26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.

27 Notwithstanding, 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.

half an

Or, a stater.

ounce of silver, in value 2s. 6d. after 5s, the

ounce.

26. "Peter." So D., E., F., G., K., M., S., &c., most Cursives, &c. ; but N, B., C., L., and some versions omit. Ille dixit, ab alienis. (Vulg.) "Children; " rather, "sons." 27. "Piece of money;"σrare; equal in value to four drachmas.

a servant. I am a Son-the only begotten Son of the God for Whose house this tax is levied; and as the kings of the earth would never think of exacting taxes of their own children, so I being the Son of the God of the Temple am free." This saying of Christ's distinctly implies His oneness in nature with the Father. "Seest thou," says Chrysostom, "how He hath distinguished the Son from them that are not sons? . . . He is discoursing not of the sons generally, but of the genuine sons, men's very own; of them that share the kingdom with their parents."

27. "Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them." He is not careful about giving offence where offence was needed, as wher He offended the Pharisees by contradicting their false notions respecting defilement (chap. xv. 11, 12), but He is careful not to give even the shadow of offence where the matter is harmless. In this case He might have pleaded that what was originally imposed was only to be levied when the number of the people was taken, and that the annual collection of the impost was an after-thought of man, a manifest addition to the original law: but it was imposed for a good purpose, the maintenance of His Father's house and worship; and so, though He showed to Peter His fair ground of exemption, He performed a miracle to pay the demand. Special difficulties have been suggested respecting this miracle, even by some who accept the supernatural in the Gospels. Some of the objections are childish, such as that when the fish opened his mouth to take the hook, he must have dropped the piece of money; but this depends entirely upon the quarter from which the fish approached the bait-if from below, he would not have dropped it. The one single fish was brought to the hook by the same power, exerted, as far as I can see, in the same way,

as the many hundreds or thousands in the miraculous draught of fishes were brought within the sweep of the net. Like all other miracles, it shows our Lord's power over every part of nature, and His perfect knowledge of all things, no matter how secret, or how trifling in our estimation.

A

CHAP. XVIII.

Tthe same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying,
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mark ix. 33. 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

Luke ix. 46.

& xxii. 24.

b Ps. cxxxi. 2. ch. xix. 14.

Mark x. 14.

3 And said, Verily I say unto you Except be converted, and become as little children, 1 Cor. xiv. 20. ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Luke xviii. 16.

1 Pet, ii, 2.

ye

1. "The greatest; " literally, "who, then, is greater."

3. "Except ye be converted." "Except ye turn," Revisers, or "be turned," Alford.

1. "At the same time came the disciples to Jesus, saying, Who then is the greatest," &c. It is probable from the form of the question, “Who then is the greatest" that we must understand the account in Mark ix. 33, 34, 35, as immediately preceding, and, in fact, directly leading to this question. There we read that the Lord had asked, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? And when He received no answer, He called the twelve, as if to emphasize what He was about to say, and saith to them, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." This naturally made them ask, "Who then is greater? Is there to be a dead equality in the Kingdom of Heaven?" And then the Saviour calls the little child and sets him in the midst of them as their exemplar.

3. "Except ye be converted and become as little children." Let the reader particularly notice this. Our Lord does not lay down here the necessity of conversion: as far as I remember He never does, because He invariably presses upon men the necessity of a far deeper thing, viz., repentance unto life. He does not lay down the need of conversion generally and absolutely, but of conversion with

с

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of⚫ ch. xx. 27. heaven.

& xxiii. 11,

4. "The same is greatest; " rather, "greater," as before. reference to their then state of mind. "Except ye be converted and become as little children." They had by their disputing which of them should be the greatest, showed that their state of mind was the very opposite of that which a man must have if he would possess and enjoy the things of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven, according to our Lord's first beatitude, belongs to the poor in spirit; and one of the first features of this "poverty of spirit," is a likeness to little children, in such matters as being devoid of emulation, self-seeking, love of glory or pre-eminence, in being also simple-hearted, simple-minded, unworldly, teachable. It is the ambitious, worldly temper which more than aught else has ruined the Church-so far as such an institution can be ruined.

But it will be needful to go a little deeper into this. The mind of the little child, not only in its teachableness, but in its faith-its trust in the word of others, whom God has given to it as the objects of its trust, as its parents, and teachers-its unsophisticatedness, its belief in the reality of all around it, is the thing which a man must have in him if he would enjoy the kingdom of God. A child thinks that everything he sees is that which it appears to be; he takes everything said to him as said in earnest. He does this simply because he has had no experience of a world of unreality and falsehood. If he is to make his way in the world he must get rid of this childlike simplicity, and learn to distrust, and to be on his guard respecting men's characters and dispositions, and so on. But this character of lowliness, simple-mindedness, and reliance, which would hinder him from getting on in a world of falsehood, is the very thing which he must retain or recover if he is to possess the spiritual world, the world in which God speaks, the kingdom of truth and love-the reality for which the kingdom of God or the Church of Christ in its outward form exists. He must humble himself as a little child to enter into, to realize, to make his own of, such things as the Person of Christ, God and Man, His work of redemption, His perpetual presence, the indwelling of the Spirit, the hidden spiritual sense of Scripture, the Church, not as an outward thing, but as the Body of Christ, the Sacramental Mystery, the pass

5 And

d ch. x. 42.

Luke ix. 48.

Mark ix. 42.

Luke xvii. 1, 2.

whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

6. "Millstone;" literally, "millstone worked by an ass," i.e., a very large one; mola asinaria. (Vulg.)

ing away of the world, the imminence of the second Coming. It is quite clear that a man which enters into all this can have no desire for the high places of the visible Church. He may not dare to refuse them if offered to him, but in respect of those things for which the world desires them, he will receive them with fear and trembling. Humility, and childlike submission to every word of God, can alone enable a man to see and possess the kingdom: and contrariwise the things of the kingdom are so overpoweringly great, so spiritual, so heavenly, that they must humble to the dust the man who by faith realizes them. "Whosoever then shall humble himself as this little child, the same is [not greatest, but] the greater,"-our Lord answering in the very words of the question of the Apostles.

5. "Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me." Whosoever shall show kindness to any little child for the sake of Christ, because he is of the Church of Christ, or in order that he may be brought into the Church of Christ, or continue in its fold, in doing this to the least of Christ's brethren, he does it unto Christ.

What an encouragement to godly parents who receive their children, not as coming to them naturally, but from Christ, to be educated by them for Him as the seed of His Church! What an encouragement to all faithful sons and daughters of the Church who strive to bring neglected little ones to the font and to the Christian school, or who for Christ's sake stand as their sponsors! What an encouragement to those who prayerfully and patiently teach children the truths of the Catholic faith and catechize them, and though laboriously employed during the week, give ungrudgingly of their time, on their only day of leisure, to these holy offices of love. They are told here that they receive Christ, and can anything greater or better be said of any human being than that he receiveth Christbut, of course, because Christ has first received him.

Luke xvii. 1.

7¶ Woe unto the world because of offences! for 'it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh !

1 Cor. xi. 19.
g eh. xxvi. 24.

7. "Offences," i.e., "scandals;""occasions of sin in others;" or, "incentives to sin in our neighbours."

6. "Offend one of these little ones which believe in me." Ey adding the words "which believe in me," it has been thought that our Lord includes under the term "little ones" all who believe, even though their faith be weak, and doubtless He does; but Christians young in age and Christians of weak faith are offended, i.e., made to stumble and sin by the same evil things. How are Christians of any age made to stumble? By the evil example of others, by speaking lightly and jocosely of holy things, by words which undermine their faith, or pollute their pure hearts, or excite their carnal curiosity.

"It were better for him that a millstone," &c. The word here used for millstone is applied to a stone of great weight, which it requires an ass to move in the mill. This drowning with a huge stone round their necks was the punishment awarded to great criminals; and its terror consisted in this, that the weight of the stone prevented the body from being drawn out of the depth and buried. The ancients always believed that the want of burial rites was severely felt by the soul in the unseen state. Our Lord, of course, gives no sanction to such an opinion, but he simply refers to the horror in which the punishment was popularly held. Quesnel has a remark worth reproducing: "If, by offending one single soul, we thus draw on ourselves the indignation of God, how dreadful in His sight must those be who offend a whole city, and by their wanton manners, lascivious and loose discourses, immodest pictures, and wicked example, occasion the ruin and fall of a vast number of souls!"

7. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come." Offences "must needs be" because sin is in the human heart, and will show itself in the life and conversation, causing many to stumble and fall: but that does not exonerate the man who neglects to use the means set forth in the Gospel (such as prayer) for getting rid of sin, and cleansing his heart. There are offences by which many are defiled; and many fall away, it is to be feared, irrevocably, because men will not lay hold of such promises