantially of natural or moral 90 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES character here below. Parents, and the disciples, like the Pharisees, were shown that grace, just be cause it is the expression of what God is to a ruined world, takes notiee of what man in his own imaginary dignity might count altogether petty. With God, as nothing is impossible, so no one, small or great, is despised : all is seen and put in its just place ; and grace, which rebukes creature pride, can afford to deal divinely with the smallest as with the greatest. If there be a privilege more manifest than another which has dawned on us, it is what we have found by and in Jesus, that now we can say nothing is too great for us, nothing too little for God. There is room also for the most thorough self-abnegation. Grace forms the hearts of those that understand it, according to the great manifestation of what God is, and what man is,, too, given us in the person of Christ. In the reception of the little children this is plain ; it is not so generally seen in what follows. The rich young ruler was not converted: far from being so, he could not stand the test applied by Christ out of His own love, and, as we are told, "went away sorrowful." He was ignorant of him self, because ignorant of God, and imagined that it was only a question oi man's doing good for God. In this he had laboured, as he said, from his youth up : " What lack I yet ?" There was the conscious ness of good unattained, a void for which he appeals to Jesus that it might be filled up. To lose all for ON THE GOSPELS. 91 heavenly treasure, to come and follow the despised Nazarene here below — what was it to compare with that which had brought Jesus to earth ? but it was far too much for the young man. It was the creature doing his best, yet proving that he loved the creature more than the Creator, Jesus, nevertheless, owned all that could be owned in him. After this, in the, chapter we have the positive hindrance asserted of what man counts good. "Verily, I say unto you,. That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." This made it to be plainly and only a difficulty for God to solve. Then comes the boast of Peter, though for others as well as himself. The Lord, while thoroughly proving that He forgot no thing, owned everything that was of grace in Peter or the rest, while opening the same door to " every .one" who forsakes nature for His name's sake, solemnly adds, " But many that are first shall be last ; and the last shall be first." Thus the point that meets us in the conclusion of the chapter is, that while every character, every measure of giving up for His name's sake, will meet with the most worthy recompence and result, man can as little judge of this as he can accomplish salvation. Changes, to us inexplicable, occur : many first last, and last first. The point in the beginning of the next chapter (xx.) is not reward, but the right and title of God Himself to act according to His goodness. He is not going to lower Himself to. a human measure. Not only shall the Judge of all the earth do right, 92 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES but what will not He do who gives all good ? " For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they re ceived every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny." He maintains His sovereign title to do good, to do as He will with His own. The first of these lessons is, " Many first shall be last, and last first." (Matt. xix. 30.) It is clearly the failure of nature, the reversal of what might be expected. The second is, "So the last shall be first, and the first last ; for many are called; but few are chosen." It is the power of grace. God's delight is to pick out the hindmost for the first place, to the disparage ment of the foremost in their own strength. Lastly, we have the Lord rebuking the ambition not only of the sons of Zebedee, but in truth also of the ten ; for why was there such warmth of indigna tion against the two brethren ? why not sorrow and shame that they should have so little understood their Master's mind? How often the heart shows itself, not merely by what we ask, but by the uncalled-for feelings we display against other people and their faults ! The fact is, in judging others we judge ourselves. ON THE GOSPELS. 93 Here I close to-night. It brings me to the real crisis ; that is, the final presentation of our Lord to Jerusalem. I have endeavoured, though, of course, cursorily, and I feel most imperfectly, to give thus far Matthew's sketch of the Saviour as the Holy Ghost enabled him to execute it. In the next dis course we may hope to have the rest of his gospel. H0L MATTHEW XX. 29-XXYIII. We now enter on the Lord's final presentation of Himself to Jerusalem, traced, however, from Jericho ; that is, from the city which had once been the stronghold of the power of the Canaanite. The Lord Jesus presenting Himself in grace, instead of sealing up the curse which had been pronounced on it, makes it contrariwise the witness of His mercy towards those who believed in Israel. It was there that two blind men (for Matthew, we have seen, abounds in this double token of the Lord's grace), sitting by the wayside, cried out, and most appropriately, "Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, thou Son of David!" They were led and taught of God. It was no question of law, yet strictly in His capacity of Messiah. Their appeal was in thorough keeping with the scene ; they felt that the nation had no sense of its own blindness, and so addressed themselves at once to the Lord thus presenting Himself where divine power wrought of old. It is remarkable that, although there had been signs and wonders given from time to time ON THE GOSPELS. 95 in Israel, miraculous cures wrought, dead even raised to life, and leprosy cleansed, yet never, pre viously to the Messiah, do we hear of restoring the blind to sight. The Rabbis held that this was reserved for the Messiah; and certainly I am not aware of any case which contradicts their notion. They appear to have founded it upon the remark able prophecy of Isaiah, (ch. xxxv.) I do not affirm that the prophecy proves their notion to be true in isolating that miracle from the rest; but it is evident that the Spirit of God does connect emphatically the opening of blind eyes with the Son of David, as part of the blessing that He will surely diffuse when He comes to reign over the earth. What appears further here is, that Jesus does not put the blessing off till His reign. Undoubtedly, the Lord in those days was giving signs and tokens of the world to come ; and it was continued by His servants afterwards, as we know from the end of Mark, the Acts, &c. The miraculous powers which He exer cised were samples of the power which would fill the earth with Jehovah's glory, casting out the enemy, and effacing the traces of his power, and making it the theatre of the manifestation of His kingdom here below. Thus our Lord gives evidence that the power was in Himself abeady, so that they need not lack because the kingdom was not yet come, in the full, manifest sense of the word. The kingdom was then come in His own person, as is 96 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES said by Matthew (ch. xii.) as well as Luke. Still less did the blessing tarry for the sons of men. Virtue went forth at His kingly touch : this, at least, did not depend on the recognition of His claims by His people. He takes up this sign of Messiah's grace — the opening of the eyes of the blind, — itself no mean sign of the true condition of the Jews, could they but feel and own the truth. Alas ! they sought not mercy and healing at His hands ; but if there were any to call on Him at Jericho, the Lord would hearken. Here, then, Messiah answers to the cry of faith of these two blind men. When the multitude rebuked them, that they should hold their peace, they cried the more. The difficulties presented to faith only increased the energy of its desire ; and so they cried, "Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, thou Son of David !" Jesus stands, calls the blind men, and says, "What will ye that I should do?" "Lord, . that our eyes should be opened." And so it was according to their faith. Moreover, it is noted that they follow Him, the pledge of what will be done when the people, by-and-by owning their blindness, and turning to Him for eyes, receive sight from the true Son of David to see HimseK in the day of His earthly glory. The Lord thereon enters Jerusalem according to prophecy. He enters it, however, not in the out ward pomp and glory which the nations seek after, but according to what the prophet's words now made good literally: Jehovah's King sitting on an ass ON THE GOSPELS. 97 in the spirit of humiliation. But even in this very thing, the fullest proof was afforded that He was Jehovah Himself. From first to last, as we have seen, it was Jehovah -Messiah. The word to the owner of the ass and colt was, "The Lord hath need of them." Accordingly, on this plea of Jehovah of hosts, all difficulties disappear, though unbelief finds there its stumbling-block. It was indeed the power of the Spirit of God that controlled his heart ; even as to Christ " the porter opened." God left nothing undone on any side, but so ordered that the heart of this Israelite should yield a testimony that grace was at work, spite of the lamentable chill that stupefied the people. How good it is thus to raise up a witness, never indeed to leave it absolutely lacking, not even on the road to Jerusalem — alas ! the road to the cross of Christ. This, as we are told by the evangelist, came to pass that the word of the prophet should be fulfilled : " Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek [for such meekness was the character of His presentation as yet], and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." All must be in character with the Nazarene. Accordingly, the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded. The multitudes, too, were acted on — a very great multi tude. It was, of course, but a transient action, yet was it of God for a testimony, this moving of hearts by the Spirit. Not that it penetrated beneath the surface, but was rather a wave that passed over men's H 98 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES hearts, and then was gone. For the moment they followed, crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the highest !" (applying to the Lord the congratulations of Ps. cxviii.) Jesus, according to our evangelist's account, comes to the temple and cleanses it. Remark the order as well as character of the events. In Mark this is not the first act which is recorded, but the curse on the barren fig tree, between His inspection of all things in the temple and His ejection of those who profaned it. The fact is, there were two days or occasions in which the fig tree comes before us, according to the gospel of Mark, who gives us the details more particularly than any one, notwith standing his brevity. Matthew, on the contrary, while he is so careful in furnishing us frequently with a double witness of the Lord's gracious ways toward His land and people, gives only as one whole His dealing with both the fig tree and the temple. We should not know from the first evangelist of any interval in either case; nor could we learn from either the first or the third but that the cleansing of the temple occurred on His earlier visit. But we know from Mark, who sets forth an exact account of each of the two days, that in neither case was all done at once. This is the more remarkable because, in the instances of the two demoniacs, or the two blind men in Matthew, Mark, like Luke, speaks only of one. Nothing can account for such phenomena ON THE GOSPELS. 99 but design ; and the more so as there- is no ground to assume that each succeeding evangelist was kept in ignorance of his predecessor's account of our Lord. It is evident that Matthew compresses in one the two acts about the temple, as well as about the fig tree. His scope excluded such details, and, I am. persuaded, rightly so, according to the mind of God's Spirit. It may render it all the more striking when one observes that Matthew was there, and Mark was not. He who actually saw these trans actions, and who therefore, had he been a mere act ing human witness, would peculiarly have dwelt on them ; he, too, who had been a personal companion. of the Lord, and therefore, had it been only a question of treasuring all up as one that loved the Lord, would, naturally speaking, have been the one of the three to have presented the amplest and minutest picture of the circumstance, is just the one who does nothing of the kind. Mark, as confessedly not being an eye-witness, might have been supposed to content himself with the general view. The reverse is the fact unquestionably. This is_ a notable feature, and not here alone, but elsewhere also. To me it proves that the gospels are the fruit of divine purpose in all, distinctively in each. It establishes the principle that, while God condescended to employ eye-witness, He never confined Himself to it, but, on the contrary, took full and particular care to shew that He is above all creature means of information. Thus it is in Mark and Luke we find H 2 100 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES some of the most important details; not in Matthew and John, though Matthew and John were eye witnesses, Mark and Luke not. A double proof of this appears in what has been just advanced. To Matthew, acting according to what was given him of the Spirit, there was no sufficient reason to enter into points which did not bear dispensationally upon Israel. He therefore, as often elsewhere, presents the entrance into the temple in its completeness, as being the sole matter important to his aim. Any thoughtful mind must allow, if I do not greatly err, that entrance into detail would rather detract from the augustness' of the act. The minute account has its just place, on the other hand, if it be a question of the Lord's method and bearing in His service and testimony. Here I want to know the particulars; there every trace and shade are full of instruction to me. If I have to serve Him, I do well to learn and ponder His every word and way ; and in this the style and mode of Mark's gospel is invaluable. Who but feels that the movements, the pauses, the sighs, the groans, the very looks of the Lord, are fraught with blessing to the soul? But if, as with Matthew, the object be the great change of dis pensation consequent on the rejection of the divine Messiah, (particularly if the point, as here, be not the opening out of coming mercy, but, on the con trary, a solemn and a stern judgment on Israel,) the Spirit of God contents Himself with a general notice of the painful scene, without indulging in ON THE GOSPELS. 101 any circumstantial account of it. To this it is I attribute the palpable difference in this place of Matthew as compared with Mark, and with Luke also, who omits the cursed fig tree altogether, and gives the barest mention of the temple's cleansing (ch. xix. 45). The notion of some men, especially a few men of learn ing, that the difference is due to ignorance on the part of one or other or all the evangelists, is of all explanations the worst, and even the least reasonable (to take the lowest ground) ; it is in plain truth the proof of their own ignorance, and the effect of positive unbelief. What I have ventured to suggest I believe to be a motive, and an adequate motive, for the difference; but we must remember that divine wisdom, has depths of aim infinitely beyond our ability to sound. God may be pleased to vouchsafe us a perception of what is in His mind, if we be lowly, and diligent, and dependent on Him; or He may leave us ignorant of much, where we are care less or self-confident ; but sure I am that the very points men ordinarily fix on as blots or imperfections in the inspired word are, when understood, among the strongest proofs of the admirable guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. Nor do I speak with such assurance because of the least satisfaction in any attainments, but because every lesson I have learnt and do learn from God's word brings with it the ever accumulating conviction that Scripture is per fect. For the question in hand, it is enough to produce sufficient evidence that it was not in ignorance, but 102 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES with full knowledge, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote as they have done; I go farther, and say it was divine intention, rather than, as I conceive, any determinate plan of each evangelist, who may not himself have had before his mind the full scope of what the Holy Ghost gave him to write about it There is no necessity to suppose that Matthew deliberately designed the result which we have in his gospel. How God brought it all to pass is another question, which, of course, it is not for us to answer. But the fact is, that the evangelist, who was present, he who consequently was an eye witness of the detail's, does not give them; while one who was not there states them with the greatest particularity — thoroughly harmonious with -the ac count of him who was there, but, nevertheless, with differences as marked as their mutual corroborations. If we might rightly use, in this case, the word "originality," then originality is stamped upon the account of the second. I affirm, then, in the strictest sense, that divine design is stamped upon each, and that consistency of purpose is found everywhere in all the gospels. The Lord then goes straight to the sanctuary. The kingly Son of David, destined to sit as the Priest upon His throne, the head of all things sacred as well as pertaining to the polity of Israel, — we can understand why Matthew should describe such an One visiting the temple of Jerusalem; and why, instead of stopping, like Mark, to narrate that which ON THE GOSPELS. 103 attests His patient service, the whole scene should be given here without a break. We have seen that a similar principle accounts for the massing of the facts of His ministry in the end of the fourth chapter, and also for giving as a continuous whole the Sermon on the Mount, although, if we enquired into details, we might find many and considerable intervals; for, as undoubtedly those facts were grouped, so I believe also it was between the parts of that sermon. It fell in, however, with the object of Matthew's gospel to pass by all notice of these interstices, and so the Spirit of God has been pleased to interweave the whole into the beautiful web of the first gospel. In this way, as I believe, we may and should account for the difference between Mat thew and Mark in this particular, without in the smallest degree casting the shadow of an imper fection upon one any more than on the other ; while the fact, already pressed, that eye-witnessing, while employed as a servant, is never allowed to govern in the composition of the gospels, bespeaks loudly that men forget their true Author in searching into the writers He employed, and that the only key to all difficulties is the simple but weighty truth that it was God communicating His mind about Jesus, as by Matthew so by Mark. Next, the Lord acts upon the word. He finds men selling and buying in the temple (that is, in its buildings) overthrows their tables, and turns out themselves, pronouncing the words of the prophets, 104 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES both Isaiah and Jeremiah. But at the same time there is another trait noted here only : the blind and the lame (the " hated of David's soul," (2 Sam. v. 8) the pitied of David's greater Son and Lord) find a friend instead of an enemy in Him who loved them, the true beloved of God. Thus, at the very time He showed His hatred and righteous indignation at the covetous profaning of the temple, His love was flowing out to the desolate in Israel. Then we see the chief priests and scribes offended at the cries of the multitude and children, and turning reproachfully to the Lord, who allowed such a right royal welcome to be ad dressed to Him ; but the Lord calmly takes His place according to the sure word of God. It is not now Deuteronomy that is before Him (that He had quoted when tempted of Satan at the beginning of His career). But now, as they had borrowed the words of Psalm cxviii. (and who will say they were wrong ?), so the Lord Jesus (and I say He was in finitely right) applies to them, as well as to Him self, the language of Psalm viii. Its central truth ' DO is the entrance of the rejected Messiah, the Son of man by •humiliation and suffering unto death, into heavenly glory and dominion over all things. And this was just the point before the Lord : the little ones were thus in the truth and spirit of that oracle. They were sucklings, out of whose mouth praise was ordained for the despised Messiah soon to be in heaven, exalted there and preached here as the once crucified and now glorified Son of man. What ON THE GOSPELS. 105 could be more appropriate to that time, what more profoundly true for all time, yea, for eternity ? Matthew, as we have seen, crowds into one scene all mention of the barren fig tree (ver. 18-22), with out distinguishing the curse of the one day from the manifestation of its accomplishment on the day following. Was it without moral import? Impos sible. Did it convey the notion of a hearty and true reception of the Messiah, with fruits meet for His hand who had so long tended it, and failed in no care or culture ? Was there anything answering to the welcome of the little ones who cried Hosanna, the type of what grace will effect in the day of His return, when the nation itself will contentedly, thankfully take the place of babes and sucklings, and find their best wisdom in . so owning the One whom their fathers rejected, the man thereon ex alted to heaven during the night of His people's unbelief? Meanwhile, another picture better suits them, the state and the doom of the fruitless fig tree. Why so scornful of the jubilant multitude, of the joyous babes ? What was their condition before the eyes of Him who saw all that passed within their minds ? They were no better than that fig tree, that solitary fig tree which met the Lord's eyes as He comes from Bethany, entering once more into Jeru salem. Like it, they, too, were full of promise ; like its abundant foliage, they lacked not fair profession, but there was no fruit. That which made its barren ness evident was the fact that it was not yet the 106 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES time of figs. Therefore, the unripe figs, the harbinger of harvest, ought to have been there. Had the season of figs been come, the fruit might have been already gathered ; but that season having not yet arrived, be yond controversy the promise of the coming harvest should, and indeed must, have been still there, had any fruit been really borne. This, therefore, represented too truly what the Jew, what the nation, was in the eye of the Lord. He had come seeking fruit; but there was none ; and the Lord pronounced this curse, " Henceforth let no fruit grow on thee for ever." And so it is. No fruit ever sprang from that generation. Another generation there must be; a total change must be wrought if there is to be fruit-bearing. Fruit of righteousness can only be through Jesus to God's glory ; and Jesus they yet despised. Not that the Lord will give up Israel, but He will create a generation to come, wholly different from the present Christ-rejecting one. Such an issue will be seen to be implied, if we compare our Lord's curse with the rest of the word of God, which points to better things yet in store for Israel. But He adds more than this. It was not only that the Israel of that day should thus pass away, gi'ving place to another generation, who, honouring the Messiah, will bear fruit to God ; He tells the wondering disciples that, had they faith, the moun tain would be cast into the sea. This appears to go farther than the disappearance of Israel as re sponsible to be a fruit -bearing people; it implies ON THE GOSPELS. 107 their whole polity dissolved; for the mountain is just as much the symbol of a power in the earth, an established world-power, as the fig tree is the special sign of Israel as responsible to produce fruit for God ; and it is clear that both figures have been abundantly verified. For the time Israel is passed away. After no long interval, the disciples saw Jerusalem not only taken, but completely torn as it were from the roots. The Romans came, as the executioners of the sentence of God (according to the just forebodings of the unjust high priest Caiaphas, who prophesied not without the Holy Ghost), and took away their place and nation, not because they did not, but because they did, kill Jesus their Messiah. Notoriously this total ruin of the Jewish state came to pass when the disciples had grown up to be a public witness to the world, before the apostles were all taken away from the earth; then their whole national polity sunk and disappeared when Titus sacked Jerusalem, and sold and scattered the people to the ends of the earth. I have no doubt that the Lord intended us to know the uprooting of the mountain just as much as the withering of the fig tree. The latter may be the simpler application of the two, and evidently more familiar to ordinary thought; but there seems no real reason to question, that if the one be meant symbolically, so too is the other. However this may be, these words of the Lord close that part of the subject. 108 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES We enter upon a new series in the rest of this chapter and the next. The religious rulers come before the Lord to put the first question that ever enters the minds of such men, "By what authority doest thou these things?" Nothing is more easily asked by those who assume that their own title is unimpeachable. Our Lord answers them by another question, which soon disclosed how thoroughly they themselves, in what was in comparably more serious, failed in moral competence. Who were they, to raise the question of His authority? As guides of religion, surely they ought to be able to decide that which was of the deepest consequence for their own souls, and for those of whom they assumed the spiritual charge. The question He puts involved indeed the answer to theirs ; for had they answered Him in truth, this would have de cided at once by what, and by whose, authority He acted as He did. "The baptism of John, whence was it (asks the Lord), from heaven, or of men?" There was no singleness of purpose, there was no fear of God, in these men so full of swelling words and fancied authority. Accordingly, instead of its being an answer from conscience declaring the truth as it was, they reason solely how to escape from the dilemma. The only question before their minds was, what answer would be politic ? how best to get rid of the difficulty ? Vain hope with Jesus ! The base conclusion to which they were reduced is, " We cannot tell." It was a falsehood : but what of that, ON THE GOSPELS. 109 where the interests of religion and their own order were concerned? Without a blush, then, they answer the Saviour, "We cannot tell;" and the Lord with calm dignity strikes home His answer — not, "I cannot tell," but, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." Jesus knew and laid bare the secret springs of the heart; and the Spirit of God records it here for our instruction. It is the genuine universal type of worldly leaders of religion in conflict with the power of God. " If we shall say, From heaven, he will say unto us, Why did ye not, then, believe him? But if we shall say, Of men, we fear the people ; for all hold John as a prophet." If they owned John, they must bow to the authority of Jesus ; if they re jected John, they feared the people. They were thus put to silence ; for they would not risk loss of influence with the people, and they were deter mined at all cost to deny the authority of Jesus. All they cared about was themselves. The Lord goes on and meets parabolically a wider question than that of the rulers, gradually enlarging the scope, till He terminates these instructions in chap. xxii. 14. First, He takes up sinful men where natural conscience works, and where conscience is gone. This is peculiar to Matthew : " A certain man had two sons ; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not : but afterward he repented, and went." He comes to the second, who was all com- 110 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES placency, and answers to the call, "I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first. Jesus saith unto them [such is the application], Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not : but the publicans and the harlots believed him : and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." (Matt. xxi. 28-32.) But He was not content with merely thus touching conscience in a way that was painful enough to the flesh; for they found that, spite of authority or anything else, those who professed most, if disobedient, were counted worse than the most depraved, who repented and did the will of God. Next, our Lord looks at the entire people, and this from the commencement of their relations with God. In other words, He gives us in this parable the history of God's dealings with them. It was in no way, so to speak, the accidental circumstance of how they behaved in one particular generation. The Lord sets out clearly what they had been all along, and what they were then. In the parable of the vineyard, ¦ j they are tested as responsible in view of the claims of God, who had blessed them from the first with exceeding rich privileges. Then, in the parable of the marriage of the king's son, we see what they were, as tested by the grace or gospel of God. These ; are the two subjects of the parables following. ON THE GOSPELS. Ill The householder, who lets out his vineyard to husbandmen, sets forth God trying the Jew, on the ground of blessings abundantly conferred upon him. Accordingly we have, first, servants sent, and then more, — not only in vain, but with insult and in crease of wrong. Then, at length, He sends His Son, saying, They will reverence my Son. This gives occasion for their crowning sin — the utter rejection of all divine claims, in the death of the Son and Heir ; for " they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." "When the lord therefore of the vineyard comes," He asks, "what will he do unto these husbandmen ?" They say unto Him, "He will miserably destroy these wicked men, and let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." The Lord accordingly pronounces according to the Scriptures, not leaving it merely to the answer of the conscience, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner : this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes ?" Then He applies further this prediction about the stone, con necting, it would appear, the allusion in Psalm cxviii. with the prophecy of Daniel ii. The principle at least is applied to the case in hand, and, I need hardly say, with perfect truth and beauty ; for in that day apostate Jews will be judged and destroyed, as well as Gentile powers. In two positions the stone was to be found. The one is here on the earth — the 112 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES humiliation, to wit, of the Messiah. Upon that Stone, thus humbled, unbelief trips and falls. But, again, when the Stone is exalted, another issue follows ; for " the Stone of Israel," the glorified Son of man, shall descend in unsparing judgment, and crush His enemies together. When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they per ceived that He spake of them. The Lord, however, turns in the next parable to the call of grace. It is a likeness of the kingdom of heaven. Here we are on new ground. It is striking to see this parable introduced here. In the gospel of Luke there is a similar one, though it might be too much to affirm that it is the same. Certainly an analogous parable is found, but in a totally different connection. Besides, Matthew adds various particulars peculiar to himself, and quite falling in with the Spirit's design by him; as we find also in Luke his own characteristics. Thus, in Luke, there is a remarkable display of grace and love to the despised poor in Israel; then, further, that love enlarging its sphere, and going out to the highways and hedges to bring in the poor that were there — the poor in the city — the poor everywhere.," I need not say how thoroughly in character all this is. Here, in Matthew, we have not only God's grace, but a kind of history, very strikingly embracing the destruction of Jerusalem, on which Luke is here, silent. " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son." It is not merely ON THE GOSPELS. 113 a man making a feast for those that have nothing — that we have fully in Luke ; but here rather the king bent upon the glorification of his son. "He sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding : and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which were bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage." There are two missions of the servants of the Lord here : one during His lifetime ; the other after His death. On the second mission, not the first, it is said, "All things are ready." The message is, as ever, despised. "They made light of it, and went their ways." It was the second time when there was this most ample invitation which left no excuse for man, that they not only would not come, going one to his farm, and another to his merchandize, but "the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully and slew them." This was not the character of the reception given to the apostles during our Lord's lifetime, but exactly what transpired after His death. Thereupon, though in marvellous patience the blow was sus pended for years, nevertheless judgment came at last. " When the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and sent forth his armies and destroyed those mur derers, and burnt up their city." This, of course, closes this part of the parable as predicting a pro vidential dealing of God; but, besides being thus judicial after a sort to which we find nothing I 114 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES parallel in the gospel of Luke (i.e., in what answers to it), as usual, the great change of dispensation is shown in Matthew much more distinctly than in Luke. There it is rather the idea of grace that began with one sending out to those invited, and a very full exposure of their excuses in a moral point of view, followed by the second mission to the streets and lanes of the city, for the poor, maimed, halt, and blind ; and finally, to the highways and hedges, compelling them to come in that the house might be filled. In Matthew it is very much more in a dispensational aspect ; and hence the dealings with the Jews, both in mercy and judgment, are first given as a whole, according to that manner of his which furnishes a complete sketch at one stroke, so to speak. It is the more manifest here, because none can deny that the mission to the Gentiles was long before the destruction of Jerusalem. Next is appended the Gentile part to itself. "Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good : and the wedding was furnished with guests." But there is a further thing brought out here, in a very dis tinctive manner. In Luke, we have no judgment pronounced and executed at the end upon him that came to the wedding without the due garment. In ON TIIE GOSPELS. 115 Matthew, as we saw the providential dealing with the Jews, so we find the closing scene very parti cularly described, when the king judges individually in the day that is coming. It is not an external or national stroke, though that too we have here — a providential event in connection with Israel. Quite different, but consistent with that, we have a per sonal appraisal by God of the Gentile profession, of those now bearing Christ's name, but who have not really put on Christ. Such is the conclusion of the parable : nothing more appropriate at the same time than this picture, peculiar to Matthew, who depicts the vast change at hand for the Gentiles, and God's dealing with them individually for their abuse of His grace. The parable illustrates the coming change of dispensation. Now this falls in with Matthew's design, rather than Luke's, with whom we shall find habitually it is a question of moral features, which the Lord may give opportunity of exhibiting at another time. After this come the various classes of Jews — the Pharisees first of all, and, strange consorts ! the Herodians. Ordinarily they were, as men say, natural enemies. The Pharisees were the high ecclesiastical party ; the Herodians, on the contrary, were the low worldly courtier party: those, the strong sticklers for tradition and righteousness according to the law; these, the panderers to the powers that then were for whatever could be got in the earth. Such allies now joined hypocritically I 2 116 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES against the Lord. The Lord meets them with that O wisdom which always shines in His words and ways. They demand whether it be lawful to give tribute to Csesar or not. "Shew me," says He, "the tribute money And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription ? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render unto Csesar the things which are Csesar's ; and unto God the things that are God's." Thus the Lord deals with the facts as they then came before Him. The piece of money they produced proved their subjection to the Gentiles. It was their sin which had put them there. They writhed under their masters ; but still under alien masters they were ; and it was because of their sin. The Lord con fronts them not only with the undeniable witness of their subjection to the Romans, but also with . a graver charge still, which they had entirely over looked — the claims of God, as well as of Caesar. " Render unto Csesar the things which are Csesar's." • The money you love proclaims that you are slaves to Csesar. Pay, then, to Csesar his dues. But forget not to "render to God the things that are God's." The fact was, they hated Csesar only less than they hated the true God. The Lord left them therefore .; under the reflections and confusion of their own guilty consciences. Next, the Lord is assailed by another great party. "The same day came to him the Sadducees" — those most opposed to the Pharisees in doctrine, as the ON THE GOSPELS. 117 Herodians were in politics. The Sadducees denied resurrection, and put a case which to their mind involved insuperable difficulties. To whom would belong in that state a woman who here had been married to seven brethren successively? The Lord does not cite the clearest Scripture about the resur rection ; He does what in the circumstances is much better; He appeals to what they themselves professed most of all to revere. To the Sadducee there was no part of Scripture possessed of such authority as the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses. From Moses, then, He proved the resurrection; and this in the simplest possible way. Every one — their own con science — must allow that God is the God, not of the dead, but of the living. Therefore, if God calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is not an unmeaning thing. Referring long after wards to their fathers who were passed away, He speaks of Himself as in relationship with them. Were they not, then, dead? But was all gone? Not so. But far more than that, — He speaks as one who not merely had relations with them, but had made promises to them, which never yet were accomplished. Either, then, God must raise them from the dead, in order to make good His promises to the fathers; or He could not be careful to keep His promises. Was this last what their faith in God, or rather their want of faith, came to ? To deny resur rection is, therefore, to deny the promises, and God's faithfulness, and in truth God Himself. The Lord, 118 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES therefore, rebukes them on this acknowledged prin ciple, that God was the God of the living, not of the dead. To make Him God of the dead would have been really to deny Him to be God at all: equally so to make His promises of no value or stability. God, therefore, must raise again the fathers in order to fulfil His promise to them; for they certainly never got the promises in this life. The folly of their thoughts too was manifest in this, that the difficulty presented was wholly unreal — it only existed in their imagination. Marriage has no thing to do with the risen state : there they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Thus, on their own nega tive ground of objection, they were altogether in error. Positively, as we have seen, they were just as wrong; for God must raise the dead to make good His own promises. There is nothing now in this world that worthily witnesses God, save only that which, is known to faith; but if you speak of the display of God, and the manifestation of His power, you must wait until the resurrection. The Sadducees had not faith, and hence were in total error and blindness : " Ye do en', not knowing the Scrip tures, nor the power of God." Therefore it was that, refusing to believe, they were unable to under stand. When the resurrection comes, it will' be manifest to every eye. Accordingly this was the point of our Lord's answer; and the multitudes were astonished at His doctrine. ON THE GOSPELS. 119 Though the Pharisees were not sorry to find the then ruling party, the Sadducees, put to silence, one of them, a lawyer, tempted the Lord in a question of near interest to them. "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" But He who came full of grace and truth never lowered the law, and at once gives its sum and substance in both its parts — Godward and manward. The time, however, was come for Jesus to put His question, drawn from Psalm ex. If Christ be con fessedly David's Son, how does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, " Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool ?" The whole truth of His position lies here. It was about to be realized; and the Lord can speak of the things that were not as though they were. Such was the language of David the king in words inspired of the Holy Ghost. What was the language, the thought of the people now, and by whom inspired ? Alas ! Pharisees, lawyers, Sadducees — it was only a question of infidelity in varying forms ; and the glory of David's Lord was even more momentous than the dead rising according to promise. Believe it or not, the Messiah was about to take His seat at the right hand of Jehovah. They were — indeed, they are — critical questions : If the Christ be David's Son, how is He David's Lord ? If He be David's Lord, how is He David's Son ? It is the turning point of un belief at all times, now as then, the continual theme 120 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES of the testimony of the Holy Ghost, the habitual stumbling-block of man, never so vain as when he would be wisest, and either essay to sound by his own wit the unfathomable mystery of Christ's per son, or deny that there is in it any mystery whatever. It was the very point of Jewish unbelief. It was the grand capital truth of all this gospel of Matthew, that He who was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, was really Emmanuel, and Jehovah. It had been proved at His birth, proved throughout His ministry in Galilee, proved now at His last pre sentation in Jerusalem. " And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions." Such was their position in presence of Him who was so soon about to take His seat at the right hand of God ; and there each remains to this day. Awful, unbelieving silence of Israel despising their own law, despising their own Messiah, David's Son and David's Lord, His glory their shame ! But if man was silent, it was the Lord's place not merely to question but to pronounce; and in chapter xxiii. most solemnly does the Lord utter His sentence upon Israel. It was an address both to the multitude and to the disciples, with woes for Scribes and Pharisees. The Lord fully sanctioned that kind of mingled address for the time, providing, it would appear, not merely for the disciples, but for the remnant in a future day who will have this ambig uous place ; believers in Him, on the one hand, yet ON THE GOSPELS. 121 withal filled, on the other, with Jewish hopes and Jewish associations. This seems to me the reason why our Lord speaks in a manner so remarkably different from that which obtains ordinarily in Scrip ture. "The scribes," He says, "and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works : for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they them selves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen of men." The principle fully applied then, as it will in the latter day; the Church scene coming in meanwhile as a parenthesis. The suitability of such instruction to this gospel of Matthew is also obvious, as indeed here only it is found. Then, again, our souls would shrink from the notion, that what our Lord taught could have merely a passing application. Not so; it has a permanent value for His followers; save only that the special privileges conferred on the Church, which is His body, modify the case, and, concurrently with this, the setting aside meanwhile of the Jewish people and state of things. But as these words applied literally then, so I conceive will it be at a future day. If this be so, it preserves the dignity of the Lord, as the great Prophet and Teacher, in its true place. In the last book of the New Testament we have a similar combination of features, when the Church will have disappeared from 122 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the earth ; that is, the keeping the commandments of God and having the faith of Jesus. So here, the disciples of Jesus are exhorted to heed what was enjoined by those who sat in Moses' seat — to follow what they taught, not what they did. So far as they brought out God's commandments, it was obtigatory ¦ But their practice was to be a beacon, not a guide. Their objects were to be seen of men, pride of place, honour in public and private, high-sounding titles, in open contradiction of Christ and that oft-repeated word of His — " Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." Yet, of course, the disciples had the faith of Jesus. Next the Lord* launches out woe after woe against the Scribes and Pharisees. They were hypocrites. They shut out the new light of God, while zealous beyond measure for their own thoughts; they undermined conscience by their casuistry, while insisting on the minutest alliteration in ceremonial- izing; they laboured after external cleanness, while full of rapine and intemperance ; and if they could only seem righteously fair without, feared not within to be full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Finally, their monuments in honour of slain prophets and * The most ancient text, represented by the Vatican, Sinai,. Beza's Cambridge, L. of Paris (0. being defective, as well as the Alexandrian), and the Rescript of Dublin, omits verse 14, which may have been foisted in from Mark xii. 40 and Luke xx. 47. This leaves the complete series of seven woes. ON THE GOSPELS. 123 past worthies were rather a testimony to their own relationship, not to the righteous, but to those who murdered them. Their fathers killed the witnesses of God who, while living, condemned them ; they, the sons, only built to their memory when there was no longer a present testimony to their conscience, and their sepulchral honours would cast a halo around themselves. Such is worldly religion and its heads : the great obstructions to divine knowledge, instead of living only to be its channels of communication; narrow, where they should have been large; cold and lukewarm for God, earnest only for self; daring sophists, where divine obligations lay deep, and punctilious pettifoggers in the smallest details, strain ing at the gnat and swallowing the camel ; anxious only for the outside, reckless as to all that lay con cealed underneath. The honour they paid those who had suffered in times past was the proof that they succeeded not' them but their enemies, the true legitimate successors of those that slew the friends of God. The successors of those that of old suffered for God are those who suffer now ; the heirs of their persecutors may build them sepulchres, erect statues, cast monumental brasses, pay them any conceivable honour. When there is no longer the testimony1 of God that pierces the obdurate heart, when they who render it are no longer there, the names of these departed saints or prophets become a . means of gaining religious reputation for themselves. Present 124 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES application of the truth is lacking, the sword of the Spirit is no longer in the hands of those who wielded it so well. To honour those who have passed away is the cheapest means, on the contrary, for acquiring credit for the men of this generation. It is to swell the great capital of tradition out of those that once served God, but are now gone, whose testimony is no longer a sting to the guilty. Thus it is evident, that as their honour begins in death, so it bears the sure stamp of death upon it. Did they plume. themselves on the progress of the age? Did they think and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets? How httle they knew their own hearts ! Their trial was at hand. Their real character would soon appear, hypocrites though they were, and a serpent brood: how could they escape the judgment of hell? " Wherefore, behold," says He, after thus exposing and denouncing them, "I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes : and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city." It is most eminently a Jewish character and circumstance of persecution; as the aim was the retributive one, " that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily, I say unto you. ON THE GOSPELS. 125 all these things shall come upon this generation." Yet, just as the blessed Lord, after pronouncing woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, that had rejected His words and works, turned at once to the infinite resources of grace, and from the depth of His own glory brought in the secret of better things to the poor and needy; so it was that even at this time, just before He gave utterance to these woes (so solemn and fatal to the proud religious guides of Israel), He had, as we know from Luke xix., wept over the guilty city, out of which, as His servants, so their Lord could not perish. Here, again, how truly was His heart towards them ! " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." It is not " I leave," but your house is left unto you desolate ; " for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth [what bitterness of destitution theirs — Messiah, Jehovah Himself, rejecting those who re jected Him !] till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Thus we have had our Lord presenting Himself as Jehovah the King ; we have had the various classes putting themselves forward to judge Him, but, in fact, judged themselves by Him. There remains another scene of great interest, linking itself on to His farewell to the nation just noticed. It is His 126 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES last communication to the disciples in view of the future; and this Matthew gives in a very full and rich manner. It would be vain to attempt an expo sition of this prophetic discourse within my assigned limits. I will, therefore, but skim its surface now, just enough to indicate its outlines, and specially its distinctive features. It is evident that the greater completeness here exhibited beyond what appears in any other gospel is according to special design. In the gospel given by the other apostle, John, there is not a word of it. Mark gives his report very particu larly in connection with the testimony of God, as I hope to show when we come to that point. In Luke there is peculiar -distinctness in noticing the Gen tiles, and their times of supremacy during the long period of Israel's degradation. Again, it is only in Matthew that we find direct allusion to the question of the end of the age. The reason is evident. That consummation is the grand crisis for the Jew. Matthew, writing under the Holy Ghost's direction for Israel, in view both of the consequences of their past unfaithfulness and of that future crisis, furnishes alike the momentous question and the Lord's special answer to it. This, too, is the reason why Matthew opens out what we do not find in either Mark or Luke, at least in this connection. We have here very comprehensively the Christian part, as it appears to me (i.e., what belongs to the disciples, viewed as professing Christ's name when Israel rejected Him). This suits Matthew's view of ON THE GOSPELS. 127 the prophecy; and the reason is plain. Matthew shows us not only the consequences of the rejection of the Messiah to Israel, but the change of dispen sation, or what would follow on their fatal opposition to One who was their King, yea, not only Messiah, but Jehovah. The consequences were to be, could not but be, all - important ; and the Spirit here re cords this portion of the Lord's prophecy most appropriately to His pufpose by Matthew. Would not God turn the Jewish rejection of that glorious Person to some wondrous and suitable account? Accordingly this is what we find here. The order, though different from that which obtains elsewhere, is regulated by perfect wisdom. First of all, the Jews are taken up, or the disciples as representing them, where they then were. They had not got beyond their old thoughts of the temple, those buildings that had excited their admiration and awe. The Lord announces the judgment that was at hand. Indeed, it was involved in the words said before — "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." It was their house. The Spirit was fled. It was no better than a dead body now. Why should it not be carried out speedily to burial ? " See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." All would soon be over for the present. "And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, say ing, Tell us, when shall these things be ?, and what 128 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ?" In answer the Lord sets before them a general history — so general, indeed, that one might hardly gather at first whether He did not contemplate even here Christians as well as Jews. (vv. 4-14.) They are viewed really as a believing but Jewish remnant, which accounts for the breadth of the language. Then, from verse 15, come the details of Daniel's special last half week, whose prophecy is emphatically appealed to. The establishment of the abomination of desolation in the holy place would be the sign for the instant flight of godly ones, like the disciples, who will then be found in Jerusalem. For this is to be followed by great tribulation, ex ceeding any time of trouble since the beginning of the world up to that day. Nor will there be outward affliction only, but unparalleled deceits, false Christs and false prophets showing great signs and wonders. But the elect are here warned graciously of the Saviour, and far, far beyond any guards afforded in the prophecies of the Old Testament. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken : and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." The appearing of the Son of man is a grand point ON THE GOSPELS. - 129 in Matthew, and indeed in all the gospels. The once rejected Christ will come in glory as the glorious Heir of all things. His advent in the clouds of heaven will be to take the throne, not of Israel only, but of all people, nations, and languages. Returning thus, to the horror and shame of His adversaries, in or out of the land, the first thing spoken of here is His mission of His angels to gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. There is no hint of resurrection or of rapture to heaven here. The elect of Israel are in question, and His own glory as Son of man, without a word of His being Head; nor of the Church His body. What we find here is a process of gathering the chosen, not merely of the Jews, but of all Israel, as I suppose, from the four winds of heaven. This in terpretation derives support, then, if that be needed, from the parable that immediately follows (verses 32, 33). It is the fig tree once more, but used for a far different purpose. Be it curse in one connection, be it blessing in another, the fig tree typifies Israel. Then comes, not what may be called the natural, but the scriptural, parable. As that alluded to the outside realm of nature, so this was taken from the Old Testament. The reference here is to the days of Noah, applied to illustrate the coming of the Son of man. So should the blow fall suddenly on all its objects. "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, K 130 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES and the other left." They must not imagine that it would be like an ordinary judgment in providence, which sweeps here, not there, and sweeps here in discriminately. In such the guiltless suffer with the guilty, without any approach to an adequate personal distinction. But it will not be so in the days of the Son of man, when He returns to deal with mankind at the end of the age. To be without or within will be no protection. Of two men in the field ; of two women grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left. The discrimination is precise and perfect to the last degree. "Watch therefore," says the Lord, in conclusion of it all ; " for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." This transition, in my judgment, leads from the part particularly devoted to the destinies of the Jewish people, and opens into that which concerns the Christian profession. The first of these general pictures of Christendom, which drop all reference to Jerusalem, the temple, the people, or their hope, is found in verses 45-51. Next follows the parable of the ten virgins; then, last of these, is that of the talents. Let me observe, however, that there ON THE GOSPELS. 131 is a clause in chap. xxv. 13 which has a little falsified the application. But the truth is, as is well known, that men, in copying the Greek New Testament, added the words, "Wherein the Son of man cometh," to this verse, which is complete with out them. The Spirit really wrote, "Watch there fore, for ye know not the day nor the hour." To those versed in the text as it stands in the best copies, this is a fact too familiar to demand many words said about it. No critic of weight considers that these words have any just claim to be in the text that is founded on ancient authority. Others may defend the clause who accept what is commonly re ceived, and what can only be defended by modern or uncertain manuscripts. Surely those I now address are the last men who ought to contend for a mere traditional or vulgar basis in anything which per tains to God. If we accept the traditional text of the printers, we are on this ground ; if, on the con trary, we reject human meddling as a principle, assuredly we ought not to accredit such clauses as this, which we have the strongest grounds to pro nounce a mere interpolation, and not truly the word of God. But this being so, we may proceed to notice how strikingly beautiful is the effect of omitting these words. First, then, in the Christian part, came the parable of the household servant. He who, faithful and wise, met the wishes of his Lord that set him over His household to give them meat in due season, K 2 132 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES being found so doing when He comes, is made ruler over all His goods. The evil servant, on the con trary, who settled in his heart that his Lord was not coming, and so yielded to overbearing violence and evil commerce with the profane world, shall he surprised by judgment, and have his portion with the hypocrites in hopeless shame and sorrow. It is an instructive sketch of Christendom; but there is more. " Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them : but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." Thus Christendom entirely breaks down. It is not only the foolish who go to sleep, but the wise. All fail to give a right expression" '- to their waiting for the Bridegroom. "They all slumbered and slept." But God takes care, without telling us how, that there shall be an interruption of their slumber. Instead of remaining out to wait, they must have gone in somewhere to sleep. In short, the original position is deserted. Not only have they not discharged their duty of awaiting the return of the Bridegroom, but they are no longer in their true posture. When the hope revives, the position is recovered, not before. At midnight, when all were asleep, there was a cry, "The bridegroom. cometh : go ye out to meet him." This acts on the ON THE GOSPELS. 133 virgins, wise and foolish. So it is now. Who can deny that foolish people enough speak and write about the Lord's coming ? An universal agitation of spirit goes on in all countries and all towns. Spite of opposition, the expectation spreads far and wide. It is in no way confined to the children of God. Those who are in quest of oil, going hither and thither, are disturbed by it as certainly as those who have oil in their vessels are cheered to go out once more while waiting for the Bridegroom's return. But what a difference ! The wise were prepared with oil beforehand; the rest proved their folly in doing without it. Let me particularly call your attention to this. The difference consisted not in expecting the Lord's coming or not, but in the possession or the lack of oil (i. e., the unction from the Holy One). All profess Christ; they are all virgins with their lamps. But the want of oil is fatal. He who has not the Spirit of Christ is none of His. Such are the foohsh. They know not what has made the others wise unto salvation, whatever they may pro fess ; and their restless search, after that which they have not, finally severs them even here from the company of those they started with as looking for the Lord. The notion that they are Christians who lack intelligence in prophecy seems to me not false only, but utterly unworthy of a spiritual mind. Is the possession of Christ less precious than a correct chart of the future? I cannot conceive a Christian 134 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES without oil in his vessel. It is clearly to have the Holy Ghost, whom every saint that submits to the righteousness of God in Christ has dwelling within him. As John teaches us, the least members of God's family are said to have that unction — not the fathers and young men — but expressly the babes. Of course, if the youngest in Christ are so privileged, the young men and fathers do not want. Therefore I do assert, with the fullest conviction of its truth, that, as the oil in the parable sets forth, not pro phetic intelligence, but the gift of God's Spirit, so every Christian, and no other, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him. These, then, are the wise virgins who make ready for the Bridegroom, and go in with Him to the marriage at His coming. As that hour draws near, the others, on the- contrary, are more and more agitated. Not resting on Christ for their souls by faith, they have not the Spirit, and seek the inestimable gift among those who sell it, asking who will show them any good — of whom they may buy this priceless oil. The Lord meanwhile comes, they that were ready go in with Him to the wedding, and the door was shut; the rest of the virgins are ex cluded. The Lord knew them not. Let me say in passing, that these virgins are dis tinguished from those who will be called in the end of the age by broad and deep differences. There is no ground to believe that the sufferers in that crisis will ever become heavy with sleep, as saints have done during the long delay of Christendom. That ON THE GOSPELS. 135 brief season of unprecedented trial and danger does not admit of it. Next, as little ground is there in Scripture to predicate of these latter-day sufferers the possession of the Holy Ghost, which is the pecu liar privilege of the believer since the rejected Christ took His place as Head in heaven. The Holy Ghost is to be poured out on all flesh for the millennial day, no doubt; but no prophecy declares that the remnant will be so characterized till they see Jesus. And, again, there is the third point of distinction, that these sufferers are nowhere set forth as going out to meet the Bridegroom. They may flee away because of the abomination that makes desolate, but this is a contrast rather than a similar feature. The third of these parables presents another phase again. During the absence of the Lord, before He appears to take the kingdom of the world, He gives gifts to men — different gifts, and in different mea sures. This pre-eminently belongs to Christianity and its active testimony in peculiar variety. I am not aware of anything exactly answering to it in its full character in the latter day (which will be dis tinguished by a brief energetic witness of the kingdom). These gifts of Matt. xxv. seem to me the thorough expression of the activity of grace, that goes out and labours for a rejected and absent Lord on .high. However, I may not dwell upon minuter points, which would, of course, frustrate the desire to give a comprehensive sketch in a short compass. 136 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES The latter scene of the chapter is, to a simple mind, evident enough. "All the nations" or Gentiles are in question : there can be no mistake as to this. The Jew has already come before us, and at the beginning of the Lord's discourse, because the dis ciples were 'then Jews. Next, as disciples emerged from Judaism into Christianity, we have in this very distinctly the reason why the Christian parenthesis comes second in order. Then, in the third place, we find "all the nations" who are formally designated as such, and distinguished in the clearest manner from the two others, both in terms and in the things said of them. They come up and are visibly dealt with as Gentiles at the close, when the Son of man reigns as king over the earth. The question which comes before His throne, and decides their eternal lot, does not consist of the secrets of the heart then laid bare, nor their general life, but of their behaviour to His messengers. How had they treated certain persons that the King calls His brethren ? It is an appraisal then, founded on their relation to a brief testimony rendered at the close of the present dispensation (I doubt not, by Jewish brethren of the King, when all the world wonders after the beast, and in general men go back to idols, and fall into Antichrist's hands) ; a testi mony suited to the crisis, after the Christian body has been taken to heaven, and the question of the earth is raised once more. Thus these nations or Gentiles are dealt with according to their behaviour ON THE GOSPELS. 137 to the messengers of the King, just before and up to the time that the King summons them before the throne of His glory. To own His despised heralds when the time of strong delusion comes, will de mand the quickening work of the Spirit; which, indeed, is needful for receiving any and every testi mony of God. It is not a question of any general issue that would apply to a course of ages, as to the present preaching of God's grace, or to the ordinary current of men's lives. Nothing of the sort appears to be the ground of the Lord's action with either the sheep or the goats. Formal teaching is over now, whether practical or prophetic. The scene above all scenes draws near, on which, however blessed, I cannot say much at this time. The Lord Jesus has been presented to the people, has preached, has wrought miracles, has instructed disciples, has met all the various classes of His adversaries, has launched into the future up to the end of the age. Now He prepares to suffer, — to suffer in absolute surrender of Himself to the Father. Accordingly, in this scene it is no longer man judg ing Him in words, but God judging Him in His person on the cross. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So it is here. He maintains, too, every affection in its fulness. Here, aside from the crowd, the Lord for a season takes whatever of rest might be vouchsafed to His spirit. The active work was done. The cross remained — a few brief hours, but 138 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES of eternal value and unfathomable import, with which indeed nothing can compare. At the house of Bethany Jesus is now found. It is one of the few scenes introduced by "the Spirit of God into all the gospels save Luke, in contrast with, yet in preparation for, the cross. Was the Spirit of God then acting mightily in the heart of one who loved the Saviour? At this very time Satan was pushing on the heart of man to dare the worst against Jesus. Around these were the parties. What a moment for heaven, and earth, and hell! How much, how little was man seen ! for if one feature be prominent in His foes more than another, it is this, that man is powerless, even when Jesus was the victim, exposed to every hostile breath as it might appear. Yet does He accomplish everything, when He was but a sufferer; they nothing, when free to do all (for it was their hour, and the power of darkness) nothing but their iniquity; but even in their iniquity doing the will of God, spite of themselves, and contrary to their own plans. They did their will in point of guilt, but it was never accomplished as they desired. First of all, as we are told, their great anxiety was, that the deed on which their heart was set, the death of Jesus, should not be at the passover. But their resolution was vain. From the beginning God had decided that then, and at no other time, it should be. They assembled, they consulted, "that they might take Jesus by subtilty and kill him." The upshot of ON THE GOSPELS. 139 their deliberations was only—" Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people." Little did they foresee the treachery of a disciple, or the public sentence of a Roman governor. Again, there was no uproar among the people, contrary to their fears. Yet did Jesus die on that day according to God's word. But let us turn aside to the company of our Lord for a little while at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. There was poured out the worship of a heart that loved Him, if ever there was one. She waited not for the promise of the Father; but He who was soon after given to overflowing, even then wrought in the instincts of her new nature. " There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat." This, John lets us know, she had kept ; it was no new thing got up for the occasion ; it was her best, and spent on Jesus. How little it was in her eyes, how precious in His, spent on one whom she loved, for whom she felt the im pending danger; for love is quick to feel, and feels more truly than man's most sharpened prudence. So it was, then, that this woman pours her ointment on His head. John mentions His feet. Certainly it was poured upon both. But as Matthew has the King before him, and it was usual to pour on, not the feet of a king, but his head, he naturally records that part of the action which was suitable to the Messiah. John, on the contrary, whose point is that 140 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Jesus was infinitely more than a king, while lowly enough in love for anything — John most appropri ately tells us that Mary poured it on His feet. It is interesting, too, to observe, that love, and a profound sense of the glory of Jesus, led her to do that which a sinner's heart, thoroughly broken down in the presence of His grace, prompted her to do. For Luke mentions another person. In this case it was " a woman in the city, who was a sinner," a totally different person, at another and earlier time, and in the house of another Simon, a Pharisee. She too anointed the feet of Jesus with an alabaster box of ointment ; but she stood at His feet behind, weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet. There are thus many added circumstances in harmony with the case. All I would point out now is, the kindred feeling to which is led a poor sinner that tasted His grace in presence of her proved un worthiness, and a loving worshipper, filled with the glory of His person, and sensitive to the malice of His foes. However that may be, the Lord vindicates her in the face of murmuring disaffected disciples. It is a solemn lesson ; for it shows how one corrupt mind may defile others, incomparably better than its own. The whole college of the apostles, the twelve, were tainted for the moment by the poison insinuated by one. What hearts are ours at such a season, in the face of such love ! But so it was, alas ! — is. One evil eye may too soon communicate its foul impres- ON THE GOSPELS. 141 sion, and thereby many be defiled. It was Judas at bottom; but there was also that in the rest which made them susceptible of similar selfishness at the expense of Jesus, although there was not in them the same allowance of diabolical influence which had suggested thoughts to Judas. The example is surely not without serious admonition to ourselves. How often care for doctrine cloaks Satan, as here care for the poor! Morally, too, this connects itself with Christ's sufferings that should follow. The devotedness of the woman is used of Satan to push Judas into his last wickedness, so much the more determined by the outflow of what his heart could not in the smallest degree appreciate. Thence he goes to sell Jesus. If the could not manage to get the box of precious ointment, or its worth, he would, while he could, secure his little profit on the sale of Jesus to His enemies. " What will ye give me," says he to the chief priests, "and I will deliver him unto you?" Accordingly the covenant takes place — a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell. "They covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver" — man's, Israel's, worthy price for Jesus ! But now, as the woman had her token for Jesus, and in it her own memorial, wherever, whenever the gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world, so Jesus next institutes the standing, undying token of His dying love. He founds the new feast, His own supper for His disciples. At the paschal 142 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES feast He takes up the bread and the wine, and con secrates them to be on earth the continual remem brance of Himself in the midst of His own. In the language of its institution there are some distinctive features which may claim a notice when we have the opportunity of looking at the other gospels. From this table our Lord goes to Gethsemane, and His agony there. Whatever there was of sorrow, whatever there was of pain, whatever there was of suffering, our Lord never bowed to any suffering from men without, before He bore it on His heart alone with His Father. He went through it in spirit before He went through it in fact. And this, I believe, is the main point here. I say not all that we have ; for here He met the terrors of death — and what a death ! — pressed on Him by the prince of this world, who nevertheless found nothing in Him. Thus at the actual hour it was God glorified in Him, the Son of man, even as, when raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, He forthwith declares to His brethren the name of His Father and their Father, of His God and their God, both nature and relationship. Here His cry still is simply to His Father, as in the cross it was, My God, though not this only. However profoundly instructive all this may be, our Lord in the garden calls upon the disciples to watch and pray ; but this is precisely what they find hardest. They slept, and prayed not. What a contrast, too, with Jesus afterwards, when the trial came! And yet for them it was but the merest ON THE GOSPELS. 143 reflection of that which He passed through. For the world, death is either borne with the obduracy that dares all because it believes nothing, or it is a pang as the end of present enjoyment, the sombre portal of they know not what beyond. To the believer, to the Jewish disciple, before redemption, death was even worse in a sense; for there was a juster perception of God, and of man's state morally. Now all is changed through His death, which the disciples so little estimated, the bare shadow of which, however, was enough to overwhelm them all, and silence every confession of their faith. For him who most of all presumed on the strength of his love, it was enough to prove how little he yet knew of the reahty of death, spite of his too ready boasts. And yet what would death have been in his case compared with that of Jesus ! But even that was incomparably too much for the strength of Peter ; all was proved powerless, save the One who shewed, even when He was weakest, that He was alone the Giver of all strength, the Manifester of all grace, even when He was crushed under such judgment as man never knew before, nor can know again. We next see our Lord, not with the disciples, fail ing, false, or traitorous, but His hour come, in the power of the hostile world, priests, governors, soldiers, and people. What was attempted by man completely broke down. They had their witnesses, but the wit nesses agreed not. Failure everywhere is found, even in wickedness — failure not in men's will, but in its 144 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES accomplishment. God alone governs. So now Jesus was condemned, not for their testimony, but for His- own. How wondrous, that even to put Him to death they needed the witness of Jesus ; they could not condemn Him to die but for His good confession. For His testimony to the truth they consummated their worst deed; and this doubly, before the high priest as well as before the governor. Warned of his wife (for the Lord took care that there should be providential testimony), as well as too keen-sighted to overlook the malice of the Jews and the inno cence of the accused, Pontius Pilate acknowledges Jiis prisoner to be guiltless, yet allowed himself to be forced to act contrary to his own conscience, and according to their wishes whom he wholly despised. Once more, ere Jesus is led out to be crucified, the Jews showed what they were morally ; for when the coarse-minded heathen put before them the alterna tive of releasing Jesus or Barabbas, their instant preference (not without priestly instigation) was a wretch, a robber, a murderer. Such was the feeling of the Jews, God's people, toward their King, because He was the Son of God, Jehovah, and not a mere man. With bitter irony, but not without God, wrote Pilate the accusation, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." But this was not the only testimony which God gave. For from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And then when Jesus, crying with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, that ensued which particularly would strike ON THE GOSPELS. 145 the heart of the Jew. The veil of the temple was ¦rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. What could be conceived more solemn to Israel? His death was the death blow to the Jewish system, struck by one who was unmistakably the Maker of heaven and earth. But it was not the dissolution of that system only, but of the power of death itself; for the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, the witness of the value of His death, though not declared till after His resurrection. The death of Jesus, I hesitate not to say, is the sole groundwork of righteous deliverance from sin. In the resurrection is seen the mighty power of God ; but what is power for a sinner, with God before his soul, compared with righteousness ? What with grace ? And this is precisely what we have here. Hence, it is the death of Jesus alone that is the true centre and pivot of all God's counsels and ways, whether in righteousness or in grace. The resurrec tion, no doubt, is the power that manifests and pro claims all; but what it proclaims is the power of His death, because that alone has vindicated God morally. The death of Jesus alone has proved that nothing could overcome His love — rejection, death itself, so far from this, being only the occasion of displaying love to the uttermost. Therefore it is that, of all things even- in Jesus, there is none that affords such a common and perfect resting-place for God and L 146 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES man as the death of Jesus. When it is a question of power, liberty, life, no doubt we must turn to the * resurrection ; and hence it is, that in the Acts of the apostles this necessarily comes out most prominently, because the matter in hand was to afford proof, on the one hand, of manifested but despised grace ; on the other hand, of God's reversing man's attainder of Jesus by raising Him from the dead and exalting Him to His own right hand on high. The death of Jesus would be no demonstration of this sort. On the contrary, His death was what man appeared to triumph in. They had got rid of Jesus thus, but the resurrection proved how vain and short-lived it was, and that God was against them. The object was to make evident that man was wholly opposed to God, and that God even now manifested His sentence on it. The raising up Him whom man slew renders this unquestionable. I admit that in the resurrec tion of Christ God is for us, for the believer. But the sinner and the believer must not be confounded together, for there is an immense difference between the two things. Whatever the witness of perfect love in the gift and death of Jesus, for the sinner there is not, there cannot be, anything whatever in the resurrection of Jesus save condemnation. I press this the more strongly, because the recovery of the precious truth of Christ's resurrection exposes some, by a kind of reaction, to weaken the value which His death has in God's mind, and ought to have in our faith. Let those, then, who prize the resurrec- ON THE GOSPELS. 147 tion, see to it that they be exceedingly jealous for the due place of the cross. The two things we find remarkably guarded here. It was not the resurrection, but the death of Jesus, that rent the veil of the temple; it was not His resurrection that opened the graves, but His cross, though the saints rose not till after He rose. It is just so with us practically. In point of fact, we never do know the full worth of the death of Christ, until we look upon it from the power and results of the resurrection. But what we contemplate from the side of resurrection is not itself, but the death of Jesus. Hence it is that in the Church's assembling, and most properly, on the Lord's day, we do in the breaking of bread show forth, not the resurrection, but the death of the Lord. At the same time, we show forth His death not on the day of death, but upon that of resurrection. Do I forget that it is the day of resurrection? Then I little understand my liberty and joy. If, on the contrary, the resur rection day brings no more before me than the resurrection, it is too plain that the death of Christ has lost its infinite grace for my soul. The Egyptians would have liked to cross the Red Sea, but they had no care for the doors sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. They essayed to pass through the watery walls, desiring thus to follow Israel to the other side. But we do not read that they ever sought the shelter of the Paschal Lamb's blood. No doubt, this is an extreme case, and the judgment L 2 148 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES of the world of nature ; but we may learn even from an enemy not to value resurrection less, but to value the death and bloodshedding of our precious Saviour more. There is really nothing towards God and man like the death of Christ. Then, in contrast with the poor but devoted women of Galilee that surrounded the cross, we behold the fears, the just fears, of those who had accomplished the death of Jesus. These guilty men go full of anxiety to Pilate. They feared " that deceiver," and so had their watch, and stone, and seal — in vain! The Lord that sat in the heavens had them in deri sion. Jesus had prepared His own (and His enemies knew it) for His rising on the third day. Women came there the evening before to look at the place where the Lord lay buried. That morning, very early, when there were none there but the guards, the angel of the Lord descends. We are not told that our Lord rose at that time ; still less is it said that the angel of the Lord rolled away the stone for Him. He that passed through the doors, closed for fear of the Jews, could just as easily pass through the sealed stone, despite all the soldiers of the empire. We know that there the angel sat after rolling away the great stone which had closed the sepulchre, where our Lord, despised and rejected of men, nevertheless accomplished Isaiah's prophecy in making His grave with the rich. The Lord then had this further witness, that the very keepers, hardened and bold as such usually are, trembled, and ON THE GOSPELS. 149 became as dead men, while the angel bids the women not to fear ; for this Jesus which was crucified " is not here : He is risen. Come, and see the place where the Lord lay, and go and tell the disciples, Behold, He goeth before you into Galilee." This is a point of importance for completing the view of His rejec tion, or its consequences in resurrection, and so Matthew takes particular care of it, though the same fact may be recorded also by Mark for his purpose. But Matthew does not speak of the various appearances of the Lord in Jerusalem after the resurrection. What he does dwell upon particu larly, and of course with his special reasons for it, is, that the Lord, after His resurrection, adheres to the place where the state of the Jews led Him to be habitually, and shed His light around according to prophecy; for the Lord resumed relations once more in Galilee with the remnant represented -by the disciples after He rose from the dead. It was in the place of Jewish contempt ; it was where the benighted poor of the flock were, the neglected of the proud scribes and rulers of Jerusalem. There the risen Lord was pleased to go before His servants and rejoin them. But as the Galilean women went with this word from the angel, the Lord Himself met them. " And they came and held him by the feet, and wor shipped him." It is remarkable that in our gospel this was permitted. To Mary Magdalene, who in 150 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES her desire to pay her wonted obeisance probably was attempting something similar, He altogether declines it; but this is mentioned in the gospel of John. How is it, then, that the two apostolic accounts show us the homage of the women received, and of Mary Magdalene refused, on the same day, and perhaps at the same hour ? Clearly the action is significant in both. The reason, I apprehend, was this, Matthew sets before us that while He was the rejected Messiah, though now risen, He not only reverted to His relations in the despised part of the land with His disciples, but gives, in this accepted worship of the daughters of Galilee, the pledge of His special association with the Jews in the latter day ; for it is precisely thus that they will look for the Lord. That is, a Jew, as such, counts upon the bodily presence of the Lord. The point in John's record is the very reverse; for it is the taking one, who was a sample of believing Jews, out of Jewish relations into association with Himself just about to ascend to heaven. In Matthew He is touched. They held Him by the feet without re monstrance, and thus worshipped Him in bodily presence. In John He says, "Touch me not;" and the reason is, "for I am not yet ascended to my Father : Tout go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Worship henceforth was to be offered to Him above, invisible, but known there by faith. To the women in Matthew it was here that ON THE GOSPELS. 151 He was presented for their worship ; to the woman in John it was there only He was to be known now. It was not a question of bodily presence, but of the Lord ascended to heaven and there announcing the new relationships for us with His Father and God. Thus, in the one case, it is the sanction of Jewish hopes of His presence here below for the homage of Israel ; in the other gospel, it is His personal absence and ascension, leading souls to a higher and suited association with Himself, as well as with God, taking even those who were Jews out of their old condition to know the Lord no more after the flesh. Most consistently, therefore, in this gospel we have no ascension scene at all. If we had only the gospel of Matthew, we should possess no record of this wonderful fact : so striking is the omission, that a well-known comme*ntary, Mr. Alford's first edition, broached the rash and irreverent hypothesis founded upon it, that our Matthew is an incomplete Greek version of the Hebrew original because there was no such record ; for it was impossible, in the opinion of that writer, that an apostle could have omitted a description of that event. The fact is, if you add the ascension to Matthew, you would overload and mar his gospeL The beautiful end of Matthew is, that (while chief priests and elders essay to cover their wickedness by falsehood and bribery, and their lie " is commonly reported among the Jews until this day,") our Lord meets His disciples on a mountain in Galilee, according to His appointment, and sends 152 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES them to disciple all the Gentiles. How great is the change of dispensation is manifest from His former commission to the same men in chapter x. Now they were to baptize them unto the name of the Father, &c. It was not a question of the Almighty God of the fathers, or the Jehovah God of Israel. The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is characteristic of Christianity. Per mit me to say, that this is the true formula of Christian baptism, and that the omission of this form of sound words appears to me quite as fatal to the validity of baptism as any change that can be pointed out in other respects. Instead of being a Jewish tiling, this is what supplanted it. Instead of a relic of older dispensations to be modified or rather set aside now, on the contrary, it is the full revelation of the name of God as now made known, not before. This only came out after the death and resurrection of Christ. There is no longer the mere Jewish enclosure He had entered during the days of His flesh, but the change of dispensation was now dawning : so consistently does the Spirit of God hold to His design from the first to the very end. Accordingly He closes with these words, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [age]." How the form of the truth would have been weakened, if not destroyed, had we then heard of His going up to heaven ! It is evident that the moral force of it is infinitely more preserved as it is. He is charging His disciples, sending them on their ON THE GOSPELS. 153 world-wide mission with these words, "Lo, I am with you always, all the days," &c. The force is immensely increased, and for this very reason that we hear and see no more. He promises His presence with them to the end of the age; and thereon the curtain drops. He is thus heard, if not seen, for ever with His own on earth, as they go forth upon that errand so precious, but perilous. May we gather real profit from all He has given us. IF. MARK I. -VIII. It is remarkable how tradition has contrived to injure the truth in touching the question of the method of the gospel we now enter on; for the current view which comes down to us from the ancients, stamped too with the name of one who lived not long after the apostles, lays down — that Mark's is that gospel which arranges the facts of our Lord's life, not in, but out of the order of their occurrence. Now, that order is precisely what he most observes. And this mistake, if it be one, which notoriously had wrought from the earliest days, and naturally, therefore, to a large extent since, of course vitiated the right understanding of the book. I am persuaded that the Spirit of God intended that we should have among the gospels one that adheres to the simple order of the facts in giving our Lord's history. Otherwise, we must be plunged in uncertainty, not merely as to one particular gospel, but as lacking the means of rightly judging departures from historic order in all the others; for it is plain, that if there be ON THE GOSPELS. 155 no such thing as a regular order in any one gospel, we are necessarily deprived of all power of deter mining in any case when the events did really occur , which stand differently connected in the rest of the gospels. It is not in any way that one would seek what is commonly called a "harmony," which is really to obscure the perception of the special objects of the gospels. At the same time, nothing can be more certain than that the real author of the gospels, even God Himself, knew all perfectly. Nor, even to take the lowest ground, on the part of the different writers, is ignorance of the order in which the facts occurred a reasonable key to the peculiarities of the gospels. The Holy Ghost deliberately displaced many events and discourses, but this could not be through carelessness, still less through caprice, but only for ends worthy of God. The most obvious order would be to give them just as they occurred. Partly, then, as it seems to me, that we might be able to judge with accuracy and with certainty of the departures from the order of occurrence, the Spirit of God has given us in one of these gospels that order as the rule. In which of them is it found, do you ask ? I have no doubt that the answer is, spite of tradition, In the gospel of Mark. And the fact exactly agrees with the spiritual character of his gospel, because this also ought to have great weight in confirming the answer, if not in deciding the question. Any person who looks at Mark, not merely piece- 156 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES meal, though it is evident in any part, but, much more satisfactorily, as a whole, will rise from the consideration of the gospel with the fullest con viction that what the Holy Ghost has undertaken to give us in this history of Christ is His ministry. It is now so much a matter of common knowledge, that there is no need to dwell long upon a fact that is generally confessed. I shall endeavour to show how the whole account hangs together, and bears out this well-known and most simple truth — how it accounts for the peculiarities in Mark, for what is given us, and for what is left out ; and of course, therefore, for his differ.ences from the others. All this, I think, will be made clear and certain to any who may not have thoroughly examined it before. Here I would only observe, how entirely this goes along with the fact that Mark adheres to the order of history, because, if he is giving us the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, and particularly His service in the word, as well as in the miraculous signs which illustrated that service, and which were its external vouchers, it is * plain that the order in which the facts occurred is precisely that which is the most calculated of all to give us a true and adequate view of His ministry ; whereas it is not so, if we look at the object of either Matthew or Luke. In the former the Holy Ghost is showing us the re jection of Jesus, and that rejection proved from the very first. Now, in order to give us the right under standing of His rejection, the Holy Ghost groups facts ON THE GOSPELS. • 157 together, and groups them often, as we have had occasion to notice, entirely regardless of the time at which they occurred. What was wanted was a bright vivid view of the shameless rejection of the Messiah by His own people. It was needed, thereupon, to make plain what God would undertake in consequence of that rejection, that is to say, the vast economic change that would follow. It was necessarily the weightiest thing that had ever been or that could be in this world, the rejection of a divine Person who was at the same time "the great King," the pro mised expected Messiah of Israel. For that very reason, the mere order of the facts would be entirely insufficient to give proper weight to the object of the Holy Ghost in Matthew. Therefore the Spirit of God does what even man has wit enough to do, where he has any analogous object before him. There is a bringing together, from different places, persons, and times in the history, the great salient facts which make evident the total rejection of the Messiah, and the glorious change which God was able to introduce for the Gentiles in consequence of that rejection. Such is the object in Matthew ; and accordingly this accounts for the departure from mere sequence of events. In Luke, again, there is another reason that we shall find, when we come to details, abundantly con firmed. For therein the Holy Ghost undertakes to show us Christ as the One who brought to light all the moral springs of the heart of man, and at the 158 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES same time the perfect grace of God in dealing with man as he is; therein, too, the divine wisdom in Christ which made its way through this world, the lovely grace, too, which attracted man when utterly confounded and broken down enough to cast himself upon what God is. Hence, throughout the gospel of Luke, we have, in some respects, a disregard of the mere order of time equal to that which characterized Matthew. If we suppose two facts, mutually illus trating each other, but occurring at totally different times, . in such a case these two facts might be brought together. For instance, supposing the Spirit of God desired in our Lord's history to show the value of the word of God and of prayer, He might clearly bring together two remarkable occasions, in one of which our Lord revealed the mind of God about prayer — in the other, His judgment of the value of the word. The question whether the two events took place at the same time is here entirely immaterial. No matter when they occurred, they are here seen together; if put out of their occur rence, in fact, it is to form the justest order for illustrating the truth that the Holy Ghost meant us to receive. This general observation is made here, because I think it is particularly in place in introducing the gospel of Mark. But God has taken care to meet another point by the way. Man might take advantage of this depar- , ture from the historical order in some gospels, and ON THE GOSPELS. 159 the maintenance of it in others, in order to decry the writers or their writings. Of course, he is hasty enough to impute " discrepancy." There is no real ground for the charge. God has taken a very wise method to contradict and rebuke the credulous in credulity of man. As there are four evangelists, so He has arranged it that, of these four, two should adhere to historical order, and two should forsake it where it was required. Further, of these two, one was, and one was not an apostle in each case. Of the two evangelists, Mark and John, who generally maintain historical order, the most remarkable thread of events was not given by an apostle. Never theless, John, who was an apostle, adheres to the historical order in the fragmentary series of facts, here and there, in the life of Christ, that he gives us. At the same time that the gospel of John does not undertake to present a sketch of the entire course of Christ, Mark describes the whole career of His ministry with more particularity than any other. Hence it is that John practically acts as a kind of supplement, not to Mark only, but to all the evan gelists ; and we have, ever and anon, a cluster of the richest events, yet keeping to historical order. Not to speak of its wondrous preface, there is an intro duction that precedes the account given in the other gospels, filling up a certain space after His baptism, but before His public ministry. And then, again, we have a number of discourses which our Lord gave more particularly to His disciples after His public rela- 160 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES tions were over. These are all given, as it appears to me, in the exact order of their delivery, without any departure from it, save only that we find a parenthesis once or twice in John, which, if not seen there to be a parenthesis, wears an appearance of a departure from the succession of time; but of course a parenthesis does not come under the ordi nary structure of a regular sentence or series of things. This explanation, I trust, will help to a general understanding of the relative place of the gospels. We have Matthew and Luke, one of them an apostle, and the other not, both of whom are wont to depart from historical order very largely. We have Mark and John, one of them an apostle, and the other not, both of whom likewise, as a rule, adhere to historical order. God has thus cut off all just reason on men's part for saying that it is a question of knowing or not knowing the facts as they occurred, some being eye witnesses, and others learning the events, Sec, other wise. Of those that keep the order of history, one was, the other was not, an eye-witness; to those that adopt a different arrangement precisely the same remark applies. Thus it is that God has confuted all attempts of His enemies to cast the smallest discredit upon the instruments He has used. It is thus made apparent that (so far from the structure of the gospels being attributable in any way to ignorance on one side, or, on the other, to a competent knowledge of the facts), on the con- ON THE GOSPELS. 161 trary, he was no eye-witness who has given us the fullest, minutest, most vivid, and graphic sketch of the Lord's service here below; and this in small particulars, which, as every one knows, is always the great test of truth. Persons who do not com monly speak the truth can nevertheless be careful enough sometimes about great matters ; but it is in little words and ways where the heart betrays its own treachery, or the eye its lack of observation. And it is precisely in this that Mark triumphs so completely — rather, let me say, the Spirit of God in His employment of Mark. Nor was it that Mark had earlier been a worthy servant himself. Far from it. Who does not know that, when he began his work, he was not always fervent in serving the Lord ? We are told in the Acts of the Apostles that he deserted the great apostle of the Gentiles when he accom panied him and his cousin Barnabas; for such was the relationship, rather than that of uncle. He left them, returning home to his mother and Jerusalem. His associations were with nature and the great seat of religious tradition, which for a while, of course, ruined him, as it tends to ruin every servant of God who is similarly ensnared. Nevertheless, God's, grace overcomes all difficulties. So it was in the personal ministry of Mark, as we gather from the glorious work Mark was afterwards given to do, both in other ministry (Col. iv. 10 ; 2 Tim. iv. 11), and in the ex traordinary honour of writing one of the inspired accounts of his Master: Mark had not possessed M 162 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the advantage of that personal acquaintance with the facts which some of the other writers had enjoyed; yet is he the one through whom the Holy Ghost condescended to impart the minutest, and at the same time the most suggestive touches, if I may so say, that are found in any view vouchsafed us of the actual living ministry of our Lord Jesus. Indeed, such was the current of his own history, as forming him for the work he subsequently had to do; for while at first there was certainly that which looked uncommonly like a false start, afterwards, on the contrary, he is acknowledged by Paul most cordially, spite of early disappointment and rebuke; for his company had been absolutely refused, even at the cost of losing Barnabas, to whom the apostle had special grounds of personal attachment. Barnabas was the man who had first gone after Saul of Tarsus; for assuredly he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and thus the more willing to accredit the great grace of God in Saul of Tarsus, when the new convert was regarded with suspicion, and might have been left alone for a season. Thus Saul had known literally in his own history how little the grace of God commands confidence in a sinful world. After all this, then, it was that Mark, who had fallen under the censure of Paul, and had been the occa sion of separating Barnabas from that apostle — that very Mark afterwards completely retrieved his lost character, and the apostle Paul takes more pains by far to reinstate him in the confidence of the saints, ON THE GOSPELS. 163 than he had done personally to refuse association with him in the service of the Lord. Who, then, so fit to give us the Lord Jesus as the true servant? Choose whom you like. Go over the whole range of the New Testament; find out one whose own personal career so adapted him to delight in, and to become the suited vessel for the Holy Ghost to show us, the perfect Servant of God. It was the man that had been the faulty servant ; it was the man whom grace had restored and made to be a faithful servant, — who had proved how ensnaring is the flesh, and how dangerous the asso ciations of human tradition and of home ; but who thus, unprofitable at first for the ministry, became afterwards so profitable, as Paul himself took care to declare publicly and for ever in the imperishable word of God. This was the instrument whom God employed by the Holy Ghost to give us the grand lineaments of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely, as Levi the publican, the apostle Matthew was providentially formed for his task ; and. grace, condescending to look at all circumstances, never deigns to be controlled by them, but always, while working in them, nevertheless retains its own supre macy above them. Even so in Mark's case there was just as great an appropriateness for the task God had assigned him, as there was in the call of the earlier evangelist from the receipt of custom, and the choice of one so despised of Israel to show the fatal course of that nation, when the Lord turned M 2 164 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES at the great epoch of dispensational change to call in Gentiles and the despised of Israel themselves. But if there was this manifest fitness in Matthew for his work, it would be strange if there were not as much in Mark for his. And this is what we find in his gospel. There is no parade of circumstance ; there is no pomp of introduction even for the Lord Jesus Christ in this gospel, not even that style which is most rightly found elsewhere. It could not be that the Messiah of Israel was to enter among His chosen people, and be found in Israel's land, without due witness and clear tokens preceding His approach; and the God who had given pro mises, and who had established the kingdom, would surely make it manifest ; for the Jews did require a sign, and God gave them signs in abundance before the coming of the greatest sign of all. Thus it is that in the gospel of Matthew we have seen the amplest credentials from angels and among men of the Messiah, who then and there was born the King of the Jews, in Immanuel's land. But in Mark all this is with equal beauty absent ; and suddenly, without any other preparation than John preaching and baptizing — the voice of one crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord" — at once, after this, the Lord Jesus is found, not born, not the subject of homage, but preaching, taking up the work which John not long after laid down, as it were, on going to prison. That setting aside of the Baptist (ver. 14) becomes ON THE GOSPELS. 165 the signal for the public service of the Lord; and, accordingly, the service of Christ is thenceforward pursued throughout our gospel ; and first of all His Galilean service, which continues down to the end of chapter x. I do not purpose to-night to look even at the whole of this Galilean ministry, but to divide the subject matter as my time requires, and therefore I do not now limit myself to the natural divisions of the gospel, but simply follow it accord ing to chapters, as the occasion may require. We shall take it in two portions. In the opening section or preface (of verses 1-13), then, we have here no genealogy whatever, but very simply the announcement of John the Baptist. We have our Lord then ushered into His public ministry, and, first of all, His Galilean labours. As He walks by the sea, He sees Simon, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea. These He calls to follow Him. It was not the first acquaint ance of the Lord Jesus with these two apostles. At first sight it might seem strange that a word, even though it were the word of the Lord, should call these two men away from their father or their occu pation ; yet no one can call it unprecedented, as the call of Levi, already referred to, makes plain. Nevertheless, so it is that in the case of Andrew and Simon, as well as the sons of Zebedee, called about the same time, there was certainly previous ac quaintance with the Saviour. Two disciples of the 166 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Baptist, one of them Andrew, preceded his brother Simon, as we know from John i. But here it is not at all the same time or facts that are described in that gospel. In the call to the work, I have no hesitation in saying that Andrew and Simon were called before John and James ; but in the personal acquaintance with the Saviour, which we find in the gospel of John, it is evident to me, that an unnamed disciple (as I think, John himself) was before Simon. Both are perfectly true. There is not even the appearance of contradiction when the Scripture is rightly understood. Each of these is exactly in its proper place, for we have in our gospel Christ's ministry. That is not the theme of the gospel of John, but a far deeper and more personal subject; it is the revelation of the Father in the Son to man upon the earth. It is eternal life found by souls, and of course in the Son of God. This accordingly is the first point of contact which the Holy Ghost loves to trace in John's gospel. Why is all that entirely left out of Mark? Evidently be cause his province is not a soul acquainted for the first time with Jesus, the display of the won derful truth of eternal life in Him. Another subject is in hand. We have the Saviour's grace, of course, in all the gospels; but the great theme of Mark is His ministry. Hence it is, that not the personal so much as the ministerial call is the one referred to here. In John, on the contrary, where it was the Son made known to man by faith of the Holy ON THE GOSPELS. 167 Ghost's operation, it is not the ministerial call, but the previous one — the personal call of grace unto the knowledge of the Son, and eternal life in Him. This may serve to show that weighty lessons lie under that which a careless eye might count a com paratively trivial difference in these gospels. Well we know that in God's word there is nothing trivial; but what might at first sight seem so is pregnant with truth, and also in immediate relation to God's aim in each particular book where these facts are found. All things, then, they now forsake at the call of the Lord. It was not a question simply of eternal life. The principle, no doubt, is always true; but we do not in fact find all things thus forsaken in ordinary cases. Eternal life is brought to souls in the Christ who attracts them ; but they are enabled to glorify God where they are. Here it is all abandoned in order to follow Christ. The next scene is the synagogue of Capernaum. And there our Lord shows the objects of His mission here in two particulars. First there is teaching — " He taught them," as it is said, " as one that had authority, and not as the scribes." It was not tradition, it was not reason, not imagination, or the persuasible words of man's wisdom. It was the power of God. It was that, therefore, which was equally simple and sure. This necessarily gives authority to the tone of him who, in a world of uncertainty and deceit, utters with assurance the mind of God. It is a dishonour 168 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES to God and His word to pronounce with hesitation the truth of God, if indeed we know it for our own soids. It is unbelief to say "I think" if I am sure; nay, revealed truth is not only what I know, but what God has made known to me. It is to cloud and weaken the truth, it is to injure souls, it is to lower God Himself, if we do not speak with authority where we have no doubt of His word. But then it is plain that we must be taught of God before we are at liberty to speak thus confidently. But it is here to be noted, that this is the first quality mentioned in our Lord's teaching. This, I need not say, has a voice to us. Where we cannot speak with authority, we had better not speak at all. It is a simple rule, and abundantly short. At the same time.it is clear that it would lead to a great deal of searching of heart; but, I am no less per suaded, it would be with immense profit to ourselves and to our hearers. The second thing was not authority in teaching, but power in action ; and our Lord deals with the root of the mischief in man — the power of Satan, now so little believed in — the power of Satan over human spirits or bodies, or both. There was then in the synagogue — the very place of meeting, where Jesus was — a man with an unclean spirit. The demoniac cried out; for it was impossible that the power of God in the person of Jesus could be there without detecting him that was under the power of Satan. The bruiser of the serpent was there, the ON THE GOSPELS. 169 deliverer of the enthralled sons of Adam. The mask is thrown off; the man, the unclean spirit, cannot rest in the presence of Jesus. " He cried out, saying, Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth ? " In the most singular way he blends together the action of the evil spirit with his own — "What have we to do with thee? art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God." Jesus rebukes him. The unclean spirit tore him ; for it was right that there should be the manifestation of the effects of the evil power, restricted as it was before Him who had defeated the tempter. It was a profitable lesson, that man should know what the working of Satan really is. We have on the one side, then, the malig nant effect of Satan's power, and on the other the blessed benignant might of the Lord Jesus Christ, who compels the spirit to come out, amazing all that saw and heard, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, " What thing is this ? what new doctrine is this ? for with authority com- mandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." There was, we thus see, both the authority of truth, and also the power that wrought in outward signs accompanying. The next scene proves that it was not merely displayed in such acts as these: there was the misery and the maladies of man apart from the direct possession of the enemy. But virtue goes out of Jesus wherever there was an appeal of need. 170 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Peter's wife's mother is the first who is presented after he leaves the synagogue; and the marvellous grace and power blended in His healing of Peter's mother-in-law attracts crowds of sick with every evil ; so that we know all the city was come together at the door. " And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him." Thus, then, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is fully come. It is thus that he enters upon it in Mark. It is clearly the manifestation of the truth of God with authority. Divine power is vested in man over the devil, as well as over disease. Such was the form of the ministry of Jesus. There was a fulness in it naturally, one need scarce say, which was suitable to Him who was the head of ministry as well as its great pattern here below, no less than, as He is now, its source from His place of glory in heaven. But there is another notable feature in it, too, as contributing to fill this instructive introduc tory picture of our Lord's ministry in its actual exercise. Our Lord " suffered not the devils to speak, because "they knew Him." He refused a testimony that was not of God. It might be true, but He would not accept the testimony of the enemy. But positive strength is also requisite in depend ence on God. Hence we are told, " In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, ON THE GOSPELS. 171 and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." There, just as there, is the rejection of the enemy's testimony, so there is the fullest lean ing upon God's power. No personal glory, no title to power that attached to Him, was the smallest reason for relaxing in entire subjection to His Father, or for negleoting to seek His guidance day by day. Thus He waited on God after the enemy was vanquished in the wilderness, after He had proved the value of that victory in healing those oppressed of the devil. Thus engaged it is that Simon and others follow and find Him. "And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee." But this public attraction to the Lord Jesus was a sufficient ground for not returning. He did not seek the applause of man, but that which comes from God. Directly it came to be published, so to speak, the Lord Jesus retires from the scene. If all men sought Him, He must go where it was a ques tion of need, not of honour. Accordingly He says, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there; for therefore came I forth." He ever abides the perfect, lowly, dependent servant of God here below. No sketch can be more admirable, nowhere else can we see the perfect ideal of ministry com pletely realized. Are we, then, to assume that all this was set down at random ? How are we to account without a definite purpose for these various particulars and no 172 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES others swelling the picture of ministry ? Very simply. It was what God inspired Mark for. It was the Spirit's object by him. It is owing to a different design that we find other topics introduced else where. No other gospel presents even the same facts after such a sort, because no other is thus occupied with the Lord's ministry. Thus the reason is most plain. It is Mark, and he alone, who was led of God to put the facts together that bear upon Christ's ministry, adhering to the simple natural order of the facts related, omitting of course what did not illustrate the point, but among those which did, keeping the events as they followed one another. Christ is thus seen as the perfect servant. He was Himself showing what service of God is at the beginning of His ministry. He was forming others. He had called Peter, and James, and Andrew, and John. He was making them fishers of men — ser vants, too. And so it is that the Lord presents before their eyes, before their hearts, before their consciences, these perfect ways of grace in His own path here below. He was forming them after His own heart. Then, at the close of the chapter, the leper comes ; and, at the beginning of the next chapter, the paralytic man is brought. These we have had in Matthew, and we shall find the same in Luke. But here you will observe that the two cases are closer together. It is not so in Matthew, but in Luke. Matthew, as we saw, gave us the leper at ON THE GOSPELS. 173 the beginning of chapter viii., and the paralytic man at the beginning of chapter ix. Mark, who simply relates facts as they occur, introduced no thing between these two cases. They were, as I conceive, not long apart. The one followed soon after the other, and they are so introduced to us here. In the one, sin is viewed as the great type of defilement; in the other, sin is viewed as guilt accompanied by utter weakness. Man, utterly unfit for the presence of God, needs to be cleansed from his loathsome impurity. Such is the representation in leprosy. Man, utterly powerless for walk here below, needs to be forgiven as well as strengthened. Such is the great truth set forth in the paralytic case. Here too, with singular fulness, we have the picture of the crowds that were gathered round the door of the house, and the Lord, as usual, preaching to them. We have then a graphic picture of the palsied man brought in, borne by four. All the particulars are brought before our eyes. More than that : as they could not come nigh to Jesus for the press, the roof was uncovered, and the man is let down before the Lord's eyes. Jesus, seeing their faith, addresses the man, meets the unbelieving blasphemous thoughts of the scribes that were there, and brings out His own personal glory as Son of man, rather than as God. This latter was the great point in curing the leper ; for it was an axiom that God alone could cure a leper. Such was the acknowledgment of Israel's king at a remarkable point in their history; such 174 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES would have been the common confession of any Jew — "Am I God ? " This was the point there. God must act directly or by a prophet, as every Jew would allow, in order to cure leprosy; but, in the case of the palsied man, our Lord asserted another thing alto gether, namely, that " the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins." Then He proved His power over the most hopeless bodily weakness as a witness of His authority here below to forgive. It was the Son of man on earth that had power. Thus the one proved God had come down from heaven, and had really, in the person of that blessed Saviour, become a man without ceasing to be God. Such is the truth apparent in the cleansing of the leper; but in the paralytic healed, it is a different side of the Lord's glory. The servant of God and man in every case, here He was the Son of man that had power on earth to forgive the guilty, and prove its reality by imparted strength to walk before all. Then follows the call of the publican. "As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphseus, sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him." Next, the Lord is seen at a feast in the house of him who was thus called by grace, which excites hatred in the slaves of religious routine. " When the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples" — not to Him; they had not honesty enough for that — " How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners ? ON THE GOSPELS. 175 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick." It gave the Lord an opportunity to explain the true character and suited objects of His ministry. To sinners, as such, went forth the call of God. It was not the government of a people now, but the invitation of sinners. God had delivered His people once; He had called them His son too, and called His son out of Egypt ; but now it was a question of calling sinners, even if the words "to repentance" be given up as an interpolation derived from the corresponding passage in Luke, where its propriety is evident. The Lord gloried in the grace which He was ministering here below. As the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast, this is the next scene, raising the question of the character of those whom Jesus was sent to call. The narrative presents all this in a very orderly manner, but still adhering simply to the facts. Then comes the question of mingling the new principles with the old. This the Lord pronounces quite im possible. He shows that it was inconsistent to expect fasting when the Bridegroom was there. It would argue an entire unbelief in His glory, a total want of right feeling in those who owned His glory. It was all very well for people who did not believe in Him ; but if the disciples recognised Him as the Bridegroom, it were utterly incongruous to fast in His presence. Hence, our Lord takes the opportunity of pursuing 176 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the subject more deeply in the observation that "no man also sew eth a piece of new cloth on an old garment, else the new piece that filleth it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse." The forms, the outward manifestation of that which Christ was introducing, will not suit, and cannot mingle with the old elements of Judaism, still less will their inner principles consent. This He enters on next: "And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred : but new wine must be put into new bottles." Christianity demands an outward expression, agree able to its own intrinsic and distinctive life.* This theme is followed up by the two sabbaths, the first of these sabbath days bringing clearly out to view that God no longer owned Israel, and this because that Jesus was as much despised in this day as David had been of old. Such is the point referred to here. The disciples of Christ were starving. What a position! No doubt David and his men suffered lack in that day. What was the effect then as to the system which God had sanctioned ? God would not maintain His own ordinances in presence of the moral wrong to His anointed, and those that * Here is found one of the few exceptional dislocations, if not the only one, in Mark ; for it would appear from Matt. ix. 18, that while the Lord was speaking of the wine and the bottles the jailor Jairus canae about his daughter. This is only given in chap. v. by Mark. ON THE GOSPELS. 177 clave unto Him. His own honour was at stake. His ordinances, however important in their place, give way before the sovereign dispositions of His purpose. The application was evident. The Lord Jesus Christ was a greater than David ; and were not the followers of Jesus quite as precious as those of Jesse's son? If the bread of priests became com mon, when they of old were hungry, would God now hold to His sabbath when the disciples of Jesus lacked ordinary food? Besides, He adds, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath." Thus He asserts the superiority of His own person, and this as the rejected man ; and there fore the title, " Son of Man," is especially brought in here. But, then, there is more which comes out on the second sabbath day. There was the presence of bitter helplessness among men. It was not merely that the disciples of Jesus were in want, the witness of His own rejection, but in the synagogue He enters next was a man with a withered hand. How came this to pass ? What was the feeling that could plead the law of the sabbath to keep from healing a miserable human sufferer? Had Jesus no heart, because their eyes were only open to find in His love an occasion to accuse Him who felt for every sorrow of man upon the earth ? He was there with adequate power to banish all sorrow with its source. And therefore it is that our Lord Jesus, in this case, N 178 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES instead of merely pleading the case of the guiltless, goes boldly forward; and in the midst of a full synagogue, as He sees them watching that they might accuse Him, He answers the wicked thought of their heart. He gives them the opportunity they desired. "And he said to the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth." There was no conceal ment for a moment. "He saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil ? to save life, or to kill?" Was He not the perfect servant of God, that knows so well the times ? Here, then, instead of merely defending disciples, He challenges their wicked and evil thoughts in open congregation, and bore His witness that God's de light is not in holding to rules, when it would be for the hindrance of the displays of His goodness. Contrariwise, His act declares that no rules can bind God not to do good : His nature is goodness ; let man pretend ever such zeal for His own law to keep man wretched and hinder the flow of grace. God's laws were never intended to bar His love. They were intended, no doubt, to put a restriction upon man's evil, never to forbid God from doing His own good will. Alas ! they had no faith that God was there. And it is remarkable, though not noticed at the beginning of chapter i., that Mark does not enter upon the service of our Lord Jesus before presenting Him in verse 1 as the Son of God, followed by the application of the prophetic oracle, that He was really Jehovah. The only true servant was truly ON THE GOSPELS. 179 divine. What an illustrious testimony to His glory ! At the start this was well, and rightly ordered, and in place most suitable ; the more so as it is an un usual thought in Mark. And here let me make the remark in passing, that we have hardly any quota tion of Scripture by the evangelist himself. I am not aware that any positive case can be adduced, except in these prefatory verses of the gospel ; for chapter xv. 28 rests on too precarious authority to be fairly regarded as an exception. There are some not unfrequent quotations either by our Lord or to our Lord; but the application of Scripture about our Lord by the evangelist himself, so frequent in the gospel of Matthew, is almost, if not entirely, un known to the gospel of Mark. And the reason, I think, is very plain. What he had in hand was not the accomplishment of Scriptural marks or hopes, but the fulfilment of the Lord's ministry. What he therefore dwells on was not what others had said of old, but what the Lord Himself did. Hence it is that application of Scripture, and accom plishments of prophecy, naturally disappear where such is the theme of the gospel. However, again returning to the conclusion of the second sabbath day. Our Lord looks round about on these Sabbatarians with anger, being distressed, as it is said, at the hardness of their hearts, and then bids the man stretch forth his hand, which was no sooner done than it was restored. This goodness of God, so publicly and fearlessly wit- N 2 180 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES nessed by Him who thus served man, at once goads on to madness the murderous feeling of the religious leaders. It is the first point where, according to Mark's account, the Pharisees, taking counsel with the Herodians, conceived the design of killing Jesus. It was not fit that One so good should live in their midst. The Lord withdraws to the sea with His disciples ; and subsequent to this it is that, while He heals many, and casts out unclean spirits, He also goes up into a mountain, where He takes a new step. It is one point of change in Mark's gospel, a step in advance of all He had hitherto done. Following upon the design of the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy Jesus, the new measure He adopts is the sovereign call and ap pointment of the twelve, that He might in due time send them forth. Thus, He not merely calls them to be with Him, but He appoints them in a formal manner to the great mission on which they were to be sent out. The Lord now takes the conspiracy of two great enemies in Israel, the Pharisees and the Herodians, as an opportunity to provide for His work. He sees well in their hatred what was before Him; indeed, He knew it from the first, it need hardly be said. Still, the manifestation of their murderous hatred becomes the signal for this fresh step, the appointment of those that were to continue the work when the Lord should be no longer here in bodily presence Himself to carry it on. And so we have the twelve ; He ordains them, " that they might ON THE GOSPELS. 181 be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach," &c. Ministry in the word has always, the highest place in Mark — not miracles, but preaching. The healing of sickness and the casting out of the devils were signs accompanying the preached word. Nothing could be more complete. There is not only evidence that we see the servant depicted here, but that the servant was the Lord Himself, even as we saw in the beginning of this gospel. Thus there was the appointment of those He pleased to call for the due execution of His mighty work on the earth. At this juncture it is that we find His relatives so greatly moved when they heard of all — the crowds — no time to eat, &c. It is a remarkable and characteristic fact mentioned by Mark only. "When his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold of him: for they said, He is beside himself." It was mainly, I suppose, because of an entire devotedness which they could not appre ciate; for just before we are told, that "the multi tude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread." To His friends it was mere infatuation. They thought He must be out of His mind. It must be so, more particularly to one's relatives, where the powerful grace of God calls out and abstracts its objects from all natural claims. Such it always is in this world, and the Lord Jesus Himself, as we find, had no immunity from the injurious charge on the part of His friends. But there is more ; we have His enemies now, even the 182 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES scribes that came from Jerusalem. " He hath Beel zebub," say they, "and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." The Lord condescends to reason with them — " How can Satan cast out Satan ? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." But thereon our Lord most solemnly pronounces their doom, and shows that they were guilty — not of sin, as men say, but of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. There is no such phrase as sin against Him in this sense. People often speak thus, Scripture never. What the Lord denounces is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Keeping that distinctly in view would save many souls a great deal of needless trouble. How many have groaned in terror through fear of being guilty of sin against the Holy Ghost! That phrase admits of vague notions and general reasoning about its nature. But our Lord spoke definitely of blasphemous un forgivable sin against Him. All sin, I presume, is sin against the Holy Ghost, who has taken His place in Christendom, and, consequently, gives all sin this character. Thus, lying in the Church is not mere falsehood toward man, but unto God, because of the great truth that the Holy Ghost is there. Here, on the contrary, the Lord speaks of unfor givable sin (not that vague sense of evil which troubled souls dread as "sin against the Holy Ghost," but blasphemy against Him). What is this evil never to be forgiven? It is attributing the ON THE GOSPELS. 183 power that wrought in Jesus to the devil. How many troubled souls would be instantly relieved, if they laid hold of that simple truth ! It would dissipate what really is a delusion of the devil, who strives hard to plunge them into anxiety, and drive them into despair, if possible. The truth is, that as any sin of a Christian may be said to be sin against the Holy Ghost, what is especially the sin against the Holy Ghost, if there be anything that is so, is that which directly hinders the free action of the Holy Ghost in the work of God, or in His Church. Such might be said to be the sin, if you speak of it with precision. But what our Lord referred to was neither a sin nor the sin, but blas phemy against the Holy Ghost. It. was that which the. Jewish nation was then rapidly falling into, and for which they were neither forgiven then, nor will ever be forgiven. There will be a new stock, so to speak; another generation will be raised up, who will receive the Christ whom their fathers blas phemed ; but as far as that generation was concerned, they were guilty of this sin, and they could not be forgiven. They began it in the lifetime of Jesus. They consummated it when the Holy Ghost was sent down and despised. They still carried it on persistently, and it is always the case when men enter upon a bad course, unless sovereign grace deliver. The more that God brings out of love, grace, truth, wisdom, the more determinedly and blindly they rush on to their own perdition. So it 184 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES was with Israel. So it ever is with man left to himself, and despising the grace of God. " He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." It is the final stage of rebellion against God. Even then they were blaspheming the Son of Man, the Lord Himself; even then they attributed the power of the Spirit in His service to the enemy, as afterwards still more evidently when the Holy Ghost wrought in His servants ; then the blasphemy became complete. And this is, I suppose, what is referred to in principle in Hebrews vi. Hebrews x. seems to be different. There it is the case of a person who had professed the name of the Lord utterly abandoning Him, and giving loose rein to sin. This is another form of sin and destruction. In the case before us in the gospel of Mark, the enemies had shown their uncontrollable fury and hatred after the fullest evidence, and cast the worst imputation on the power they could not deny> but endeavoured to discredit to others by attri buting it to Satan. It was clear that any, all other. testimony after this was utterly vain. Hence, our Lord then turns to introduce the moral ground for a new call and testimony. The real object of God, the ulterior object in the service of Jesus, comes out. There was a testimony, and righteously, to that people in the midst of whom the Lord had appeared, where His ministry had displayed the mighty power of God in grace here below. Now our Lord inti- ON THE GOSPELS. 185 mates that it must be no longer a question of nature, but of grace, and this because of His mother and His brethren, who had been pointed out by some. "Behold," said they, "thy mother and thy brethren without seek thee. He answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them that sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." In short, He owns no one henceforth because of any connection with Himself after the flesh. The only ground of relation ship is the supernatural tie in new creation. Doing the will of God is the point. For this only grace avails : " the flesh profiteth nothing." Therefore, in the next chapter, we are given a sketch of His ministry from that time down to the very end. Such is the bearing of this chapter. It is the Lord's ministry in its great principles under that aspect, and viewed not only as a fact going on (as we have had ministry in general before this), but now in its connection with this special work of God. " Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth." Hence we see Him forming a people, founded upon submission to the will of God, and therefore by the preached word of God ; and this pursued to the very close of all, with a view of the difficulties of those engaged in that work, or in the midst of the trials from this world which always attend such a minis try. Such is the fourth chapter. Accordingly the 186 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES first parable (for He speaks in parables to the multi tude) is of a sower. This we have very fully given us with its explanation. Then follow some moral words of our Lord. " Is a candle," He says in the twenty^ first verse, "brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed ? and not to be set on a candlestick ? " It is not only that there is a word that acts upon the he"art of man, but there is a light given (that is, a testimony in the midst of darkness). The point here is not merely the effect on man, but the manifestation of the light of God. This therefore should not be put under a bed to be concealed. God does not in ministry merely consider the effect upon the heart of man ; there is much besides done for His own glory. There is the need not only of life, but of light ; and this is what we have first of all — light that germi nates far and wide, and seed producing fruit. Part of the scattered seed was picked up by the enemy, or in some other way less openly hostile it comes to nothing. But after the necessity of life is shown in order to fruit -bearing, we have then the value of light ; and this not only for God's glory, though the first consideration, but also for man's guidance in this dark world. " Take heed what ye hear." Not only is there thus the word of God sown everywhere, but " take heed what ye hear." There is a mingling of what is dark and what is light, a mingling of a false testimony with a true, more particularly to be remembered when the question is raised whether there is a light from God. These Christians in par-. ON THE GOSPELS. 187 ticular have need to take care what they hear. They only have discerning power, and this therefore is brought in most appropriately after the first founda tion is settled. In the next place comes a parable peculiar to Mark. There is no part of his gospel which more thoroughly illustrates it than this : " So is the king dom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of her self ; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." It is the Lord manifesting Himself at the beginning of the work of God in the earth, and then coming at the end of it, all the intermediate state where others appear being left out. It is the perfect servant inaugurating and consummating the work. It is the Lord Jesus at His first advent and at His second, in connection with ministry. He commences and crowns the work that had to be done. Where is anything like this to be found in other gospels ? Turn to Matthew, for instance, and what a difference ! There we have, no doubt, the Lord represented as sowing (Matt, xiii.) ; but when in the next parable the harvest at the end of the age is brought before us, He says to the reapers, &c. It is not Himself who is said to do this work, but in that gospel the design requires us to hear of the 188 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES authority of the Son of man. He commands His angels. They are all under His orders. He gives them the word, and they reap the harvest. Of course, this is perfectly true, as well as in keeping with God's aim in Matthew; but in the gospel of Mark the point is rather His ministry, and not authority over angels or others. The Lord is viewed as coming, and He does come ; so that the one is just as certain as the other. Supposing, then, you take this parable out of Mark and put it into Matthew, what con fusion! And suppose you transplant what is in Matthew into Mark, evidently there would not only be the rent of the one, but also the introduction of that which never would amalgamate with the other. The fact is, that all, as God has written it, is perfect ; but the moment these portions are con founded, you lose the special bearing and appropriate ness of each. After this we hear of the grain of mustard seed, which was merely to show the great change from a little beginning into a vast system. That intimation was all-important for the guidance of the servants. They were thereby taught that material magnitude would be the result, instead of the work of the Lord retaining its primitive simplicity and small extent, spiritual power being the real greatness and the only true greatness in this world. The moment anything, no matter what it may be, in the Lord's work be comes naturally striking before men's eyes, you may rely on it that false principles have somehow got a ON THE GOSPELS. 189 footing within. There is more or less that which savours of the world. And therefore was it of great importance that, if their worldly greatness was to come, there should be a sketch of the great changes to follow; and this you find given in such an orderly manner in Matthew. This was not Mark's object, but just enough for the guidance of the servants, that they should know that the Lord would surely accomplish His work, and do it perfectly; as He began it well, so would He end it well. But at the same time there would be no small change effected here below, when the little sowing of the Lord should grow into an aspiring object before men, as man loves to make it. "And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what com parison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth : but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches ; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." This, therefore, is the only parable that is added here ; but the Spirit of God lets us know that the Lord on the same occasion spoke a great many more. Others we have in Matthew, where full dis pensational light was specially called for. It was sufficient for the object of our gospel to give what we have seen here. Not even the leaven follows, as in Luke. But then, in the end of the chapter, we have 190 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES another instructive appendix. It is no new thing for man's work to mar, as far as can be, the Lord's work — to turn service into a means of lordship here below, and make great that which at the present time has its worth in refusing to part from the scorn and reproach of Christ. For the flock is not great, but Uttle : till He return, it is a despised work of a despised Master. We have the dangers to which those engaged in His work would be exposed. This, I think, is the reason why the record is here given of the tempest-tossed vessel in- which the Lord was, and the disciples, full of anxiety, trembled at the winds and the waves around them, thinking of them selves much more than of their Master. Indeed, they reproachfully turn to Him, and say, "Master, carest thou not that we perish ? " Such, alas ! are the servants — apt to be heedless of His honour, abundantly careful for themselves. " Master, carest thou not that we perish ? " It was little faith ; but was it not little love too ? It was an utter forgetful ness of the glory of Him who was in the vessel. It did, however, bring out the secret of their hearts — they at least cared for themselves : a dangerous thing in the servants of the Lord. Oh, to be self- sacrificing ! to care for nothing but Him ! At any rate the comfort is this — He does care for us. The Lord accordingly rises at that call, selfish as it might be, of glaring unbelief; yet His ear heard it as the call of believers, and He pitied them. "He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, ON THE GOSPELS. 191 be still." The wind ceased, and there was a great calm; so that even the shipmen feared exceedingly in the presence of such power; and said one to another, "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" The next chapter (v.) opens with a highly import ant incident connected with ministry. Here it is a single case of a demoniac, which makes the details all the more striking. In point of fact, we know from elsewhere that there were two. The gospel of Matthew, not in this only, but in various other cases, speaks of two persons; as, I suppose, because this fact fell in with his object. It was a recognized principle in the law, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word should be established; and he among the evangelists on whom, so to speak, the mantle of the circumcision fell, — he it was who, speaking in view of the circumcision, gives the re quired testimony for the guidance of those in Israel that had ears to hear. Nothing of the kind was before Mark. He wrote not with any special aim of meeting Jewish saints and Jewish difficulties; but, in truth, rather for others that were not so circum scribed, and might rather need to have their pecu liarities explained from time to time. He evidently had humanity before him as wide as the world, and therefore singles out, as we may fairly gather, the more remarkable of the two demoniacs. There is ao-ain no thought here of delineating the destinies of Israel in the last days, without denying an allusion 192 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES typically here to that which is fully drawn out there. But I apprehend -the special object of this chapter is to trace the moral effects of Christ's ministry, where it is brought home in power to the soul. We have, therefore, the most desperate case possible. It is neither a leper nor a paralytic ; nor is it simply a man with an unclean spirit. Here is the minute specification of a case more appalling than any we can find elsewhere in the gospels, and none describes it with such power and intense naturalness, or so circumstantially, as our evangelist. " When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains." All human appliances but proved the superior might of the enemy. " Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces : neither could any man tame him." What a picture of dreary wretchedness, the companion of desolation and of death ! "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones." Utter degradation, too, weighed him down, the cruelty of degradation such as Satan loves to inflict upon man that he hates. " But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God ? I ON THE GOSPELS. 193 adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou un clean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name ? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion : for we are many." Again the same trait, one may just remark, appears here as before — a most singular identifying of the evil spirit with the man. Sometimes it would seem as if it was but one, sometimes a kind of manifold personality. " He besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country." And the Lord accordingly casts the unclean spirits into the swine, which were destroyed. However, it is not only deliverance, as we saw in Matthew, but there is the moral result on the soul. The people of the country come — for now it is the testimony of the effects of ministry; they come to Jesus, and seeing him that was possessed of the devil and ' had the legion, sitting and clothed and in -his right mind, they were afraid; and they that saw it told them how it befell him that was possessed of the devil, and also concerning the swine. Mark their unbelief! Man showed that he cared less for Jesus than for Satan or the swine. " When he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him" — the natural impulse of a renewed heart, true of every saint of God. There is no believer, I care not how feeble he may be, who does not know this desire, unless he lose the sweet simplicity of truth, or, it may be, stifled by bad doctrine, such as putting o 194 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES him under law, which always produces fear and anxiety. But when a man is not poisoned by misuse of law, or other corrupt teaching, the first simple impulse of him who knows the love of Jesus is to be with Him. This is one reason why all Christians are spoken of as loving His appearing. (2 Tim. iv.) Nor is it only a desire to be with Him, but that His glory should be made good everywhere. The soul right well knows that He who is so precious to the heart only needs to be known to others, only needs to be manifested before the world, to bring in the only power of blessing that can avail for such a world as this. In the case before us, however, our Lord suffers him not. He shows that, .no matter how true and right and becoming might be this sentiment of grace in the heart of the delivered man, still there is a work to be done. Those that are delivered are them selves to be deliverers. Such is the beneficent .charac ter and aim of the ministry of Jesus. If Jesus does His work, if He breaks the power of Satan that none else can touch, it is not merely that the delivered one should have his heart with Him, and forthwith desire to go and be with Him. In itself, indeed, it is due to his love, and it could not but be that he who has been taught of God what Jesus is, should long to be where He is. But as Jesus pleased not Him self, coming to serve God here below, so his sphere of service is in the place where he could tell others the great things which had been done for him. ON THE GOSPELS. 195 Accordingly the Saviour meets him with the words, " Go home to thy friends." ' Mark it well, dear brethren; we are apt to for get the injunction. It is not merely, Go to the world, or, Go to every creature; but, "Go home to thy friends." How* comes it that there is such difficulty, often, in speaking to our friends ? Why is it that persons who are bold enough with strangers, are so timid before their household, relatives, connections ? It often tells a tale which it is well to bear in mind. We shrink from the comparison which our friends are so apt and sure to make ; who test our words — however clear, and good, and sweet — by that which they have such abundant means of ascertaining in our daily ways. An inconsistent walk makes a coward, at least, before " our friends." It would be well if it really had the effect of humbling us before all. Were there genuine lowliness with fidelity before God, there would be courage, not only before strangers, but before " our friends." Here, however, the point simply amounts to this : The Lord would spread the message of grace, would send him to make it known to his friends ; for it was clearly they who had best known in his case the awful and degrading power of Satan. They would, of course, be most interested in the men who were his familiars ; and therefore there were special reasons, I doubt not, for it. For us, too, it is a good thing to bear it in mind. Not that a saved soul should only go to his friends ; but it remains ever true and good o 2 196 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES that the secret of grace in the heart should send us to our friends, to make it known to those who have known our folly and sins, that they may hear of the mighty Saviour we have found. "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him." How sweet this identification of "Jesus" with "the Lord." " How great things the Lord hath done for him." The Saviour put it forth in the most general way, I believe, in uttering these words without special allusion to Himself. The man, on the other hand, I cannot doubt, was perfectly right. How often, when it may appear that there is a want of literal exactitude, in interpreting "the Lord" of '' Jesus," there is in truth a better carrying out of the mind of God. Mere literabsm would have held slavishly to the letter of the Lord's language. But oh ! how much deeper, and, withal, more glorifying to God it was, when the man saw underneath that great mys tery of godliness— the Lord in the servant's garb. He who was pleased to take the form of a servant was none the less the Lord. "He went and told how great things Jesus had done for him." Then follows the account of the Jewish ruler of the synagogue, who fell at the feet of Jesus, and besought Him greatly to heal his dying daughter. Having dwelt on the scene elsewhere, I need say the less here. The Lord goes with him, intimating His ON THE GOSPELS. 197 specified ministry in Israel — a work which goes down to the reality of death, under which they would be shown really to lie. But the Shepherd of Israel could raise from the dead. This seems to be the bearing of the case before us, and not a mere general inroad upon Satan's power, which became the occasion and justification, if one may so speak, of carrying victoriously the glad tidings of God's king dom and goodness to man. This was true of the Lord's ministry even while on the earth, the place where Satan reigns. His temptation in the wilder ness proved Him stronger than the strong man, and therefore He spoils his goods, delivering the poor victims of Satan, and making them to be the captors of him whose captives they were. But here we find that his heart, far from being turned away from Israel, yearned over their need, deep as it was. The call of Jairus is no sooner made than He goes to answer it. He alone could wake out of death's sleep the daughter of Zion ; yet, ineffable grace ! while on the road He is open to everybody. In the throng through which He had to pass was a woman having an issue of blood. It was a desperate case ; for she had suffered much, and tried many physicians in vain. Such is the hapless lot of man away from God ; human aid avails not. Where is the man who has had to do with what is in the world, and would not at once acknowledge the justice of the pic ture, the powerlessness of man in the presence of the deepest wants ? But this was just the opportunity 198 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES for One who, even as man ministering here below, wielded the power of God in His love. Jesus was the true and unfailing servant of God; and the woman, instead of seeking good from man as he is, and thus suffering more and more by the very efforts made to benefit her, unseen in the press behind, touches the garment of Jesus. " For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up ; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague." To have banished her ailment would have been too little for Jesus ; for He is a perfect Saviour, and therefore is a Saviour not only for the body that had suffered so long, but for the soul's affections and peace. She got a better blessing than she sought. He not only staunched the issue of blood, but filled her trembling heart with confidence instead of the fear that had possessed her before. Nothing would have been morally right had she gone away with the reflection that she had stolen some virtue from Jesus. Emphatically banishing, then, all dread from her spirit, He says to her, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." That is, He seals to her with His mouth the blessing which, as it were, her hand would else have seemed to have taken surreptitiously from Him. Then, in the end of the chapter, the Lord is in the presence of death ; but He will not allow death to abide His presence. " The damsel," said He, (and how true it was !) "is not dead, but sleepeth." Just ON THE GOSPELS. 199 so the Spirit says believers are asleep ; as, " Those that sleep in Jesus God brings with him." Here typically Israel is viewed according to the mind of God. Unbelief may weep, and wail, and create all sorts of tumult, and with little feeling after all ; for it can equally even then laugh Jesus to scorn. But as for Him, He suffers none to enter but chosen ones — Peter, and James, and John, along with the parents. "And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep ? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn." So the Lord takes the damsel by the hand, after He had turned the others out, and straightway at His word she arises, and walks. "And they were astonished with a great astonish ment. And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat." Why in this gospel more than any other does the Lord Jesus thus enjoin silence? I conceive it is because Mark's is the gospel of service. The truth is, brethren, service is not a thing to be trumpeted by those engaged in it, or their friends. Whatever is from God, and is done toward God, may be safely left to tell its own tale. It is what God gives and does, not what man says, that is the real point of holy service. Observe here, too, how the Lord, at least,- perfect in every thing, not only does the work, but besides tenderly cares for her. There is the considerate goodness of the Lord to be remarked, that "something should be 200 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES given her to eat." In every matter, even in what might seem the smallest, Jesus took an interest. Thus He bore in mind that the maiden had been in this state of trance, and was exhausted. Whatever be the occasion that calls it forth, is it not the greatest of all things for our hearts to know how Jesus cares for us ? In chapter vi. we have our Lord again — now thoroughly despised. Here He is "the carpenter." It was true ; but was this all ? Was it " the truth ?" Such was man's estimate of the Lord of glory ; not merely the carpenter's son, but here, and here only, He is Himself the carpenter, — "the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judah, and Simon. Are not his sisters here with us ? And they were offended at him." Beautifully, too, you may remark that, where there was this unbelief, our Lord would not remove it by dazzling feats of power, because there would have been no moral worth in a result so produced. He had given already abundant signs to unbehef ; but men had not profited by them, neither was the word that He spake mixed with faith in them that heard it. The consequence is, that " He could there do no mighty work ;" as here only it is recorded — yes, of the man before whom no power of Satan, no disease of man, nothing above, or below, or beneath, could prove the very smallest difficulty. But God's glory, God's will governed all ; and the display of perfect power was in perfect lowliness of obedience. Therefore this blessed One ON THE GOSPELS. 201 could there do no mighty work. It is needless to say that it was no question of power as to HimseK It was not in any wise that His saving arm was shortened; not that there was no virtue in Him longer, but there was the lovely blending of the moral glorifying of God with all that was wrought for man. In other words, we have not here the mere setting forth of the power of Jesus, but the gospel of His ministry. Therefore it is a weighty part of this, that because of unbelief He could do no mighty work there. He was really serving God ; and if man only was seen, not God, no wonder that He could do no mighty work there. Thus, that which at first sight seems strange, the moment you take it in connection with the object of God in what He is revealing, all becomes striking, plain, and instructive. And now He proceeds to act upon that appoint ment of the twelve, whom we saw, in chapter iii., He had ordained. "He called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth." It was in presence of the thorough contempt which had just shown itself that He gives them their mission. It was only when the extremest scorn fell on Him, so that He could do no mighty work there. He replies, as it were, in the most gracious and also conclusive manner, that it was from no lack of virtue, because He sends them two and two on their new and mighty errand. He that could communicate power, then, to a number of men — the twelve — to go forth 202 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES and do any mighty work, certainly did not Himself want intrinsic energy, nor was it from any want of power to draw upon in God. Jesus invests them with His own power, as it were, and sends them out in all directions as witnesses, but witnesses of the ministry of Jesus. They were servants called after His own fashion ; and so He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; they were to go forth in the faith of His resources. Therefore, anything of human means would have been contrary to the very intention. In a word, we must remember that this was a special form of service suitable to that moment, and, in point of fact, rescinded by our Lord afterwards in very important particulars. In the gospel of Luke, we have carefully given us the change that takes place when the Lord's hour was come. It was not only that it was an hour come for Him, but it was a crisis for them, too. They had thenceforward to encounter a great change, because of the character of utter rejection, and, indeed, of suffering, on which the Lord was entering. He therefore cast them upon the ordinary resources of faith, using such things as they had ; but as yet it was not so. On the contrary, the witnesses of Jesus to Israel were then going forth. It was in the- face of unbelief against Himself, but unbelief answered by the fresh outflow of grace on His part, sending out messen gers with extraordinary powers from Himself all over the land. And so He told them where to go, ON THE GOSPELS. 203 and "what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive- you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. And they went out, and preached that men should repent" — a very important feature here added. John preached repentance ; Jesus preached repentance, as did these apostles. And be assured, beloved friends, that re pentance is an eternal truth of God for this time as much as for any other. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that the change of dispensation weakens (I will not say merely the place of repent ance for every soul that is brought to God, but) the duty of preaching repentance. We are not to leave it after a perfunctory sort, contenting ourselves with the assurance, that if a person believes, he is sure to repent ; we ought to preach repentance, as well as to look for repentance in those who profess to have re ceived the gospel. At any rate, it is equally clear that the Lord preached it, and that the apostles were to do and did the same. " They preached that men should repent, and they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." Then we have Herod appearing upon the scene; and Herod, I take it, represents in Israel the power of the world — its usurping power, if you please. However this be, there he was in point of fact, the 204 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES holder of the world's power in the land, and ever, though not without qualms and struggles in the end, thoroughly opposed to the testimony of God. He was really hostile to it, not merely in its fullest forms, but at bottom also, in its first appearance and most elementary presentation. He had no love for the truth ; he might like the man who preached it well enough, and at first hear him gladly ; he might have many anxieties about his soul before God, and know perfectly well that he was doing wrong in his ordinary life; but, still, the devil managed to play the game so well, that although there was personal affection, or respect, at least, for the servant of God, the disastrous end comes, as it always will, when there is a fair trial in this world. No respect, no kindly feeling for any one or anything that is of God, will ever stand when Satan is allowed to work, and is thus free to accomplish his own deadly plan of ruining or thwarting the testimony of God. This is what those engaged in the ministry of Christ must expect to see attempted, and will do well to resist. If this be the point, as I apprehend, the reason of its introduction here is not obscure. The Lord was sending out these chosen vessels. In the presence of this new action of His in the work, we learn how the world feels about it ; not merely the ignorant world, nor the religious parties with their chiefs, but the highly cultivated profane world. And this is the way in which they treat it. They have the outward power which Satan finds means to make ON THE GOSPELS. 205 them use. They kill the witness of God. It may be only a wicked woman who stirs them up to do the deed; but be not deceived. It was not a question of Herodias merely. She was but the tool by which the devil brought it about: he has his own parti cular way; and in this case we have not only the circumstances, solemn as they are, but the spring of all in the opposition of Satan to God's testimony. The issue of it is, that if wicked men have power to kill, even if reluctant, he whose they are somehow compels them to use their power, when the opportu nity arises. Fear of man, and notions of honour, are strong where God is unheeded : what may not follow where there is no conscience ? That old serpent can manage to entrap the most prudent, just as Herod here fell into the trap. For his word to a wicked woman, passed in presence of his lords, John's head was struck off, and produced in a charger. The apostles come to our Lord after their mission, and tell Him the result of their mission; or as it is said here, " told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught." It was not very safe ground : it were better to have spoken of what He had taught, and what He was doing. As, how ever, the Lord corrects all most graciously, He takes them away into a desert place, and there He is found unwearied in His love. A hungry multitude was there. These disciples, only a little while before so full of what they had taught, and what they had done — was it not a worthy emergency for their '206 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES labours now? Could they not help in the present distress ? They seem not so much as to have thought of it. Alone, at any rate, in this scene, our Lord Jesus brings out in the plainest possible manner their utter failure. Mark the lesson well. It is especially, when there was somewhat of boastfulness, after they had been occupied with their own doings and teachings. Then it is that we find them thus powerless. They were at their wits' ends. They did not know what to do. Strange to say, they never thought of the Lord ; but the Lord thought of the poor multitudes, and in His richest grace not only spread a table and fed the people, but makes the feeble disciples themselves to be the dispensers of His bounty, as afterwards they must gather up what remained. After this, again, we find them exposed to a storm, and the Lord, joining them in their troubles, brings them safely, and at once, to the desired haven. Therein follows the scene of joy where Jesus is recognized, and the abundant blessing that attended His every footstep where He moved. As surely as Jesus thus blessed the poor world then, such and far more will He prove Himself at His return after the world will have done its worst. I do not doubt that this carries us to the end, when the Lord Jesus will rejoin His people after their manifold and sore troubles, after all their proved weakness, as well as exposure to outward storms. As He was in the place He had visited, so He will be in the ON THE GOSPELS. 207 universal diffusion of power and blessing, when the tempest-tost disciples shall have come safe to land. But then there is another view necessary also in connection with ministry; we need to learn the prevalent feeling of the religious powers. Accord ingly we have the traditionist in collision with Christ, as we had in the last chapter Herod with John the Baptist. Here it is the accredited leaders from Jerusalem, the scribes, before whom our Lord brings the most convincing evidence, that the prin ciple and practice of their cherished traditions demoralise man and dishonour the word of God. The reason of the evil is manifest — it is from man. This is enough; for man is a sinner. There is nothing really good but what is from God. Show me anything from fallen man which is not evil. Tradition, as being man's supplement, is always and necessarily evil. The Lord puts it together with what He afterwards brings out — the condemnation of man's heart in all its depravity. There it is not only the mind of man, but the working of his corrupt feelings. This is not the time to dwell on this well known chapter, and the contrast it furnishes of Christ's display of God's all-perfect grace toward the greatest possible need — the wo man who came to Him on account of her de moniac daughter. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophcenician by nation, who besought Him to cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But the Lord, trying her faith in order to give her a richer blessing, 208 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES not only accomplishes what she desires, but puts the seal of His approval in the most striking manner upon her personal faith. "And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed." Next we come to another tale, finishing the chap ter, and strikingly characteristic of our gospel — the case of one deaf and dumb, whom Jesus met as He departed from these quarters into Galilee. "And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech ; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him." Here again the Lord shows us a beautiful sample of considerateness and tender goodness in the manner of His cure. It is not only the cure, but the manner of it, that we have so strikingly brought out here. Our Lord takes the man aside from the multitude. Who could intermeddle with that scene between the perfect servant of God and the needy one ? " He puts his fingers into his ears." What would He not do to prove His interest? "And he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed." As He weighed the distressing results of sin, what a bur den was upon His heart ! It is a particular instance of the great truth we saw in Matthew the other night. With Jesus it was never bare power relieving man, but always His spirit entering into the case, feeling its character in God's sight, and its sad con- ON THE GOSPELS. 209 sequences for man too. The whole was borne upon His heart, and so, as here, He sighs, and bids the ears be opened. "And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man : but the more be charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it ; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well." Such might be the motto of Mark. The utterance of the multitude, of those that saw the fact, is just what is illustrated through out the entire gospel. "He hath done all things well." It was not only that there was the power fully adequate to accomplish all He undertook, but "He hath done all things well." He is the perfect servant everywhere, and under all circumstances, whatever may be the need. "He hath done all things well : he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak." The next (chap, viii.) must be our last chapter now, on which I will just say a word or two before closing. We have once more a great multitude fed ; not the same, of course, as before. Here, not five thousand were fed, but four thousand; not twelve baskets of fragments remained over, but seven. There were outwardly less limits, and a less residue ; but observe that seven, the normal number of per fection spiritually, is here. I consider, therefore, that contrariwise, and viewed as a figure, this was still p 210 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES more important than the'other. There is no greater mistake in Scripture — and, indeed, it is true in moral questions — than to judge of things by their mere appearances. The moral bearing of anything you please is always of more importance than its physical aspect. In this second miracle the number fed was less, while the original supply was greater, yet the remainder gathered up was less. Appa rently, therefore, the balance was greatly in favour of the former miracle. The truth is really this, that in the former case the intervention of men was prominent; here, though He may employ men, the great point is the perfectness of His own love, sympathy, and provision for His people, no matter what the need. It appears, therefore, that the seven has a deeper completeness than the twelve, both being significant in their place. After this our Lord rebukes the disciples for unbelief, which comes out strongly now. The greater His love and compassion, the more perfect His care, the more painfully, alas ! unbelief betrays itself even in the disciples, and yet more in others. But our Lord performs another cure, the record of which is peculiar to Mark. At Bethsaida, a blind man was brought. The Lord, for the express pur pose, it seems to me, of showing the patience of ministry according to His mind, first touches his eyes, when partial sight follows. The man con fesses in reply, that "he saw men like trees walking;" and the Lord applies His hand a second ON THE GOSPELS. 211 time. The work is done perfectly. Thus, not only did He heal the blind, but He did it well — a further illustration of what has been already before us. If He puts His hand to accomplish, He does not take it away until all is complete, according to His own love. The man then saw with perfect distinct ness. Thus all is in season. The double action proved the good Physician; as His acting so effec tive, whether by word or hand, whether by one application or by two, proved the great Physician. The close of the chapter begins to open the faith of Peter in contrast with the unbelief of men, and even with what had been working among the disci ples before. Now, things were hurrying on rapidly to the worst. Peter's confession was therefore the more seasonable. The account differs very strik ingly from what is found in Matthew. Peter is represented by Mark as saying simply, "Thou art the Christ;" while in Matthew the words are, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Hence you have no such thing in Mark as, " Upon this rock I will build my church." The Church is built not exactly on the Christ or Messiah as such, but on the confession of "the Son of the living God." Hence we may see how beautifully the omissions of Scripture hang together. The Holy Ghost inspired Mark to notice no more than a part of the confession of Peter, and thus there is only a part of the blessing mentioned by our Lord. The highest homage to our Lord in Peter's con- p 2 212 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES fession being omitted, the great change then at hand, which displays itself in the building of the Church, is consequently quite left out of Mark. There our Lord simply charges them that they were not to tell any man of Him, the Christ. What an end of the testimony of His presence! The reason, too, is most affecting: "The Son of man must suffer many things," &c. Such is the portion of Him, the true servant. He is the Christ, but it is no use to tell the people so any more; they have heard often, and will not believe it. Now He is going to enter upon another work : He is going to suffer. It is His portion. "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes,, and be killed, and after three days rise again." After this point, He begins, in view of the trans figuration, to announce His approaching death. He gives it most circumstantially. He would guard His servants from supposing that He was in any wise taken by surprise by His death. It was an expected thing. It was what He knew, perfectly and circumstantially, before the elders and scribes did. The very people that were going to cause it knew nothing about it. They planned rather the reverse of the actual circumstances of His death. Still less did they know anything about His resur rection; they did not beheve it when it came to pass; the Jews covered it up by a lie. But Jesus knew all about both, and now first breaks the tidings to His ON THE GOSPELS. 213 disciples, intimating that their path must lie through the same pathway of suffering. Christ's suffering is here viewed as the fruit of the sin of man, which accounts for the fact, that there is not a word said about atonement here. There never was a greater misconception in looking at Scripture than to limit our Lord's sufferings to atonement: I mean upon the cross, and in death. Certainly, atonement was the deepest point in the sufferings of Christ, and one can understand how even Christians are apt to overlook all else in atonement. The reason why believers make atonement everything is because they make themselves everything. But if they were not unbelieving believers, they would see that there is a great deal more in the cross than the atonement; and surely they would not think less of Jesus if they were to see more the extent of His grace, and the profundity of His sufferings. Our Lord does not speak of His death here as expiating sins. In Matthew, where He speaks of giving His life a ransom for many, of course there is atonement substantially. Christ expiates their sins, and this I call atonement. But here, where He speaks of being killed by men, is that atone ment? It is painful that Christians should be so shut up and confused. Were not God dealing in judgment with the Saviour of sinners, there would have been no atonement. His rejection by men, though taken from God, is not the same thing. And, beloved friends, this is a more important and 214 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. more practical question than many might be apt to think; but I must defer further remarks for the present. We have before us a new subject — the glory which our Lord immediately after speaks of in connection with His rejection and sufferings. F. MARK IX. -XVI. The transfiguration, as a matter of fact witnessed by the eyes of chosen witnesses, introduces natu rally the great change that was about to be effected by the mighty power of God; for that wondrous scene was the passing vision of a glory that shall never pass away. Therein certain disciples were admitted to a sight of the kingdom of God coming with power, founded upon the rejection of Christ by man, and the maintenance and manifestation by-and-by of the power of that Jesus rejected of man, but glorified by God. Of course, our Lord's ministry had this double character. It was, as is everything in Scripture, presented to human respon sibility before its result is established on God's part. There was every evidence and proof that man could ask; there was every moral manifestation of God ; but man had no heart for it. Hence the only effect of such a witness was the rejection of Christ and of God Himself as thus morally represented here below. What, then, will God do ? Surely He will make good His counsel by His own power; for 216 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES nothing fails that is of Him, and every testimony of His must accomplish its aim. But then God waits; and, even before He lays the foundation for that great work of establishing His own king dom and power, He gives a sight of it to those whom He is pleased to elect. Hence it is that the transfiguration was a kind of bridge, so to speak, between the present and the future, confronting men even now with God's plans ! It is really the intro duction, as far as a testimony and even a sample could go with believers, of that kingdom which should be set up and displayed in due time. Not that the rejection of Christ ceases after this, but, on the contrary, goes on up to the cross itself. But in the cross, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see, by faith, the issue com plete; man's rejection on the one side, and God's foundation actually laid on the other. Notwith standing a testimony to it was on this holy mount brought before the sight of the disciples according to the sovereign choice of our Lord, He takes even out of the chosen twelve a chosen few to be the witnesses of His glory. But this gives it a very important and emphatic place in the synoptic gospels, which bring before us the Galilsean pro gress of Christ; more particularly in the point of view of ministry we have this in our gospel. The Lord having then taken up James and John, as well as Peter, was transfigured before these disciples. The glorified men, Elias with Moses, ON THE GOSPELS. 217 are seen talking with Him. Peter lets out his lack of appreciation of the glory of Christ, and the more remarkably, because only in the scene imme diately before Peter had in striking terms testified to Jesus. But God must show that there is but One faithful witness ; and the very soul that stood out brightly, we may say, for a little moment in the scene that preceded the transfiguration, is the same that manifests the earthen vessel more than any other in the transfiguration. "It is good," says Peter, "for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." It is evident, that although he might put the Saviour at the head of the three, he counted the others to be in a measure on a level with Him. At once we see the cloud over shadowing, and hear the voice out of it which maintains supreme undivided glory for the Son of God. "This" (says the Father; for He it was who spoke) — " this is my beloved Son : hear him." You will observe that in Mark there is an omission. We have not here the expression of complacency. In Matthew this was made, prominent, as we know. In his chap. xvii. it is, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." I apprehend the reason was to set this in the most absolute contrast with His rejection by the Jewish people. So again, in the gospel of Luke, we have the testimony of Christ being God's Son on the ground of hearing Him rather than Moses or Elias. 218 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES " This is my beloved Son," he says : " hear him," omitting the expression of the Father's complacency in Him. Assuredly He was always the object of the Father's delight; but still there is not always the same reason for asserting it. Whereas, on comparing the testimony in 2 Peter i., there is an omission of "hear him" found in the three gospels. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is evident that the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ over the law and the prophets is not the point in Peter. The reason, I think, is obvious. That question had been already decided : Christianity had come in. It was .not the point here to claim for Christ a place above the law and the prophets, but to show simply the glory of the Son in the eyes of the Father, and His delight or loving satisfaction in Him ; just as after wards he makes it plain that in all the word of God the one object of the Holy Ghost is Christ's glory; for holy men of old spake as they were moved of Him. Scripture was not written by man's will ; rather, God had a great purpose in His word, which was not met by the transient appli cation of certain parts of it to isolated facts, to this person ot to that. There was one grand unit ing bond throughout all prophecy of Scripture. The object of it all was this— the glory of Christ. Separate prophecy from Christ, and you divert the stream of the testimony from the person of Him to whom that testimony is most due. It contains not ON THE GOSPELS. 219 mere warnings about peoples, nations, tongues, or lands ; about facts providential, or otherwise ; about kings, empires, or systems in the world: Christ is the Spirit's object. So on the mount we hear the Father there witnessing to Christ, who supremely was the object of His delight. The kingdom was ensampled there; Moses also, and Elias; but there was One object pre-eminently before the Father, and that object was Jesus. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The point was not exactly hearing Christ, but hearing the Father about Him, so to speak. Such was the emphatic object here ; and therefore, as I believe, are the words "hear him" omitted. In Matthew we have the fullest form of all, which the more enforces the call to hear Him. Luke gives the "hear him," but the expression, both in Mark and Luke, of personal complacency was not so much the ruling aim. Of course, there were common points in all, but I just notice this for a little passing moment to illustrate their differences. Then we find, without dwelling upon all the particulars, that our Lord tells the disciples that the vision was to be kept hid till the rising from the dead. His own resurrection would introduce an entirely new character of testimony. Then it was that the disciples could make manifest, without hindrance, this great truth. The Lord was thus teaching them their total incapacity, until that great event brought in a new work of God, the 220 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES basis of a new and unrestricted testimony, old things being passed away, and all things made new to the believer. This, I think, was very important, if we look at the disciples here as called to service. It is not in man's power to take up the service or the testi mony of Christ as he will. From this is evident the weighty place that the rising from the dead holds in Scripture. Outside Christ sin reigned in death. In Him was no sin ; but, until the resur rection, there could not be a full testimony rendered to His glory or His work. And so in point of fact it was. After this follow, passingly, a notice of the difficulties, -which shows how truly our Lord had measured their incapacity; for the disciples were really under the influence of the scribes themselves at this time. At the foot of the mountain another scene opens. At the top we have seen, not the kingdom of God only, but the glory of Christ ; and, above all, Christ as the Son, whom the Father proclaimed now as the One to be heard beyond the law or the prophets. This the disciples never did understand till the re surrection ; and very manifest is the reason, because the law had naturally its place till then, and the prophets came in as corroborating the law and main taining its just authority. The raising from the dead does not in any wise weaken either the law or the prophets, but it gives occasion to the display of a superior glory. However, at the foot of the moun- ON THE GOSPELS. 221 tain there is an awful evidence to present facts, just after the sample of what is to come. Meanwhile, before the kingdom of God is established in power, who is the potentate that influences men and that reigns in this world ? It is Satan. In the case before us most manifest was his power — a power that the disciples themselves could not eject from the world because of their unbelief. Here, again, we see how manifestly service is the great thought all through this gospel. The father is in distress, for it was an old story; it was no new thing for Satan to exercise this power over man in the world. From his childhood such was the case ; even as from the earliest day it was the history of man. In vain had the father appealed to those that bore the name of the Lord in the world ; for they had wholly failed. This drew out from our Lord Jesus a severe reproof of their unbelief, and especially for the reason that they were His servants. There was no straitness in Him ; no stint of power on His part. It was really unbelief in them. Hence He could only say, when this manifestation of -the weakness of the disciples was brought before Him, "0 faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you ? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him ; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." For the Lord would not hide the full extent of the power of Satan, but allows the child to be torn by his power before their eyes. 222 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES There could be no question that the spell was un broken up to this. The disciples had in no way subdued, suppressed, or crushed the power of Satan over the child. " And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child." It was really the history of this world in contrast with the new creation. Of the world, or rather kingdom, of God, a vision at least had just been seen in the transfiguration. Thus the chapter is first of all founded upon the announced death of Christ in utter rejection, and the certainty of God's introducing His . kingdom of glory for the Christ rejected of men. In the next place, the uselessness or impossibility of testifying the transfiguration till the rising from the dead is affirmed : then it would be most timely. Lastly follows the evidence of what the power of Satan really is before the kingdom of God finally comes in power, where the testimony of it even was unknown. The fact is, that under the surface of this world viewed by the disciples, and brought to light by the presence of our Lord Jesus, there is this complete subjection of man from his earliest days, as it is said. The power of Satan over man is too plain, and the servants of the Lord only proved how powerless they were, not from any defect of power in Christ, but because of their own lack of faith to draw it out. The Saviour at once proceeds to act, letting the man see that all turns on faith. In the meantime, what Christ brings into evidence is the ON THE GOSPELS. 223 power that deals with Satan before the kingdom is estabhshed. Such is the testimony at the foot of the mountain. The kingdom will surely in due time be established, but meanwhile faith in Christ defeats the enemy's power. It is beyond doubt that this was the true want and only remedy. Faith in Him alone could secure a blessing ; and so, accordingly, the father tremblingly appeals to the Lord in his distress. "Lord," he says, "I believe; help thou mine unbelief." " When Jesus then saw the people running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him." The work was done. Apparently the child was no more ; but the Lord " took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose." In the house He gave the disciples another profitable lesson in the way of ministry. Such, then, it is easy to see, is the point that comes out here. The Lord shows that, along with the unbelief, is the lack of the sense and confession of dependence on God. This alone also judges the energy of nature. "This kind," he says, "goes not forth, but by prayer and fasting." While the power is in Jesus, faith alone draws it out; but that faith is accompanied by the sentence of death upon nature, as well as the looking up to God, the only source of power. Next, we have another lesson, still connected with the service of the Lord, while the power of Satan is 224 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES at work in the world, before the kingdom of God is established. We must learn the state of these ser vants' own hearts. They desire to be something. This falsifies their judgments. They departed thence, and passed into Galilee ; and He would not that any man should know it. For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, "The Son of man is dehvered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him ; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying." At first sight how singular, yet how frequent, is this lack of ability to enter into the words of Jesus ! To what is it owing ? To self unjudged. They were ashamed to let the Lord know what the true reason was ; but the Lord brings it out. He came to Capernaum, and being in the house He asked them, "What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?" "But they held their peace; for by the way they bad disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest." No wonder there was little power in the presence of Satan; no wonder there was little un derstanding in presence of Jesus. There was a dead weight behind — this spirit of thinking of themselves, of desiring some distinction to be seen and known of men now. It was evident unbelief of what God feels, and is going to display, in His kingdom. For there is but one thought before God — He means to exalt Jesus. They were thus quite out of commu nion with God about the matter. Not only had those failed who were not on the mount, but just as ON THE GOSPELS. 225 plainly James, Peter, and John, all had failed. How little has special privilege or position to do with the humility of faith ! This, then, is the true secret of powerlessness, either as against Satan, or for Jesus. Further, the connection of all this with the service of the Lord must, I think, be manifest. But there is another incident, too, peculiar to Mark, of which we hear directly after this. The Lord rebukes them by taking a child, and thence reading them humility. What a withering censure of their self -exaltation! Even John proves how little the glory of Christ, which makes one content to be nothing, had entered into his heart now. The day is coming when it would all take deep root there — when they would really gather everlasting profit from it ; but for the present it was the painful demonstration that there is something more needed than the word even of Jesus. So it is, then, that John immediately after this turns to our Lord, com plaining of some one that was casting out demons in His name — the very thing they had failed to do. "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name." Was not this, then, a matter for thankfulness of heart to God ? Not a bit of it ! Self in John took fire at it, and became the mouthpiece of the strong feeling which animated them all. " Master, we saw" — not "/" merely; he spake for all the rest. "We saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he fol lowed not us : and we forbad him, because he follow eth not us." It is evident, then, that no previous 226 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES reproof had in any way purged out the self-exalting spirit, for here it was again in full force ; but Jesus said, "Forbid him not." Another most weighty lesson in the service of Christ is this. The question here is not one of dishonour done to Christ. None in this case contemplates or allows any act whatever contrary to His name. On the contrary, it was a servant going forward against the enemy, believing in the efficacy of the Lord's name. Had it been a question of enemies or false friends of Christ, over throwing or undermining His glory, he that "is not for bim is against him; and he that gathereth not with him scattereth abroad." Wherever it is a ques tion of a true or a false Christ, there cannot be a compromise of one jot of His glory. But where, on the contrary, it was one who may have been unin telligent, perhaps, and who certainly had not been so favoured in point of circumstances as the dis ciples, yet who knew the value and efficacy of His name, Jesus graciously shields him. "Forbid him not : for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part." He certainly had faith in the Lord's name ; and by faith in that name he was mighty to do what, alas ! disciples were feeble to do. It was evident that there was a spirit of jealousy, and that the power which manifestly wrought in one who had never been so privileged outwardly as they, instead of humbling the disciples to think of their own shortcoming and lack of faith, ON THE GOSPELS. 227 led even John to cast about for some fault to find, some plea for restraining him whom God had honoured. Hence, our Lord here brings out an instruction, not of course at variance with, but totally different from what we had in Matthew xii. 30. Their dis tinctive use in the right time and circumstances, I cannot but hold to be by no means unimportant. Mark's, you will remember, is the gospel of service ; and it is the question of ministry here. Now the power of God in this does not depend upon position. No matter how right (that is, according to God's will) •the position may be, that will not give ministerial power to the individuals who are in the truest position. The disciples, of course, were in an un impeachable place as following Christ — there could be nothing more certainly right than theirs ; for it was Jesus that had called them, gathered them round Himself, and sent them out clothed with a measure of His own power and authority. For all that, it was evident that there was weakness in practical manifestation. There was a decided want of faith in drawing upon the resources of Christ, as against Satan. They were, then, quite right in cleaving to Christ, and in following none other; they were right in abandoning John for Jesus ; but they were not right in letting any reason hinder their acknowledgment of God's power, which wrought in another who was not in that blessed position which was their privilege. Accordingly our Lord Q 2 228 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES rebukes this narrow spirit sternly, and lays down a principle seemingly counter, but really harmonious. For there is no contradiction in the word of God here, or anywhere else. Faith may rest assured that nothing in Matthew xii. opposes Mark ix. No doubt at first sight there might appear to be such a differ ence; but look, read again, and the difficulty vanishes. In Matt. xii. 30 the question was totally different. " He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." There it was a question of Christ Himself — of the glory and the power of God in Jesus here below. The moment it comes to be a question of His person, assailed by adversaries, then he that is not with Christ is against Christ. Do persons allow anything to lower His person now ? All questions are secondary in com parison with this, and any one who is indifferent to it would deliberately take the part of the enemy against Christ. He who would sanction the dis honour of Jesus proves, no matter what his preten sions may be, that he is no friend of the Lord, and that Ms work of gathering can but scatter. But in the mind of the Lord given in Mark, wholly different matter was before them. Here it was a question of a man who was exalting Christ accord ing to the measure of his faith, and certainly with no inconsiderable power. The disciples, therefore, in this case ought to have acknowledged and de lighted in the testimony to Christ's name. Granted that the man was not so favoured as they; but ON THE GOSPELS. 229 surely the name of Christ was exalted in desire and in fact. Had their eye been single, they would have owned that, and thanked God for it. And here, therefore, the Lord impresses on them a lesson of another kind altogether : " He that is not against me is for me." Thus, wherever it is a question of the Spirit's power put forth in Christ's name, it is evident that he who is thus used of God is not against Christ; and if God answers that power, and uses it for the blessing of man and the defeat of the devil, we ought to rejoice. Need I say how applicable both these lessons are ? We know, on the one hand, that in this world Christ is rejected and despised. Such is the main ground work of Matthew. Accordingly, in chap, xii., we have Him not merely the object of loathing, but this even to those who had the outward testimony of God at that time. Hence, no matter what may be the reputation, the traditional respect or reve rence of men; if Christ be dishonoured, they that prize and love Him can have no fellowship for an instant. On the other hand, take the service of Christ, and in the midst of all that bears the name of Christ around, there may be those whom God employs for this or that important work. Am I to deny that God makes use of them in His service ? Not for an instant. I acknowledge the power of God in them, and thank Him ; but this is no reason why one should abandon the blessed place of follow ing Jesus. I say not, "following us," but "following 230 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Him." It is evident that the disciples were occu pied with themselves, and forgot Him. They were wishing ministry to be their monopoly, instead of a witness to Christ's name. But the Lord puts everything in its place; and the same Lord who in Matt. xii. insists on decision for Himself, where His enemies had manifested their hatred or con tempt of His glory, is no less prompt in the gospel of Mark to indicate the power that had wrought in the ministry of His unnamed servant. "Forbid him not," says He; "for he that is not against me is for me." Was he against Christ who used, on John's own showing, His name against the devil? The Lord thus honours, in any quarter or measure, the faith that knows how to make use of His name, and gain victories over Satan. Hence, therefore, if God employs any man — say, in winning sinners to Christ, or delivering saints out of the bondage of wrong doctrine, or whatever else the snare may be — Christ owns him, and so should we. It is a work of God, and homage to Christ's name, though not a ground, I repeat, for making light of following Christ, if He have graciously accorded such a privi lege. It is a most legitimate ground, no doubt, for humbling ourselves, to think how little we do as entrusted with the power of God. Thus we have to maintain Christ's own personal glory, on the one hand, always holding that fast ; we have, on the other hand, to acknowledge whatever ministerial power God is pleased in His own sovereignty to ON THE GOSPELS. 231 employ, and by whomsoever. The one truth does not in the slightest degree interfere with the other. Further : let me draw your attention now to the appropriateness of the place of the incident in this gospel. You could not transpose either it or the solemn word in Matthew. It would altogether mar the beauty of the truth in both. On the one hand/ the day of despising and rejecting Christ is the day for faith to assert His glory; on the other hand, where there is the power of God, I must acknow ledge it. I may have been myself rebuked for my own lack of power just before ; but, at least, let me own God's hand wherever it is manifest. Our Lord follows this up with a remarkably solemn instruction, and in His discourse shows that it was no question merely of "following us," or of anything else, for a time. Now, no doubt, the disciple follows Him through a world where stum bling-blocks abound, and dangers on every side. But more than that, it is a world into the midst of whose snares and pitfalls He deigns to cast the Hght of eternity. Hence it was not a mere question of the moment; it was far beyond the objects of party strife. Our Lord, therefore, strikes at the root of what was at work in the mistaken disciples. He declares that whosoever gives a cup of water in His name — the smallest real service rendered to need — "because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward." Yet more, it was not merely a question of rewards on the one 232 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES side, but of eternal ruin on the other. They had better look to themselves while they yet may. Flesh is a bad and ruinous thing. No matter who or what the person may be, man is not safe in himself, espe cially, let me add, when in the service of Christ. There is no ground where souls are more apt to get astray. It is not merely in questions of moral evil. There are men that pass us, and that, so to speak, run the gauntlet of such seductions un scathed; but it is quite another and a very much more dangerous thing, where, in the professed ser vice of the Lord, there is the nursing of that which is offensive to Christ, and grieves the Holy Ghost. This lesson comes out, not merely for saints, but also for those that are still under sin. " If thy hand offend thee, cut it off: if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out." Deal unsparingly with every hindrance, and this on the simplest moral ground; most urgent, personally, and imminent is the peril they entail. These things would test a man, and sift whether there be anything in him Godward. The end of Mark ix. reminds one of the end of 1 Cor. ix., where the apostle Paul, no doubt also speaking about service, deepens in his tone of warn ing, and intimates that service may often become a means of detecting not state only, but unreality. There may not be open immorality in the first instance, but where the Lord is not before the soul in constant self-judgment, evil grows apace out of nothing more than ministry, as, indeed, the fact ON THE GOSPELS. 233 proved among the Corinthians; for they had been thinking much more about gift and power than about Christ; and with what moral results? The apostle begins by putting the case in the strongest way to himself; he supposes the case of his own preaching ever so well to others, but abandoning all care about holiness. Occupied with his gift and others, such an one yields without conscience to that which the body craves after, and the con sequence is total ruin. Were it Paul, he must become a castaway, or reprobate (*. e., disapproved of God). The word is never used for a mere loss of reward, but for absolute rejection of the man himself. Then, in chapter x., he applies the ruin of the Israelites to the danger of the Corinthians themselves. Our Lord in this very passage of Mark similarly warns. He deals with the slight which John put upon one that was manifestly using the name of Christ to serve souls, and defeat Satan. But John had unwittingly ignored, if not denied, the true secret of power altogether. It was really John that needed to take care — holy and blessed man as he was. There was an evident mistake of no ordinary gravity, and the Lord proceeds from this to the most solemn warning that He ever gave in any discourse that is recorded of Him. No other sets eternal destruction more manifestly before us in any part of the gospels. Here, above all, we are admitted to hear continually ringing in our 234 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ears the awful dirge, if I may so call it, over lost- souls: "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." On the other hand, our Lord turns the occasion also to the profit of His own, though this too be a solemn warning. Hence ob serve, before the subject closes, how He lays down grand principles that involve the whole of this ques tion. Thus we are told, " Every one shall be salted with fire." It is well to remember that grace does not hinder this universal test of every soul here below. "Every one," says He, "shall be salted with fire;" but besides that, "Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." These are two distinct things. No child of man, as such, can escape judgment. "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgment." The judgment, in one form or another, must be the portion of the race. When ever you look at what is universal, man, being a sinner, is an object for divine judgment. But this is far from the whole truth. There are those here below who are delivered from God's judgment even in this world — who have even now access into His favour, and rejoice in hope of His glory. What then of them? They that hear Christ's word, and believe Him who sent the Saviour, have eternal life, and enter not into judgment. But are they not put to the proof? Assuredly they are; but it is upon another principle altogether. " Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." It is clearly not a ques tion there of a mere sinful man, but of that which ON THE GOSPELS. 235 is acceptable to God ; and, therefore, not salted with fire, but salted with salt. Not that there is not that which tests and proves the ground of the heart in those that belong to God ; but even so their special nearness to Him is borne in mind. Thus, whether it be the general dealing in a judicial manner with man, with every soul as such ; whether it be the special case of such as belong to God (i.e., every sacrifice acceptable to God, as brought in by Christ on the foundation of His own great sacrifice), the principle is as clear as it is compre hensive and sure for every one; not only for every sinner, but for every believer, however truly accept able to God by Jesus Christ our Lord. With the glorified saints, although it be not, of course, the judgment of God, certainly there is no concealment of the truth, though there is that also which God in His grace makes to be mighty to preserve; not pleasant, it may be, but the preservative energy of divine grace with its sanctifying effects. This, I think, is what is meant by being " salted with salt." The figure of that well known antiseptic does not leave room for the pleasant things of nature with all their evanescence. "Salt," says our Lord, "is good." It is not an element which excites for a moment, and passes away; it has the savour of God's covenant. "Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it?" How fatal is the loss ! How dangerous to go back ! " Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with 236 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES another;" that is, have purity first, then peace mutually, as the apostle James, too, exhorts in his epistle. Purity deals with nature, and resists all corruption; it preserves by the mighty power of God's grace. Following this, but of no worth with out it, is " peace one with another." May we possess this peace also, but not at the cost of intrinsic purity, if we value God's glory ! This closes, then, our Lord's ministry — the con nection of ministry, as it appears to me, with the transfiguration. That manifestation of the power of God could not but impress a new and suited charac ter upon those concerned. In the next chapter our Lord introduces other topics, and very strikingly, because it might be hastily gathered, that if all is founded upon death and resurrection, and is in view of the coming glory, such a ministry as this must take no account of re lationships which have to do with nature. The very reverse is the case. It is precisely when you have the highest principles of God brought in, that every thing God has ever owned on the earth finds its right place. It was not when God gave the law, for instance, that the sanctity of marriage was vindi cated most. Every one ought to know there is no relationship so fundamental for man on earth — there is nothing that so truly forms the social bond — as the institution of marriage. What is there naturally in this world so essential for domestic happiness and personal purity, not to speak of the various other ON THE GOSPELS. 237 considerations, on which all human relationships so much depend ? And yet it is remarkable that, during the legal economy, there was the continual allowance of that which enfeebled marriage. Thus, the per mission of divorce for trivial reasons, I need not say, was anything but a maintenance of its honour. Here, on the contrary, when in Christ the fulness of grace came, and, more than that, when it was re jected, when the Lord Jesus Christ was announcing that which was to be founded upon His approaching humiliation unto death, and when He was expressly teaching that this new system could not be, and was not to be, proclaimed until His own rising from the dead, He also insists on the value of the various relations in nature. I admit the connection with the resurrection is only shown in Mark ; but, then, this points out the true import of it, because Mark natu rally indicates the importance of that epoch and glorious fact, for the service of Christ in testimony, for bringing the truth out to others. Here, however, the Lord having disposed of that which was eternally momentous, having traced it up to the end of all this passing scene, having shown the results for those that have no part nor lot in the matter, as well as for such as enjoy the grace of God in its preservative force, namely, those that belong- to Christ, now takes up the relation of these new principles to nature, to what God Himself acknow ledged in what you may call the outside world. The Lord here, then, stands up as the vindicator, 238 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES first of all, of the relationship of marriage. He teaches that in the law, important as it was, Moses did not assert the vital place of marriage for the world. On the contrary, Moses permitted certain infractions* of it because of Israel's state. "For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother." That is, even the nearest other relationship, so to speak, disappears before this relationship. " For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, there fore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." To this it came ; but for this most simple yet thorough exposition of God's mind, we are in debted to the Lord Jesus, the great witness of grace, and of eternal things, now connected with His own rejection and the kingdom of God coming with power, and the setting aside of the long spell of the devil. It is the same Jesus who now clears from the dust of ruin God's institutions even for the earth. A similar principle runs through the incidents that follow here. " They brought young children to him, that he should touch them : and his disciples rebuked those that brought them." Had His followers drank deeply into that grace of which He was full, they would, on the contrary, have estimated very differ ently the feeling that presented the infants to their ON THE GOSPELS. 239 Master. The truth is that the spirit of self was yet strong ; and what so petty and narrow ? Poor, proud Judaism had tinctured and spoilt the feehngs, and the little ones were despised by them. But God, who is mighty, despiseth not any ; and grace, under standing the mind of God, becomes an imitator of His ways. The Lord Jesus rebuked them; yea, it is said, "He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God." In both these particulars, so all-imporfiant for the earth, we find the Lord Jesus Christ proving that grace, far from not giving nature its place, is the only thing that vindicates it, according to God. Another lesson follows, in a certain sense even more emphatic, because more difficult. It might be thought that God's mercy occupies it specially with a child. But let us suppose an unconverted man, and one, too, Kving according to the law, and in great measure satisfied with his fulfilment of its obligations, what would the Lord say of him?. How does the Lord Jesus Christ feel about such a one ? " When he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." The man was totally in the dark ; he had no saving knowledge of God ; he had no knowledge really of man ; he had no sense of the true glory of Christ ; 240 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES he did honour Him, but merely as one differing in degree from himself. He owned Him to be a good Master, and he wanted to glean what he could from Him as a good disciple. He put himself, therefore, so far on a level with Jesus, assuming his compe tency to carry out the words and ways of Jesus. It is evident, therefore, that sin was unjudged, and that God Himself was unknown in the heart of this young man. ' The Lord, however, brings , out his state fully. "Thou knowest the commandments," He says, putting expressly forward those duties that touch human relations. "He answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth." The Lord does not refuse his statement — raises no question how far he had fulfilled the second table. On the contrary, it is added, that "Jesus, beholding him, loved him." Many find a serious difficulty in that assertion of the Spirit of God. To my own mind it is as instructive as it is beautiful Not that the man was converted, for he was clearly not; not that he knew the truth, for the difficulty arises from the fact that he was a stranger to it ; not that the man was following Jesus, for, on the con trary, we are told that he went away from Jesus; not that his heart was made happy in God's grace, for in truth he turned back sorrowing. There was the deepest reason, therefore, to Tegard him with pain and anxiety, if you judged the man according to what was eternal. Nevertheless, it remains true that Jesus looked upon him, and beholding him, loved him. ON THE GOSPELS. 241 Is there nothing in this which traverses ordinary evangelicalism ? An important lesson for us, I can not doubt. The Lord Jesus, from the very fact of His perfect perception of God and His grace, and the infinite value of eternal life before His Spirit, was free enough, and above all that crowds human judgment, to appreciate character and conduct in nature, to weigh what was conscientious, to love what was lovable in man simply as man. So far from grace weakening, I am persuaded it always strengthens such feelings. To many, no doubt, this might seem strange ; but they are themselves the proof of the cause that hinders. Let them examine and judge whether the word does not reveal what is here drawn from it. And let it be noted that we have this emphatic statement, too, in the gospel which reveals Christ as the perfect servant; which gives us, therefore, to know how we are to serve wisely as we follow Him. Nowhere do we see our Lord bringing it out so distinctly as here. The same truth substantially is given in Matthew and in Luke ; but Mark gives us* the fact the He " loved him." Nor do Matthew and Luke say a word about there being the perception of the reason why the Lord thus loved the young man : only Mark tells us that, " behold ing him," Christ loved him. Of course, that is the great point of the case. The Lord did admire what there was naturally lovely in a man that had been preserved providentially from the evil of this world, and sedulously trained in the law of God, in which R 242 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES he had hitherto walked blamelessly, even desiring to learn from Jesus, but without divine conviction of his own sinful lost estate. Certainly the Lord did not deal with either the narrowness or the roughness which we so often betray. Indeed we are, alas ! poor servants of His grace. The Lord far better knew* and far more deeply felt than we, the state and danger of the young man. Nevertheless there is much for us to weigh in this, that Jesus, beholding him, loved him. But, further, " He said unto him, One thing thou lackest." But what a thing it was ! " One thing thou lackest." The Lord denies nothing that he could in any way or ground commend ; He owns everything that was naturally good. Who could blame, for instance, an obedient child ? a benevolent and conscientious life ? Am I, therefore, to attribute all this to divine grace ? or to deny the need of it ? No ! these things I own as a boon belonging to man in this world, and to be valued in their place. He that says they have no value whatever slights, to my mind, evidently, the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, he who would make this, or any thing of the sort, a means of eternal life, evidently knows nothing as he ought to know. Thus the subject calls, no doubt, for much delicacy, but for what will find a true recognition in Jesus, and in the blessed word of God, and nowhere else. Our Lord therefore says, " One thing thou lackest : go thy way, sell what soever thou hast, and give to the poor." Is not this ON THE GOSPELS. 243 what Jesus had done, though in* an infinitely better way? Certainly He had given up all things, that God might be glorified in the salvation of lost man. But if He had emptied Himself of His glory, how infinite were the results of that humiliation unto death itself ? The young man wanted to learn something of Jesus; but was he prepared to follow even in the earthly path of the Crucified ? was he willing only to have the thing he lacked supplied ? to be a witness of divine self-renunciation in grace to the wretched ? to abandon treasures on earth, content to have treasure in heaven ? If he had done this, how ever, Christ could not but ask more; even as here He adds, "And come, take up the cross, and follow me." The Saviour, as we may thus see, goes not before the light of God ; He does not anticipate what would be brought out in a day that was at hand. There is no premature announcement of the astonish ing change which the gospel in due time made known ; but the heart was fully tested. Man in his best estate is proved to be lighter than vanity, com pared with Him who alone is good ; and this revealed in Christ, His only adequate image and expression. Yet could He who thus (not to speak of the un fathomable depths of His cross) distanced man look on this young man with love, as He beheld him, spite of evident shortcoming. Still, whatever he was, this did not in the smallest degree take the man out of the world. His heart was in the creature, R 2 244 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES yea, even in the unrighteous mammon : he loved his property, i. e., himself, and the Lord in His test dealt with the root of the evil. And so the result proved. For it is said, " He was sad at that saying, and went away grieved : for he had great possessions." Now, it appears to me that our Lord's way of dealing is the perfect pattern ; and first in this, that He does not reason from that which was not yet revealed by God. He does not speak of His own bloodshedding, death, or resurrection. They were not yet accom plished, and it would have been quite unintelhgible. Not one of the disciples themselves knew anything really, though the Lord had repeatedly spoken of it to the twelve. How was this man to understand ? Our Lord did what was of all importance — He dealt with the man's own conscience. He spread before him the moral value of what He had done Himself, giving up all that one had. This was the last thing the young man thought of doing. He would have liked to have been a benefactor — a. generous patron ; but to give up everything, and to follow Christ in shame and reproach, he was in no way prepared to do. The consequence was, that on his own ground the man was left perfectly convicted of stopping short of good brought before him in the good Master to whom he had appealed. What the Lord may have done for him afterwards is a matter for the Lord to tell. As it is not revealed in the word, it is not for us to know ; and it would be vain and wrong to conjecture. What God has shown us here ON THE GOSPELS. 245 is, that no matter what the extent of moral follow ing the law, even in a most remarkable case of outward purity and. of apparent subjection to the requirements of God, all this does not deliver the soul, does not make a man happy, but leaves him perfectly miserable and far from Christ. Such is the moral of the rich young ruler, and a very weighty one it is. Next, our Lord applies the same principle to the dis ciples ; for now He has done with the outward question. We have seen nature in its best estate seeking Christ in a sense; and here is the result of it: after all the man is unhappy, and leaves Jesus, who now looks upon His disciples in their utter bewilderment, and enlarges on the hindrance of wealth in divine things. Alas ! this they had thought to be an evi dence of God's blessing. And if they were only rich, how much good might they not do ! " How hardly," says Christ, "shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God!" He further says to them, already astonished, "Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." The Lord insists only the more solemnly on this lesson, so little understood even by disciples. They, beyond measure surprised, say among themselves, "Who, then, can be saved?" which gives the Lord the opportunity to explain what lies at the bottom of 246 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the whole question; that salvation is a question of God, and not of man at all. Law, nature, riches, poverty — no matter what, that man loves or fears — has nothing in the least to do with the saving of the soul, which rests entirely on the power of God's grace, and nothing else : what is impossible for man is possible with God. All turns, therefore, on His grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Blessed be His name ! with God all things are possible : Otherwise how could we, how could any, be saved ? Peter then begins to boast a little of what the disciples had given up, whereon the Lord brings in a very beautiful word, peculiar to Mark. " There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold." Be it noted that only Mark mentions "and the gospel's." It is service that is so prominent here. Others may say, "for His sake;" but here we read, "for my sake, and the gospel's." Thus the value of Christ personally is, as it were, attached to the service of Christ in this world. Whosoever, then, is thus devoted, He says, "shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." It is a wonderful conjunction, but most true, because it is the word of the Lord and the reckoning of faith. All things that Christ possesses are ours who ON THE GOSPELS. 247 believe in Him. No doubt such a tenure does not satisfy the covetous heart; but it is a deep and rich satisfaction to faith, that, instead of wanting something to distinguish self by, one has the com fort of knowing that all the Church of God possesses on the earth belongs to every saint of God on the earth. Faith does not seek its own, but delights in that which is diffused among the faithful. Un belief counts nothing its own, save what is for selfish use. If, on the contrary, love be the prin ciple that animates me, how different ! But then there is an accompaniment — "with persecutions." These you must have somehow, if you are faithful. They that will live godly cannot escape it. Am I only to have it in that way because they have it ? It is better to have it myself in the direct following of Christ. In His warfare, what can be so honourable a mark ? But it is a mark that is found especially in the service of Christ. Here, again, we see how thoroughly Mark's character is preserved throughout. " But many that are first shall be last, and last first," we find solemnly added here as in Matthew. It is ,tiot the beginning of the race that deeides the con test; the end of it necessarily is the great point. In that race there are many changes, and withal not a few slips, falls, and reverses. The Lord then goes on to Jerusalem, that fatal spot for the true prophet. Man was wrong in aver ring that never a prophet had arisen in Galilee ; for, indeed, God left Himself not without witnesses even 248 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES there. But assuredly the Lord was right, that no prophet should perish out of Jerusalem. The re hgious capital is exactly the place where the true witnesses of God's grace must die. Jesus, therefore; in going up to Jerusalem was well understood by the disciples, and so, amazed, they follow Him. Little were they prepared for that course of persecu tion which was to be their boast in a day that was coming, and for which they would be surely strength ened by the Holy Ghost. But it was not so yet. " Jesus went before them : and they were amazed ; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up" (how gracious ! not only " I," but " we" go up) " to Jerusalem ; and the Son of man shall be dehvered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles." Then we have the persecution unto death (and what a death !) fully laid before us. James and John at this critical time show how little flesh, even in the servants of God, ever enters into His thoughts. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," no matter in whom. Again, it was not in obscure ones, but in those that seemed to be some what, that the ugliness of the flesh especially be trayed itself; and therefore it is these who furnish the lesson for us. "Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire." Their mother appears in another gospel — in the ON THE GOSPELS. 249 gospel where we might expect such a relationship after the flesh to appear; but here, alas! it is the servants themselves, who ought to have known better. As yet their eyes were holden. They turned the very fact of their being servants into a means of profiting the flesh even in the kingdom of God it self. They seek to gratify the flesh here by the thought of what they would be there. So the Lord brings out the thought of their heart, and answers them with a dignity peculiar to Himself. " Ye know not," He says, " what ye ask : can ye drink of the cup that I drink of ? and be baptized with the bap tism that I am baptized with ? And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink 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." He is the servant ; and even in view of the time of glory He preserves the same character. A high place in the kingdom is only for those " for whom it is prepared." But it was not merely that these two disciples betrayed themselves; the ten made the secret of their heart manifest enough. It is not alone by the fault of one or another that the flesh becomes apparent ; but how do we behave ourselves in pre sence of the displayed faults of others ? The indig nation which broke out in the ten showed the pride of their own hearts, just as much as the two desiring 250 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES the best place. Had unselfish love been at work, their ambition would assuredly have been a matter for sorrow and shame. I do not say for lack of faithfulness in resisting it; but I do say, that the indignation proved that there was a feeling of self, and not of Christ, strongly at work in their hearts. Our Lord, therefore, reads a rebuke to the whole, and shows them that it was but the spirit of a Gentile that animated" them against the sons of Zebedee; the very reverse of all He could not but look for in them, even as it opposed all that was in Himself. Intelligence of the kingdom leads the believer into contentedness with being little now. The true greatness of the disciple lies in the power of being a servant of Christ morally, going down to the uttermost in the service of others. It is not energy that ensures this greatness in the Lord's estimate now, but contentedness to be a servant — yea, to be a slave in the lowest or least place. As for Himself, it was not merely that Christ did come to minister, or be a servant ; He had that which He alone could have — the title, as the love, to give His life a ransom for many. From chap. x. 48 comes the last scene — the Lord presenting Himself to Jerusalem, and that too, as we are all aware, from Jericho. We have His progress to Jerusalem, beginning with the cure of the blind man. I need not dwell on the details, nor on His entrance on the ¦ colt of the ass into the city . as the King. ON THE GOSPELS. 251 Neither need I say more about the fig tree (one day cursed, the next day seen to be thoroughly withered up), nor the Lord's call to faith in God, and its effect in and on prayer. Nor need we enter particularly into the question of authority raised by the religious leaders. The parable of the vineyard, with which chapter xii. opens, is very full on that which concerns the servants responsible to God. Then we hear of the rejected stone that was afterwards made the head of the corner. Again, we have the various classes of Jews coming before Him with their questions. Not that there are not important points in every one of these scenes that pass before our eyes ; but the hour will not permit me to touch upon any of them at length. I therefore pass by advisedly these particulars. We have the Pharisees and the Herodians rebuked ; we have the Sadducees refuted; we have the scribe manifesting what the character of the law is ; and, indeed, in answer to his own question, the Lord shed the full light of God upon the law, but at the same time accom panied by a remarkable comment on the lawyer. "When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." It is a beautiful feature in our Lord's service — this readiness to own whatever was accord ing to truth, no matter where He found it. Then our Lord puts His own question, as to His own person, according to the Scripture, gives a brief 252 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES warning as to the scribes, and marks in contrast the poor blessed widow, His own pattern of true devotedness and of real faith in this most spiritually destitute condition of the people of God on earth. How He passes completely by the wealth that merely gave what it felt not, to single out, and for ever consecrate, the practice of faith where it might be least expected ! The widow that had but the two mites had cast in all her living into the treasury of God, and this at a time decrepit and selfish beyond all precedent. Little did that widow think that she had found even upon earth an eye to own, and a tongue to proclaim, what God could form for His own praise in the heart and by the hand of the poorest woman in Israel ! Then our Lord instructs the disciples in a pro phecy strictly conformed to the character of Mark. This is the reason why here alone, where you have the service of the Lord, the power by which they could answer in times of difficulty is intro duced into this discourse. Hence our Lord passes by all distinctive reference to the end of the age — an expression which does not here occur. The fact is that, although it be the prophecy which in Matthew looks to the end of the age, still the Spirit does not so specify here; and for the simple reason, that a prophecy which was forming them for their service accounts for what is left out and what is put in, as compared with Matthew. Another thing I may notice is, that in this prophecy alone He says, that ON THE GOSPELS. 253 not only the angels, but even the Son does not know that day (ch. xiii. 32). The reason of this peculiar, and at first sight perplexing, expression seems to me to be, that Christ so thoroughly takes the place of One who confines himself to what God gave to Him, of One so perfectly a minister — not a master, in this point of view — that, even in relation to the future, He knows and gives out to others only what God gives Him for the purpose. As God says nothing about the day and the hour, He knows no more. Remark also how characteristically here our Lord describes both Himself, and the workmen, and their work. There is no such dispensational description, as in Matthew's parable of the talents, but simply this : " The Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his ser vants, and to I every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch." The features of difference in Matthew are plain. There is far greater augustness. He who goes a long way provides as it were for the length of His absence. Here, no doubt, He goes; but He gives " authority to His servants." Who can fail to note the suitability for the purpose of Mark? Again, He gives "to every man his work." Why, may we not ask, are these expressions found here ? Surely, because in Mark it is the very subject-matter of the gospel all through; for even in a prophecy the Lord would never abandon the great thought of service. Here it is not so much the question of giving gifts or goods as of work to be done. 254 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Authority is given to His servants. They wanted it. They do not take it without a title. It is doing His will, rather than trading with His gifts. We find this last most appropriately in Matthew; because the point in the earlier gospel was the peculiar change to follow the Lord's leaving the earth, and the Jewish hopes of Messiah, for the new place He was going to take on ascending to heaven. There He is the giver of gifts — a thing quite distinct in its character from the ordinary principle of Judaism; and the men trade with them, and the good and faithful enter finally into the joy of their Lord. Here it is simply the service of Christ, the true servant. In chapter xiv. come the profoundly interesting and instructive scenes of our Lord with the disciples, not now predicting, but vouchsafing the last pledge of His love. The chief priests and scribes plot in corruption and violence for His death ; at Simon's house in Bethany a woman anoints His body to the burying, which discerns many hearts among the dis ciples, and draws out the Master's, who next is seen, not accepting an offering of affection, but giving the great and permanent token of His love — the Lord's Supper. The state of Judas's heart appears in both cases- — conceiving his plan in the presence of the first, and going out to accomplish it from the pre sence of the last. Thence our Lord goes forth ; not yet to suffer the wrath of God, but to enter into it in spirit before God. We have seen all through the gospel that such was His habit, to which I merely ON THE GOSPELS. 255 call attention now in passing. As the cross was of all the deepest work and suffering, so most assuredly the Lord did not enter upon Calvary without a pre vious Gethsemane. In its due season comes the trial before the high priest and Pilate. The crucifixion of our Lord is in chapter xv., with the effect upon those that followed Him, and the grace that wrought in the woman — men betraying their abject fear in the presence of death, but women strengthened, the weak truly made strong. • Finally, in chapter xvi., we have the resurrection ; but this, too, strictly in keeping with the character of the gospel. Accordingly, then we have the Lord risen, the angel giving the word to the women — " Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter" — a word found only in Mark. The reason is manifest. It is a mighty con sideration for the soul. Peter, despising the word of the Lord really, though not intentionally; Peter, not receiving that word mixed with faith into his heart, but, on the contrary, trusting himself, was pushed into a difficulty where he could not stand, even before man or woman, because he had never borne the temptation upon his spirit before God. So it was then that Peter broke down shamefully. From the Lord's look he began to feel bis conduct acutely; but while the process went on he needed to be confirmed, and our Lord therefore expressly 250 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES named Peter in His message — the only one who was named. It was an encouragement to the faint heart of His fallen servant ; it was an acting of that same grace which had prayed for him even before he fell ; it was the Lord effecting for him a thorough resto ration of his soul, which mainly consists of the application of the word to the conscience, but also to the affections. Peter's was the last name, accord ing to man, that deserved to be then named ; but it was the one who needed most, and that was enough for the grace of Christ. Mark's gospel is ever that of the service of love. On the cross and resurrection, as here presented, I need not speak now. There are peculiarities both of insertion and of omission, which illustrate the difference in scope of what is here given us from that which we find elsewhere. Thus we have the reviling of the very thieves crucified with Him, but not the conversion of one. And as in the seizure of Jesus we hear of a certain young man who fled naked when laid hold of by the lawless crowd that apprehended the Saviour, so before the crucifixion they compel in their wanton violence one Simon a Cyrenian to bear His cross. But God was not forgetful of that day's toil for Jesus, as Alexander and Rufus could testify at a later day. Not a word here of the earth quaking, either at the death of Christ, or when He rose ; no graves are seen opened ; no saints risen and appearing in the holy city. But of the women we hear who had ministered to Him ON THE GOSPELS. 257 living, and would have still ministered when dead, but that the resurrection cut it short, and brought in a better and enduring light, the Lord employing angehc ministry to chase away their fright by an nouncing that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was risen. How admirably this is in keeping with our gospel need scarcely be enlarged on. I am aware that men have tampered with the closing verses (9-20) of chap, xvi., as they have sullied with their unholy doubts the beginning of John viii. In speaking of John, it will be my happy task to defend that passage from the rude insults of men. Assured they are wrong, I care not who they may be nor what their excuses. God has given the amplest array of external vouchers; but there are reasons far weightier, internal grounds of conviction, which will be appreciated just in proportion to a person's understanding of God and His word. Im possible for man to coin a single thought, or even a word fit to pass. So it is in this scene. I also admit that there are certain differences be tween this portion and the previous part of chap. xvi. But, in my judgment, the Spirit purposely put them in a different light. Here, you will observe, it is a question of forming the servants according to that rising from the dead for which He had prepared them. Had the gospel terminated without this, we must have had a real gap, which ought to have been felt. The Lord had Himself, before His resur rection, indicated its important bearing. When the 258 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES fact occurred, had there been no use made of it with the servants, and for the service, of Christ, there had been, indeed, a grievous lack, and this wonderful gospel of His ministry would have left off with as impotent a conclusion as we could possibly imagine. Chapter xvi. would have closed with the silence of the women and its source, "for they were afraid." What conclusion less worthy of the servant Son of God ! What must have been the impression left, if. the doubts of some learned men had the slightest substance in them ? Can any one, who knows the character of the Lord and of His ministry, conceive for an instant that we should be left with nothing but a message baulked through the alarm of women ? Of course, I assume what is indeed the fact, that the outward evidence is enormously preponderant for the concluding verses. But, interrially also, it seems to me impossible for one who compares the earlier close with the gospel's aim and character throughout, to accept such an ending after weighing that which is afforded by the verses from 9 to 20. Certainly these seem to me to furnish a most fitting conclusion to that which otherwise would be a picture of total and hopeless weakness in testimony. Again, the very freedom of the style, the use of words not elsewhere used, or so used by Mark, and the difficulties of some of the circumstances narrated, tell to my mind in favour of its genuine ness ; for a forger would have adhered to the letter, if he could not so easily catch the spirit of Mark. ON THE GOSPELS. 259 I admit, of course, that there was a particular object in the earlier verses as they now stand, and that the providence of God wrought therein; but surely the ministry of Jesus has a higher end than such providential ways of God. On the other hand, if we receive the common conclusion of the gospel of Mark, how appropriate all is ! Here we have a woman, and no ordinary woman, Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus, who was now dead and risen,. had once cast seven devils ; and who, therefore, so fit a witness of the resurrection-power of God's Son ? The Lord had come to destroy the works of the devil; she knew this, even before His death and resurrection: who then, I ask, so suitable a herald of it as Mary of Magdala ? There is a divine reason, and it harmonizes with this gospel. She had experi mentally proved the blessed ministry of Jesus before, in delivering herself from Satan's power. She was now about to announce a still more glorious minis try; for Jesus had now by dying destroyed Satan's power in death. " She went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept." This was untimely sorrow on their part : what a thrill of joy that ought to have sent to their hearts. Alas ! unbelief left them still sad and unblessed. Then "he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue : neither beheved they them." Here was an important practical element to remember in the service of the Lord — the dulness of s 2 260 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES men's hearts, their consequent opposition and resist ance to the truth. Where the truth does not concern men much, they slight without fear, hatred, or oppo sition. Thus, the very resistance to the truth, while it shows in a certain sense, no doubt, man's unbelief, demonstrates at the same time that its importance leads to this resistance. Supposing you tell a man that a certain chief possesses a great estate in Tar- tary ; he may think it all very true, at any rate he does not feel enough about the case to deny the alle gation ; but tell him that he himself has such an estate there : does he believe you ? The moment something affects the person, there is interest enough to resist stoutly. It was of practical moment that the disciples should be instructed in the feelings of the heart, and learn the fact in their own experience. Here we have it so in the case of our Lord. He had told them plainly in His word ; He had announced the resurrection over and over and over again; but how slow were these chosen servants of the Lord ! what patient waiting upon others should there not be in the ministry of those with whom the Lord had dealt so graciously! There again we find, that if it be of moment, it is most especially so in the point of view of the Lord's ministry. After this the Lord appears Himself to the eleven as they sat at meat, and " upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they beheved not them which had seen him after he was risen." Yet a most gracious Master He proves Himself— ON THE GOSPELS. 261 one that knew well how to make good ministers out of bad ones ; and so the Lord says to them, imme diately after upbraiding them with their incredulity, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." There is the importance not only of. the truth, but of its being openly and formally confessed before God and man ; for clearly baptism does symbolically proclaim the death and resur rection of Christ; that is the value of it. "He that believeth and is baptized." Do not you pretend that you have received Christ, and then shirk all the difficulties and dangers of the confession. Not so : " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." There is not a word about baptism in this last case. A man might be baptized ; but without faith, of course it would not save him. " He that believeth not shall be damned." Believing was the point. Never theless, if a man professed ever so much to believe, yet shrank from the publicity of owning Him in whom he beheved, his profession of faith was good for nothing ; it could not be accepted as real. Here was an important principle for the servant of Christ in dealing with cases. Further, outward manifestations of power were to follow : " These signs shall follow them that beheve : in my name shall they cast out devils." By-and-by the power of Satan is to be shaken thoroughly. This was only a testimony, but still how weighty it was ! 262 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES The Lord in this case does not say how long these signs were to last. When He says, "Teach [make disciples of] all nations [or the Gentiles], baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them all things what soever I have commanded you," He adds, " And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world [or age]." That is, He does connect His con tinuance with their discipling, baptizing, and teaching all the Gentiles what He had enjoined. This work was thus to go on till the end of the age ; but as for the signs of Mark xvi., with marvellous wisdom He omits all mention of a period. He does not say how long these signs were to follow them that believe. All He said was, that these signs were to follow; and so they did. He did not promise that they were to be for five, or fifty, for a hundred, or five hundred years. He simply said they were to follow, and so the signs were given ; and they followed not merely the apostles, but them that believe. They confirmed the word of believers wherever they were found. It was but a testimony, and I have not the slightest doubt, that as there was perfect wisdom in giving these signs to accompany the word, so also there was not less wisdom in cutting the gift short. I am assured that, in the present fallen state of Christendom, these outward signs, so far from being desirable, would be an injury. No doubt their cessation is a proof of our sin and low estate; but at the same time there was graciousness in His thus withholding these ON THE GOSPELS. 263 signs towards His people when their continuance threatened no small danger to them, and might have obscured His moral glory. The grounds of this judgment need not be entered into now; it is enough to say that undoubtedly these signs were given. " They shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Thus there was a blow struck at the prolific source of evil in the world; there was the expression of God's rich grace now to the world; there was the active witness of the beneficence of divine mercy in dealing with the miseries everywhere occurrent in the world. These are, I think, the characteristics of the service, but then there remains a striking part of the conclusion, which I venture to think none but Mark could have written. No doubt the Holy Ghost was the true author of all that Mark wrote; and certainly, the conclusion is one that suits this gospel, but no other. If you cut off these words, you have a gospel without a conclusion. Accepting these words as the words of God, you have, I repeat, a termination that harmonizes with a truly divine gospel ; but not merely that — here you have a divine conclusion for Mark's gospel, and for no other. There is no other gospel that this conclusion would suit but Mark's; for observe here what the Spirit of God finally gives us. He says, "After the Lord had spoken 264 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES unto them, he was received up into heaven." You might have thought, surely, that there was rest in heaven now that Christ's work on earth was done, and so perfectly done; more particularly as it is here added, " and he sat on the right hand of God." If there is such a session of Christ spoken of in this place, the more it might be supposed that there was a present rest, now that all His work was over; but not so. As the gospel of Mark exhibits em phatically Jesus the workman of God, so even in the rest of glory He is the workman still. Therefore, it seems written here that, while they went forth upon their mission, they were to take up the work which the Lord had left them to do. " They went forth and preached everywhere" — for there is this character of largeness about Mark. "They went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."' Thus Mark, and no one else, gives us the picture most thoroughly, the whole consistent up to the last. Would a forger have kept up the bold thought of "the Lord working with them," while every other word intimates that He was then at least quiescent ? Thus have we glanced over the gospel of Mark, and have seen that the first thing in it is the Lord ushered into His service by one who was called to an extraordinary work before Him, even John the Baptist. Now, at last, when He is set down at the right hand of God, we find it said that the Lord was ON THE GOSPELS. 265 working with them. To allow that verses 9 to the end are authentic scripture, but not Mark's own writing, seems to me the lamest supposition possible. May He bless His own word, and give us here one more proof that, if there be any portion in which we find the divine hand more conspicuous than another, it is precisely where unbelief objects and rejects. I am not aware that in all the second gospel there is a section more characteristic of this evangelist than the very one that man's temerity has not feared to seize upon, endeavouring to root it from the soil where God planted it. But, beloved friends, these words are not of man. Every plant that the heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. This shall never be rooted up, but abides for ever, let human learning, great or small, say what it will. V*. LUKE I.— VIII. The preface of Luke's gospel is as instructive as the introduction of either of the two preceding gospels. It is obvious to any serious reader that we enter a totally different province, though all be equally divine; but here we have a stronger prominence given to human motive and feeling. To one who needed to learn more of Jesus writes another godly man, inspired of God, but without drawing particular attention to the fact of inspiration, as if this were a doubtful matter; but, on the contrary, assuming, as all Scripture does, without express statement, that the written word is the word of God. The purpose is, to set before a fellow Christian — a man of rank, but a disciple — an account, full, accurate, and orderly, of the Lord Jesus, such as one might give that had thorough acquaintance with all the truth of the matter, but in fact such as none could give who was not inspired of God for the purpose. He lets us know that there were many of these memoirs formed on the tradition of those who from the begin ning were eye-witnesses and servants of the word. These works have departed ; they were human. They ON THE GOSPELS. 267 were, no doubt, well intentioned; at least there is here no question of heretics perverting the truth, but of men attempting in their own wisdom to set forth that which only God was competent rightly to make known. At the same time Luke, the writer of this gospel, apprises us of his motives, instead of presenting a bare and needless statement of the revelation he had received. "It seemed good to me also," &c, is in contrast with these many that had taken it in hand. They had done the work in their fashion, he after another sort, as he proceeds next to explain. Clearly he does not refer to Matthew or Mark, but to accounts that were then handed about among Christians. It could not be otherwise than that many would essay to publish a relation of facts so weighty and engrossing, which, if they had not themselves seen, they had gathered from eye witnesses conversant with the Lord. These memoirs were floating about. The Holy Ghost distinguishes the writer of this gospel from these men quite as much as joins him with them. He states that they depended upon those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word. He says nothing of the kind about himself, as has been rashly inferred from the phrase " to me also ; " but, as is evident, proceeds to give a wholly different source for his own handling of the matter. In short, he does not intimate that his account of these things was derived from eye-witnesses, yet speaks of his 268 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES thorough acquaintance with all from the very first, without telling us how he came by it. As for the others, they had taken in hand to " set forth in order a declaration of these things which are most surely believed amongst us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses." He does not impute falsehood ; he affirms that their histories were derived from the traditions of men who saw, heard, and waited on Christ here below; but he attributes no divine character to these numerous writers, and intimates the need of a surer warrant for the faith and instruction of disciples. This he claims to give in his gospel. His own quali fication for the task was, as one that had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto Theophilus in order that he might "know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed." In that expression, "from the very first," he lets us into a difference between his own gospel and the memoirs current among Christians. " From the very first " means that it was an account from the origin or outset, and is fairly rendered in our version. So it is that we find in Luke that he traces things with great fulness, and lays before the reader the circum stances that preceded and that accompanied the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ up to His ascension to heaven. Now, he does not enter more than other inspired writers do into an assertion or explanation of his ON THE GOSPELS. 269 inspired character, which Scripture assumes every where. He does not tell us how it was he acquired his perfect understanding of all he communicates. It is not the way of inspired writers to do either. They speak "with authority," even as our Lord taught "with authority;" "not as the scribes" or tradition -mongers. He claims indeed the fullest acquaintance with the subject, and the statement of which would not suit any other evangelist but Luke. It is one who, though inspired like the rest, was drawing his friend and brother with the cords of a man. Inspiration does not as a rule in the least degree interfere with the individuality of the man ; still less would it here where Luke is writing of the Son of God as man, born of a woman, and this to another man. Hence he brings out in the preface his own thoughts, feelings, materials for the work, and the blessed aim contemplated. This is the only gospel addressed to a man. This naturally fits, and lets us, into the character of the gospel. We are here about to see our Lord Jesus pre-eminently set forth as man, man most really as such — not so much the Messiah, though, of course, that He is ; nor even the minister ; but the man. Undoubtedly, even as man He is the Son of God, and so He is called in the very first chapter of this gospel. The Son of God He was, as born into the world; not only Son of God before He entered the world, but Son of God from everlasting. That holy thing which should be born of the virgin was to be called the Son of God. 270 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Such was His title in that point of view, as having a body prepared Him, born of a woman, even of the Virgin Mary. Clearly, therefore, this indicates, from the beginning of the gospel, the predominance given to the human side of the Lord Jesus here. What was manifested in Jesus, in every work and in every word of His, displayed what was divine; but He was none the less man ; and He is here viewed as such in everything. Hence, therefore, it was of the deepest interest to have the circumstances unerringly marked out in which this wondrous man entered the world, and walked up and down here below. The Spirit of God deigns by Luke to open the whole scene, from those that surrounded the Lord with the various occasions that appealed to His heart, till His ascension. But there is another reason also for the peculiar beginning of St. Luke. Thus, as he of the evangelists most of all approaches the great apostle of the Gentiles, of whom to a certain extent he was the companion, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles, counted by the apostle one of his fellow- labourers, too, we find him acting, by the Holy Ghost's guidance, upon that which was the great distinguishing character of the apostle Paul's service and testimony — "To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." Accordingly our gospel, although it is essentially Gentile, as it was addressed to a Gentile and written by a Gentile, begins with an announcement that is more Jewish than any other of the four gospels. It ON THE GOSPELS. 271 was precisely so with Paul in his service. He began with the Jew. Very soon the Jews proceeded to reject the word, and prove themselves unworthy of eternal life. Paul turned to the Gentiles. The same thing is true of our gospel, so akin to the apostle's writings, that some of the early Christian writers imagined that this was the meaning of an expression of the apostle Paul, far better understood of late. I refer to it now, not because of any truth in that no tion, for the remark is totally false ; but, at the same time, it shows that there was a kind of feeling of the truth underneath the error. They used to imagine that Paul meant the gospel of Luke when he said, "My [or our] gospel." Happily most of my hearers understand the true bearing of the phrase enough to detect so singular an error ; but still it does show that even the dullest of men could not avoid per ceiving that there was a tone of thought, and current of feeling, in the gospel of Luke which harmonized very largely with the apostle Paul's testimony. Yet it was not at all as bringing out what the apostle Paul calls his gospel, or " the mystery of the gospel," &c; but certainly it was the great moral ground work through which it lay — at any rate, which most thoroughly accorded with, and prepared for it. Hence it is, after presenting Christ in the richest grace to the godly Jewish remnant, that we have first and fully given by Luke the account of God's bringing the first-begotten Son into this world, having it in His purpose to put in relation with Him the whole 272 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES human race, and most especially preparing the way for His grand designs and counsels with regard to the Gentiles. Nevertheless, first of all, He justifies Himself in His ways, and shows that He was ready to accomplish every promise that He had made to the Jews. What we have, therefore, in the first two chapters of Luke, is God's vindication in the Lord Jesus pre sented as the One in whom He was ready to make good all His old pledges to Israel. Hence the whole scene agrees with this feeling on God's part towards Israel. A priest is seen righteous according to the law, but his wife without that offspring which the Jews looked for as the mark of God's favour towards them. Now God was visiting the earth in grace; and, as Zechariah ministered in the priest's office, an angel, even there a stranger, except for purposes of pity towards the miserable betimes (John v.), but long unseen as the witness of the glorious ways of God, announced to him the birth of a son, the fore runner of the Messiah. The unbelief even of the godly in Israel was apparent in the conduct of Zacharias ; and God reproved it with inflicted dumb ness, but failed not in His own grace. This, how ever, was but the harbinger of better things; and the angel of the Lord was despatched on a second errand, and re-announces that most ancient revelation of a fallen paradise, that mightiest promise of God, which stands out from all others to the fathers and in the prophets, and which, indeed, was to compass ON THE GOSPELS. 273 within itself the accomplishment of all the promises of God. He makes known to the virgin Mary a birth no way connected with nature, and yet the birth of a real man; for that man was the Son of the Highest — a man to sit upon the throne, so long vacant, of His father David. Such was the word. I need not say that there were truths still more blessed and profounder than this of the throne of Israel, accompanying that announcement, on which it is impossible to dwell now, if we are to-night to traverse any consider able part of our gospel. Suffice it to say, we have thus all the proofs of God's favour to Israel, and faithfulness to His promises, both in the forerunner of the Messiah, and in the birth of the Messiah Himself. Then follows the lovely burst of praise from the mother of our Lord, and soon after, when the tongue of him that was smitten dumb was loosed, Zechariah speaks, first of all to praise the Lord for His infinite grace. The second chapter pursues the same grand truths : only there is more at hand. The opening verses bring this before us. God was good to Israel, and was displaying His faithfulness according to, not the law, but His promises. How truly the people were in bondage ! Hostile Gentiles had the upper hand. The last great empire predicted in Daniel was then in power. " It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Csesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed [or enrolled]. 274 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES (And this taxing [or enrolment] was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one to his own city." Such was the thought of the world, of the imperial power of that day, the great Roman beast or empire. But if there was a decree from Caesar, there was a most gracious purpose in God. Csesar might indulge his pride, and count the world his own, in the ex aggerated style of human ambition and self-com placency; but God was now manifesting what He was, and oh, what a contrast ! The Son -of God, by this very deed, providentially enters the world at the promised place, Bethlehem. He enters it after a different sort from what we could have ever drawn from the first gospel, where we have Bethlehem still more significantly mentioned : at any rate, prophecy is cited on the occasion as to the necessity of its being there. That information even the scribes could render to the Magi who came to adore. Here there is nothing of the sort. The Son of God is born, not even in an inn, but in the manger, where the poor parents of the Saviour found a shelter. Every mark follows of the reality of a human birth, and of a human being; but it was Christ the Lord, the witness of the saving, healing, forgiving, blessing grace of God. Not only is His cross thus significant,' but His birth, the very place and circumstances being all most evidently prepared. Nor this only; for although we see not here Magi from the East, with their royal gifts, their gold, and myrrh, and frank- ON THE GOSPELS. 275 incense, laid at the feet of the infant King of the Jews, here we have, what I am persuaded was yet more beautiful morally, angehc converse; and suddenly, with the angel (for heaven is not so far off), the choirs of heaven praising God, while the shepherds of earth kept their flocks in the path of humble duty. Impossible, without ruining, to invert these things ! Thus you could not transplant the scene of the Magi into Luke, neither would the introduction of the shepherds, thus visited by the grace of God by night, be so proper in Matthew. What a tale this last told, of where God's heart is ! How evident from the very first it was, that to the poor the gospel was preached, and how thoroughly in keeping with this gospel ! And we might truly affirm the same — I will not say of the glory that Saul saw and taught — but most certainly of the grace of God which Paul preached also. This does not hinder that still there is a testimony to Israel ; although sundry signs and tokens, the very introduction of the Gentile power, and the moral features of the case, also make it evident that there is something more than a question of Israel and their King. Nevertheless, there meets us here the fullest witness of grace to Israel. So even in the words, somewhat weakened in our version, where it is said, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be " --not to all people, but "to all the people." This passage does not go beyond Israel. Manifestly this is T 2 276 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES entirely confirmed by the context, even if one did not know a word of that language, which, of course, proves what I am now advancing. In the next verse it is, " For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." It is evident that, as far as this goes, He is introduced strictly as the One who was to bring in His own person the accomplishment of the promises to Israel. The angels go farther when they say, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will in men." It is not exactly good will towards men, which is here the point. The word expresses God's good will and complacency in men ; it does not say exactly in man, as if it were only in Christ, though surely this was true in the very highest sense. For tie Son of God became, not an angel, but really a man, according to Hebrews ii. It was not the cause of angels that He undertook, or was interested about : it was men He took up. But here appears a good deal more : it is God's delight in man now that His Son is become a man, and witnessed by that as tonishing truth. His delight in men, because His Son becoming a man was the first immediate personal step in that which was to introduce His righteous ness in justifying sinful men by the cross and resur rection of Christ, which is at hand. Thereby in virtue of that ever accepted person, and the efficacy of His work of redemption, He could have also the self-same delight in those that were once guilty sinners, now the objects of His grace for ever. But ON THE GOSPELS. 277 here, at any rate, the person, and the condition of the person too, by whom all this blessing was to be procured and given, were before His eyes. By the condition of the person is meant, of course, that the Son of God was now incarnate, which even in itself was no small proof, as well as pledge, of the com placency of God in man. Afterwards Jesus is shown us circumcised, the very offering that accompanied the act proving also still more the earthly circumstances of His parents - — their deep poverty. Then comes the affecting scene in the temple, where the aged Simeon lifts up the child in his arms; for it had been "revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." So he goes by the Spirit into the temple at this very time. "And when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said; Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." It is evident that the whole tone is not what we may call formal ; it was not that the work was done ; but undoubtedly there was virtually in Christ " God's salvation" — a most suitable truth and phrase for the companion of him whose fundamental point was " God's righteousness." The Spirit might not yet say "God's righteousness," but He could say " God's salvation." It was the person of the Saviour, 278 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES viewed according to the prophetic Spirit, who would, in due time, make good everything as to God and man. " Thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people : a light to lighten" — or rather to reveal "the Gentiles;" a light for the revelation of the Gentiles — "and the glory of thy people Israel." I do not regard the former as a millennial description. In the millennium the order would be exactly inverse ; for then God will assu redly assign to Israel the first place, and to the Gentiles the second. The Spirit gives Simeon a little advance upon the terms of the prophetic testi mony in the Old Testament. The babe, Christ, was a light, he says, for the revelation of the Gentiles, and for the glory of His people Israel. The revela tion of the Gentiles, that which was about to follow full soon, would be the effect of the rejection of Christ. The Gentiles, instead of lying hidden as they had been in the Old Testament times, unnoticed in the dealings of God, and instead of being put into a subordinate place to that of Israel, as they will be by-and-by in the millennium, were, quite distinctly from both, now to come into prominence, as no doubt the glory of the people Israel will follow in that day. Here, indeed, we see the millennial state; but the light to lighten the Gentiles far more fully finds its answer in the remarkable place which the Gentiles enter now by the excision of the Jewish branches of the olive tree. This, I think, is confirmed by what we find afterwards. Simeon does not pretend to ON THE GOSPELS. 279 bless the child ; but when he blesses the parents, he says to Mary, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." It is plain that the Spirit gave him to set forth the Messiah cut off, and the effect of it, "for a sign," he adds, "that shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also" — a word that was accomplished in the feelings of Mary at the cross of the Lord Jesus. But there is more : Christ's shame acts as a moral probe, as it is said here — " That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." May I not ask, where could we find such language, except in Luke ? Tell me, if you can, any other of the evangehsts whom it would suit for a moment ? Nor is it only to these words I would call your attention, as eminently characteristic of our gospel. Take the mighty grace of God revealed in Christ, on the one hand; on the other, take the dealing with the hearts of men as the result of the cross morally. These are the two main peculiarities which distinguish the writings of Luke. Accordingly also we find that, the note of grace being once struck in the heart of Simeon, as well as of those immediately connected with our Lord Jesus in His birth, it ex tends itself widely, for joy cannot be stifled or hid. So the good news must flow from one to another, and God takes care that Anna the prophetess should come in ; for here we have the revival, not only of angel visits, but of the prophetic Spirit in Israel. "And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of 280 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser : she was of a great age," and had waited long in faith, but, as ever, was not disappointed. " She was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in at that instant," etc. How good the Lord is in thus ordering circum stances, no less than preparing the heart ! " She, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." Nor is this all the Spirit gives here. The chapter closes with a picture of our Saviour that is admirably consonant to this gospel, and to no other ; for what gospel would it suit to speak of our Lord as a youth ? to give us a moral sketch of this wondrous One, now no longer the babe of Bethlehem, but in the lowly company of Mary and Joseph, grown up to the age of twelve years ? He is found, accord ing to the order of the law, duly with His parents in Jerusalem for the great feast ; but He is there as One to whom the word of God was most precious, and who had more understanding than His teachers. For Him, viewed as man, there was not only the growth of the body, but also development in every other way that became man, always expanding yet always perfect, as truly man as God. "He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." But there is more than this ; for the inspired writer lets us know how He was reproached by His ON THE GOSPELS. 281 parents, who could but little understand what it was for Him even then to find His meat in doing the will of God. As they journeyed from Jerusalem, missing Him, they return, and find Him in the midst of the doctors. A delicate place it might seem for a youth, but in Him how beautiful was all ! and what propriety ! " Both hearing them," it is said, "and asking them questions." Even the Sa viour, though full of divine knowledge, does not take the place now of teaching with authority — never, of course, as the scribes. But even though consciously Son and the Lord God, still was He the child Jesus ; and as became One who deigned to be such, in the midst of those older in years, though they knew infinitely less than Himself, there was the sweetest and most comely lowliness. "Both hearing them, and asking them questions." What grace there was in the questions of Jesus ! — what infinite wisdom in the presence of the darkness of these famous teachers ! Still, which of these jealous rabbis could. discern the smallest departure from exquisite and absolute propriety? Nor this only; for we are told that " his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us ? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me ? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" The secret thus early comes out. He waited for nothing. He needed no voice from heaven to tell Him that He was the Son of God ; He needed no sign of the 282 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Holy Ghost descending to assure Him of His glory or mission. These were, no doubt, seen and heard ; and it was all right in its season, and most important in its place; but I repeat that He needed nothing to impart the consciousness that He was the Son of the Father. He knew it intrinsically, and entirely independent of a revelation from another. There was, no' doubt, that divine gift imparted to Him afterwards, when the Holy Ghost sealed the man Christ Jesus. "Him hath God the Father sealed," as it is said, and surely quite right. But the notable fact here is, that at this early age, when a youth twelve years old, He has the distinct con sciousness that He was the Son, as no one else was or could be. At the same time He returns with His parents, and is as dutiful in obedience to them as if He were only an unblemished child of man — their child. The Son of the Father He was, as really as the Son of man. "He came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." It is the divine person, but the perfect man, perfect in every relation suitable for such a person. Both these truths, therefore, prove them selves to be true, not more in doctrine than in fact. Then a new scene opens in chapter iii. " In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Csesar" (for men soon pass away, and slight is the trace left by the course of earth's great ones), "Pontius Pilate being governor of Judsea, and Herod being tetrarch of Gahlee, and his brother. Philip tetrarch of Itursea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the ON THE GOSPELS. 283 tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." How strange is this state of things ! Not only have we the chief power of the world passed into another hand ; not only do we see the Edomite — a political confusion in the land, but a religious Babel too. What a departure from all divine order! Who ever heard of two high priests before ? Such were the facts when the manifestation of the Christ drew near, "Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests." No changes in the world, nor abasement in the people of the Lord, nor strange conjunction of the priests, nor mapping out of the land by the stranger, would interfere with the purposes of grace ; which, on the contrary, loves to take up men and things at their worst, and shows what God is towards the needy. So John the Baptist goes forth here, not as we traced him in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, but with a special character stamped upon him akin to the design of Luke. "He came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Here we see the remarkable largeness of his testimony. " Every valley shall be filled," he says, " and every mountain and hill shall be brought low." Such a quotation puts him virtually in connection with the Gentiles, and not merely with the Jew or Jewish purposes. "All flesh," it is therefore added, "shall see the salvation of God." 284 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES It is evident that the terms intimate the widening of divine grace in its sphere. This is apparent in the manner in which John the Baptist speaks. When he addresses the multitude, observe how he deals with them. It is not a question now of reproving Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, as in Matthew, but, while he here solemnly warns the multitude, the evangelist records his words to each class. They were the same as in the days of the prophets; they were no better after all. Man was far from God : he was a sinner ; and, without re pentance and faith, what could avail their rehgious privileges ? To what corruption had they not been led through unbelief ? "0 generation of vipers," he says, " who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father." This, again, accounts for the details of the different classes that come before John the Baptist, and the practical dealing with the duties of each — an important thing, I beheve, for us to bear in mind ; for God thinks of souls; and whenever we have real moral discipline according to His mind, there is a dealing with men as they are, taking them up in the circumstances of their every-day life. Publicans, soldiers, people — they each hear respectively their own proper word. So in that repentance, which the gospel supposes as its invariable accompaniment, it is of moment to bear in mind that, while all have gone astray, each has also followed his own way. ON THE GOSPELS. 285 But, again, we have his testimony to the Messiah. "And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not ; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner ; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people." And here, too, you will observe an evident and striking illustration of Luke's manner. Having introduced John, he finishes his history before he turns to the subject of the Lord Jesus. Therefore he adds the fact, that "Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him, added yet this above all the evil that he had done, that he shut up John in prison." Hence it is clear that the order of Luke is not here, at any rate, that of historic fact. This is nothing pecuhar. Any one who is at all acquainted with historians, either ancient or modern, must know that they do the same thing. It is common and almost inevitable. Not that they all do so, any more than all the evangehsts ; but still it is the way of many historians, who are reckoned amongst the most exact, not to arrange facts like the mere chroniclers of an annual register, which confessedly is rather a dull rude way of giving us information. They prefer to group the 286 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES facts into classes, so as to bring out the latent springs, and the consequences even though unsuspected, and, in short, all they desire of moment in the most dis tinct and powerful manner. Thus Luke, having introduced John here, does not care to interrupt the subsequent account of our Lord, till the embassy of John's messengers fell into the illustration of another theme. There is no room left for misunderstanding this brief summary of the Baptist's faithful conduct from first to last, and its consequences. So true is this, that he records the baptism- of our Lord by John immediately after the mention that John was put in prison. Chronological sequence here mani festly yields to graver demands. Next comes the baptism of those who resorted to John, and above all of Christ. " And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph," &c. Now, at first sight, the insertion of a pedigree at this point seems irregular enough ; but Scripture is always right, and wisdom is justified of her children. It is the expres sion of a weighty truth, and in the most fitting place. The Jewish scene closes. The Lord has been fully shown to the righteous remnant, i.e., what He was to Israel. God's grace and faithfulness to His promises had presented to them an admirable testimony ; and the more so, as it was in the face of the last great, or Roman, empire. We have had the priest fulfilling his function in the sanctuary ; then the angel's visits to Zechariah, to Mary, and, finally, ON THE GOSPELS. 287 to the shepherds. We have had also the great pro phetic sign of Immanuel born of the virgin, and now the forerunner, greater than any prophet, John the Baptist, the precursor of the Christ. It was all vain. They were a generation of vipers, even as John himself testified about tbem. Nevertheless, on the part of Christ, there was ineffable grace wherever any heeded the call of John, albeit the faintest working of divine Hfe in the soul. The confession of the truth of God against themselves, the acknowledgment that they were sinners, drew the heart of Jesus to them. In Him was no sin, no, not the smallest taint of it, nor connection with it : nevertheless, Jesus was with those who repaired to the baptism of John. It was of God. No neces sity of sin brought Him there ; but, on the contrary, grace, the pure fruit of divine grace in Him. He who had nothing to confess or repent was none the less the One that was the very expression of the grace of God. He would not be separated from those in whom there was the smallest response to the grace of God. Jesus, therefore, does not for the present take people out of Israel, so to speak, any more than from among men severally into association with Himself; He associates Himself with those who were thus owning the reahty of their moral condition in the sight of God. He would be with them in that recognition, not, of course, for Himself, as if He personally needed, but their companion in His grace. Depend upon it, that this same truth 288 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES connects itself with the whole career of the Lord Jesus. Whatever the changes may have been before or at His death, they only illustrated increasingly this mighty and fruitful principle. Who, then, was the baptized man on whom, as He prayed, heaven opened, and the Holy Ghost de scended, and a voice from heaven said, "Thou art my beloved Son : in thee I have been well pleased" ? It was One whom the inspiring Spirit here loves to trace finally up thus : " Which was the Son of Adam, which was the Son of God." One that was going to be tried as Adam was tried — yea, and as Adam never was tried ; for it was in no Paradise that this second Adam was going to meet the temp ter, but in a wilderness. It was in the wreck of this world; it was in the scene of death over which God's judgment hung; it was under such circumstances where it was no question of innocence, but of divine power in holiness surrounded by evil, where One who was fully man depended on God, and, where no food, no water was, lived by the word of God. Such, and far, far more, was this man Christ Jesus. And hence it is that the genealogy of Jesus seems to me precisely where it ought to be in Luke, as indeed it must be, whether we see it or not. In Mat thew its insertion would have been strange and in appropriate, had it there come after His baptism. It would have no suitableness there, because what a Jew wanted first of all to know was the birth of Jesus according to the Old Testament prophecies. ON THE GOSPELS. 289 That was everything, we may say, to the Jew in the first place, to know the Son that was given, and the child that was born, as Isaiah and Micah predicted. Here we see the Lord as a man, and manifesting this perfect grace in man — a total absence of sin; and yet the very One who was found with those who were confessing sin ! " The Son of Adam, who was the Son of God." That means, that He was One who, though man, proved that He was God's Son. The fourth chapter is grounded upon this ; and here it is not merely after the dispensational style of Matthew that we find the quotation given, but thoroughly in a moral point of view. In the gospel of Matthew, in the first temptation, our Lord owns Himself to be man, living not by mere natural resource, but by the word of God ; in the second He confesses and denies not Himself further to be Mes siah, the temptation being addressed to Him as in this capacity; the last clearly contemplates the glory of the " Son of man." This I call clearly dispensa tional. No doubt it was exactly the way in which the temptation occurred. The first temptation was to leave the position of man. This Christ would not do. "Man," He says, "shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." It is much more important to keep God's word than to live ; and, at any rate, the only living He valued was living as man by God's word. This is perfection. Faith holds it for certain that God knows how to take care of man. It was man's u 290 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES business to keep God's word : God would not fail to watch over and protect him. Satan, therefore, was foiled. Then Satan tempted by a quotation from Psalm xci., which clearly describes the Messiah : assuredly Jesus was not going to deny that. He believed and acted upon it. If He were the Messiah, why not, according to this word, prove God ? But the Lord Jesus equally refuted him here, though I need not enter now into the particulars of that which we have already looked at. Then came the last temptation addressed to Him, not as Messiah according to a psalm that refers to it, but rather in His quality of the Son of man about to have all the kingdoms of the world. Here Satan's temptation was, "Why do you not come into their possession and enjoyment now ? " Jesus would take them only from God, as the rejected of man, and the sufferer for sin, too ; not as the living Messiah here below, as if in a hurry to have the promises fulfilled to Him. In vain was the snare spread in His sight; God alone could give, whoever might actually hold, the kingdoms of the world. The price was too dear to pay, the price of worshipping the devil. Jesus thereon denounces the tempter as Satan. But this is not what we have in our gospel. Here there is no dispensational order of the temptation suitable to the gospel of Matthew. Such an order, which is here that of the facts also, is exactly according to the design of the Holy Spirit in Mat thew. But it suits no other gospel. Mark was not ON THE GOSPELS. 291 called to furnish more than the record of the temp tation, with a graphic touch which reveals its dreary scene, and passes on to the active ministry .of our blessed Lord. On the other hand, Luke purposely changes the order— a bold step, in appearance, to take, and the more if he knew, as I suppose, what was given by the evangelists who preceded him. But it was necessary to his design, and God, I hope to show, puts His own seal upon this deviation from mere time. For, first of all, we have Jesus tried here as man. This must be in every account of the temptation. It is, of course, as man that even the Son of God was tempted of Satan. Here, however, we have, in the second place, the offer of the king doms of the world. This, it will be perceived, does not. give prominence, like Matthew, to that momen tous change of dispensation which ensued on His rejection by the Jew; it does illustrate what the Holy Ghost here puts forward — the temptations rising one above the other in moral weight and import. Such I beheve to be the key to the changed order of Luke. The first was a temptation to His personal wants — Hath God said you shall not eat of any thing? Surely you are at liberty to make the stones bread ! Faith vindicates God, remains depen dent on Him, and is sure of His appearing for us in due time. Then comes the offer of the kingdoms Of the world. If a good man wants to do good, what an offer ! But Jesus was here lo glorify God. Him He would worship, Him only would He serve. u 2 292 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES Obedience; obeying God's will, worshipping Him — such is the shield against all such overtures of the enemy. Lastly comes the third temptation, through the word of God, on. the pinnacle of the temple. This is not the worldly appeal, but one addressed to His spiritual feeling. Need I remark, that a spiritual temptation is to a holy person far subtler and deeper than anything which connected itself with either our wants or our wishes as to the world? Thus there was a personal or bodily, a worldly, and a spiritual temptation. To attain this moral order Luke aban dons the sequence of time. Occasionally Matthew, and indeed no one more than he, deserts the simple order of fact whenever it is required by the Spirit's pur pose; but in this case Matthew preserves that order; for it so is that by this means he gives prominence to dispensational truth; while Luke, by arranging the acts of temptation otherwise, brings out their moral bearing in the most admirable and instructive way. Accordingly, from Luke iv. 8, " Get thee be hind me, Satan : for", disappears in the best authorities. The change of order necessitates the omission. The copyists as often added to Luke what is really the language of Matthew; and even some critics have been so undiscerning as not to detect the imposition. As it stands in the received Greek text and the English version, Satan is told to go, and seems to stand his ground and again tempt the Lord, stultify ing His command. But the clause I have named (and not merely the word " for," as Bloomfield imagines) is ON THE GOSPELS, 293 well known to have no claim to stand, as being destitute of adequate authority. There are good manuscripts that contain the clause, but the weight, for antiquity and character of MSS., and for variety of the old versions, is on the other side, not to speak of the internal evidence, which would be decisive with much inferior external evidence. Hence, too, Satan could hardly be spoken of here as going away like one driven off by indignation, as in Mat thew. "And when the devil had ended all the [every] temptation, he departed from him for a season." This lets us into another very material truth, that Satan only went off till another season, when he should return. And this he did for a yet severer character of trial at the end of the Lord's hfe, the account of which is given us with pecuhar elaborateness by Luke ; for it is his province above all to show the moral import of the agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus then returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. Man was victor over Satan. Unlike the first Adam, the Second Man comes off with energy proved triumphant in obedience. How does He use this power? He repairs to His despised quarters. "And there went out a fame of him to all the region round about. And he taught in their syna gogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up." The fact that follows is mentioned here, and here only, with 294 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES any detail; whatever allusion there may be to it elsewhere, it is here only we have, by the Spirit of God, this most living and characteristic portrait of our Lord Jesus entering upon His ministry among men according to the purpose and ways of divine grace. Deeds of power are but the skirts of His glory. It is not, as Mark opens it out to us, teaching as nobody ever taught, and then dealing with the unclean spirit before them all. This is not the inauguration we have in Luke, any more than a crowd of miracles, at once the herald and the seal of His doctrine, as in Matthew. Neither is it indi vidual dealing with souls, as in John, who shows Him attracting the hearts of those that were with the Baptist or at their lawful occupations, and call ing them to follow Him. Here He goes into the synagogue, as His custom was, and stands up to read. "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias." What a moment ! He who is God was become man, and deigns to act as such among men. " And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." It is the man Christ Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord was not upon Him as God, but as man, and so