vants; He takes the case as it is, and uses it as a similitude for the illustration of a higher truth which is shadowed forth in it. For the rest, and independently of the parable, it is a matter in itself sufficiently plain, that no man ought to regard himself as so absolutely the master of any other man; that no man should count his ploughmen and herdsmen as being no more than the field they labour in, and as only to be fed like cattle for his own profit. That the supreme, all-holy Lord, whose absolute perty we are, in body and soul, by creation and redemption, does not thus regard His servants, but rather that He does superabundantly both thank and reward them, has been earlier shown in another parable, chap. xii. 37, which must be taken as the complement of this. But this is here concealed in the background;1 for, the present parable is obviously dealing with the prerogative and obligations of servants as such.

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Ver. 10. As long as we regard our performance, past or present, of that which is commanded us, under any delusion of its meritoriousness, such a peremptory declaration as this of our Lord befits our slavish thought :-such only, no more and no less, is the meaning of this rigid and severe sentence, in which we have indeed much to abase us, and the humiliation of which is long necessary. Luther has this marginal gloss :-" Here Christ speaks most simply concerning external works, and in the manner of men❞—that is, according to our slavish thought. Elsewhere He graciously calls us not servants but friends (Jno. xv. 14, 15); but this holds good of affectionate and humble children, who know well that He hath chosen them, and ordained them, that they should go and bring forth fruit. And with this the other point of view, concerning the obligatory obedience of Christians as servants, Rom. vi. 16-22, is perfectly consistent. Of this we need constantly to be reminded, on account of our tendency to abuse our freedom in the grace of God (1 Pet. ii. 16); this we ourselves gladly acknowledge as obedient children (1 Pet. i. 13, 14); and far on into the Apocalypse.

1 Παρελθῶν ἀνάπεσαι (with which the παρελθων of ch. xii. 37 is paral lel) might here be said properly to mean-Come hither, and eat with me at your lord's table! This is the prerogative of the children, not of the servants while they remain such. Mensæ servos adhibere manumissionis erat species, as here the jurist Grotius remarks from Ulpian.

"servants of God" remains the title of honour given to the sanctified holy ones before the presence of the supreme Majesty, Rev. i. 1, vii. 3, xix. 5, xxii. 2. Not to serve Him, not to perform as our absolute and bounden duty, all which He has commanded us, would entail a Woe (1 Cor. ix. 16), would make us ourselves a shameful ozάvdaλov; but the opposite never constitutes a ground of merit before the Lord. To esteem the words of His mouth beyond what we are bound to do, mehr denn wir schuldig sind (as Luther's incorrect translation of Job xxiii. 12 runs), or even in love to perform more than is expressly commanded (as Neander intimates, perverting the whole)-is a matter of absolute impossibility. There are no works of supererogation in the sight of God. The fulfilment of the law in love remains ever a debt never to be fully discharged, urging upon us incessant obligations to yet "other commandments." (Rom. xiii. 8, 9.)

Thus, the application goes beyond the analogy and similitude of human things. For a faithful servant is among men profitable to his master (Philem. 2 expηoros), and may, by the service of his loving zeal going beyond his absolute duty, deserve his master's thanks; yea, even the slave, however rigorously regarded as a mere personal property, is yet a benefit to his owner, so that if his hand should smite him to death he would lose his worth in money, and do himself harm. (Ex. xxi. 21.) Further, we are both to our neighbours and to the world of service, as the salt of the earth, and the light of the world; and so far are serviceable to the great and good Master of the house, as being vessels of honour for the purposes of His love. (2 Tim. ii. 21.) But, as soon as the question arises, whether God is indebted to us in any degree, the answer is eternally,—dovñor άxpetoí coμev. Nothing is to be qualified in this strong expression: it does not signify here idle, indolent servants (Syr. quite incorrect TN); for, they are regarded as doing all; nor is it merely abject, lowly, or insignificant. (As the Sept. translation &xpeños for , 2 Sam. vi. 22, has been strangely adduced, where David will be had in honour of the meaner maid-servants through his own humility.) So also "unworthy" is not enough-as Neander e.g. translates. But even as the Lord will in the great judgment cast out the servant who is worthless and unprofitable for the service of His kingdom,

T T

so must we all on our part be fully conscious and acknowledge that we never could have been in any sense profitable to God, -that He never needed us, His worthless creatures, but that all which we have was received from Him. The Etymologicum magnum explains ἀχρεῖος simply and well—οὗ μὴ ἔχει τις Xpɛíav, and so it is betwixt us and God. See the true interpretation in Job xxii. 2, 3, xxxv. 6–8, xli. 11; comp. Ecclus. xviii. 6. For Acts xvii. 25 holds good respecting all that man may present to the great Supreme. Is He then to thank us because we did not rise up in rebellion against Himself? Is He under obligation to give us recompense because we yielded up ourselves to be dealt with in mercy, to be saved, to be prepared for all good works, and to be made capable of them?-The Lord does not introduce the servants as saying, under the baseless delusion of presumption-We have been of great service to thee! nor as saying, in the well-grounded truth of an humble avowal-We are far from having done all, much has been lacking! (Ecclus. xviii. 5). He actually allows it to be taken for granted in the orav, that they might have done all; but only to place in their mouths all the more earnest confession of their obligation, to convince them that the ὠφείλομεν ποιῆσαι takes all glorying away from the πεποιήκαμεν. For although this πεποιήκαμεν πάντα becomes at length a glorious truth in the saints made perfect, whose sins are all expiated and covered by the dizaiúpara of faith (Rev. xix. 8), yet is this only by grace conferred on such as were aforetime worthless and unprofitable. This is the last and deepest meaning of the words, and in it the truth of the saying, 2 Cor. iii. 5, finds its superabundant justification. Thus was it that the greatest of the Apostles avowed himself ever the chief of sinners; and he that is righteous remembers abidingly his shame. (Job. x. 15.) How many times since the first forgiveness have we all had to cry before God and man-peravo@! How often have we had to urge our πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν in His presence, whose persevering intercession alone has preserved our faith from becoming extinct! chap. xxii. 32. We are only, and never can be more than vessels; whatever good is in us for His service, He must first pour into them: as He gives us life freely, so must He give us power to labour. Therefore all the thanking must be on our side, and our only giving is—to give

vers. 16, 18, shows.

God the honour; as the following narrative in the same chapter, And not merely as the eyes of the servants look unto the hand of their masters; but we poor sinners must also, and more than that, wait upon the Lord our God, until that He have mercy upon us. (Ps. cxxiii. 2.) But, finally, these Apostles themselves, in the complete performance of their apostolical functions, are no other than the useless and unprofitable servants, sinful men, whom He had made into such successful fishers of men. As every TεTоinzaper in external works is altogether nothing but sin and shame against the true ¿pɛíñoμev, so this expression of our Lord's, which Stein calls a "genuine Pauline saying," applies-and not merely by an impressive σvyzatáBaris to this standing-point (as Luther's gloss explains it), but essentially and preeminently, though alas in experience too often overlooked—to all our acting and obedience from faith itself. Faith is in itself no merit before God, but it is the work of our receiving, laying hold of, and retaining the Divine gift and grace-that by which we become profitable to ourselves, by which we only meet our most true and profoundest obligation, since to reject the grace of God is the most daring rebellion of His miserable creatures.

THE THANKFUL ONE: THE UNTHANKFUL NINE

(Luke xvii. 14, 17-19.)

We must leave it to the harmonists to settle the chronology of this journey of Jesus, as well as to determine how it stands related, as compared with Jno. xi. 54, Matt. xix. 1, to the end indicated in Lu. xix. 11: suffice that this also came to pass in His last journey to Jerusalem. Passing through the midst, between Samaria and Galilee, that is, upon the border; as He was in the way towards entering a certain village (for lepers were not permitted to be very near the gates), there met Him ten unhappy men, whom misery had united as misery often does those otherwise sundered; even the unclean Samaritan is admitted on the border into their company, and they are all unclean together.

They stood afar off as they were bound to do, lifting up with as much vehemence as possible their eager voices (in the case of him who was healed, ver. 15, it became a loud voice); they pay Jesus, whom they seem not to have inquired after before, and but little to know now, the honour to term Him έtiσtátu, as if they would be His disciples-and ask Him to have mercy upon them! Certainly there is faith enough here for the beginning, if we think upon the saying of that king of Israel, 2 Kings v. 7, although it is but the faith which need constrains. The Lord saw less this than the misery itself which troubled Him; and, as the healing of a leper was one of His first miracles after the sermon on the mount, so here, at the end of His career, He heals ten with a single word, without a touch; and, speaking as it were in passing on, does not even say zabaρíolni, just as if the matter was self-understood. But all the more on that account He veils the great work of His own honour, and orders all things wisely for all sides:-He prevents all ostentation, exercises their faith through the promise scarcely expressed on the condition of their going (in Matt. viii., on the contrary, the leper was first healed), and gives to the priests now at the last the same testimony of their rights which He had given from the beginning. And it should be observed here as well as there, with what persistency He deferred to the existing ordinances of God even in their deep degradation and perversion, as witnessing against the spirit of separation which would falsely vindicate itself by His example. The plural rois iεpɛño, is very appropriate, since while the ten were to go at first in a body, afterwards every one was to go to his individual priest, not all together in a too imposing body. And was the Samaritan to go to his

1

1 Schlatter pointed a good application (see his sermon in Brandt's Magazine i. 2): “From the law upon this subject we must perceive that this requisition to show themselves to the priests would redound to the honour of Jesus; not only must His enemies be constrained to admit that the law was not dishonoured or abrogated, but rather vindicated by Him, while its impotence to do anything for the healing of man was established." It is somewhat trifling with the text and weakening its force, to make the expression an assertion which recommends any special direction of souls, as if the Lord could be supposed to point these whom He Himself had healed for further counsel and consolation to the clergy (in this case not likely to afford it!).