Amen. kingdom, and the power, and figure their faces, that they may the glory, for ever. appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 16¶ Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they dis o Mark 11. 25, 26; Eph. 4, 32; Col. 3. 13. p Chap. 18. 35; James 2. 13. If thou dost lead us into dangers to our virtue, give us strength to overcome. The evil here named does not mean simply the Evil One; but all evil, including all sin and hell as well as the devil. All this prayer and submission we offer to thee, O God, for thine is every supreme excellence; namely, the wide kingdom of the world, the absolute power over it, and the glory of all thine own attributes. of all thy vast monarchy, and of all its grand events and results. Amen-So let it be. It has the entire consent of our own hearts. 15. Forgive not... neither-See on Matt. xviii, 35. Our Saviour adds this to impress the sincerity of the petition upon our hearts. c. Sincerity in fasting. 16. Moreover-Be not only thus sincere in alms and prayer, but also in fasting. Put on no grim airs to attract attention, but fast unto God. г 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. ⚫g Isaiah 58. 5.—r Ruth 3. 3; press; and yet they are well retained 17. Anoint thine head, and wash thy face-As these were the customary daily dressings of the Jews, our Lord. in the words, directs them to use their ordinary modes when fasting. Of course here is no reducing the practice of anointing the head to a universal Christian command. The practice of anointing with oil as an inauguration of kings and priests, has already been mentioned. Matt. i, 1. But there were also anointings of guests, of the sick, and of the dead. The practice is extremely ancient; as there apOf a sad countenance-Solemn thought pear, even upon the monuments of ar naturally indeed produces a solemn ex- cient Egypt, figures in the act of pourpression of countenance. Penitence ing oil upon the head of a person sitting may produce tears. And all this is or standing before them. This use of right, provided the external expression oil in the dry climate of the East is is produced by the internal feeling be- supposed to impart softness and brilfore God. Nay, one may put on sack-liancy to the skin, to prevent the weakcloth and ashes, or use other means to bring his feelings to the right state. But to assumo expressions, or put on forms, for the purpose of a show where the reality is not within, is simply hypocrisy. Forms, indeed, are often in a degree deserted by the feeling they ex ening effects of too much perspiration, and to impart to the person health and beauty. Hence, it becomes the emblem of joy and gladness, of excellence and blessing, of divine favour and distinction, of royalty and priesthood. Hence, in periods of symbolical sorrow, 19 Lay not up for your-treasures in heaven, where neiselves treasures upon earth, ther moth nor rust doth corrupt, where moth and rust doth cor- and where thieves do not break rupt, and where thieves break through nor steal: through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves 8 Prov. 23. 4; 1 Tim. 6. 17; Heb. 13. 5; James 5. 1, &c. of mourning, penitence, and fasting, the Jews abjured the use of oil. III. CHRISTIAN PIETY DISTINGUISHED FROM GENTILISM, vi, 19– vii, 27. Fallen Judaism is the impure service of the true God; Gentilism is the true service of a false god. That god is the world-god Mammon. Gentilism has lost its divine parent; it has become orphaned of our Father who is in heaven. In his place it has substituted the Mammon service and the earthly goods. After all these things do the Gentiles seek. Verse 32. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. t Chap. 19. 21; Luke 12. 33, 34; 18. 22; 1 Tim. 6. 19; 1 Pet. 1. 4. first the higher good, all these things, constituting the lower good, shall be subordinately added unto us. ver. 33. And, second, the word treasures does not mean simply riches. The term is not to be literally limited to material wealth alone, but is a symbol for whatever we hold to be our main good, whatever has our predominant affection, whatever is our aim of life. The sentiment, then, is, Make heavenly, not earthly good supreme in your heart. So also moth, rust, and thieves are symbols of whatever can destroy our treasures. It is perfectly plain that with verse If our treasures are wealth, riches take 18 our Lord closes his treatment of fall-wings and fly away; if beauty, disease en Judaism. Thereafter he takes a wider scope over the world, and treats, throughout the remainder of the chapter, upon the world-wide substitution of the earthly good for the heavenly good, (19-23,) of the rivalry of Mammon before the heavenly Father, (24,) and the dominion of Care in the place of the kingdom or dominion of God over us. (25-30.) He calls us back beneath the paternity of God, promising that if we will make him our sole Supreme, all earthly goods shall be subordinately added. 1. Our treasure not on earth, but in heaven. may impair it; if learning, idiocy; if strength, paralysis; if talent, insanity, and of all our treasures, in whatever form, the grand thief is death. For yourselves-Making gratification of self your end. Moth-The moth is a worm which breeds in neglected clothes, eats their substance, and destroys their texture. So Isa. 1, 9; li, 8; Ecc. xix, 3. Rust— Corrosion, or wear and tear of any kind. Corrupt-Destroy. 20. Treasures in heaven-The use of the word treasures here shows that its sense is symbolical for that which is our highest interest. For yourselves-This treasure may, indeed, be for your selves. Earthly good is transient; you are a mere momentary holder, and not But heavenly treasures become your own forever. 19. Treasures-The first thought of a guperficial reader of these words is likely to be, that our Saviour actually forbids all acquirement of wealth or pro-an owner. perty, real or personal. And objectors to the Scriptures endeavour to maintain this as the true construction, and so to prove that Jesus teaches a monkish kind of piety. But, first, it is to be marked that the very basis on which our Lord gives this precept presupposes that earthly goods are good in their place. His doctrine is that, if we seek 21. Where your treasure is, there... heart-If your treasure is earthly, your heart is earthly. Now, our Lord condemns no true earthly good, no true earthly enjoy. ment; he simply claims that in these shall not consist our treasures; and that all their value shall consist in their en 22 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy one, and despise the other. whole body shall be full of dark-Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! Luke 11. 34, 35, 36. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, 2 Cor. 11. 3; Eph. 6. 5. v Gal. 1. 10; 1 Tim. 6. 17; James 4. 4; 1 John 2. 15. a Luke 16. 13. * Psa. 55. 22; Luke 12. 22; Phil. 4. 6; 1 Pet. 5. 7. abling us to be better servants of God and winners of the true treasures. For this purpose a single eye is necessary, as shown in the next two verses. 22. Light of the body is the eye-The body is as a large room, naturally dark, of which the inhabitant is the soul. But it has a light or lamp, the eye; for the eye gathers light from the external world of knowledge, and pours it, like a lamp, into the spacious residence of the soul. Eye be single-Or pure from any foreign substance, duplicating and impeding its clear blaze. Body...light-If the lamp give a pure light, the room is completely filled with illumination. When the moral perception is uninterfered with by any alloy of base self-interest, the soul possesses the pure light of truth. 23. If thine eye be evil-If the eye is evil by corrupting disease or foreign substance. Darkness-Of course a blind eye makes a dark body and soul. And morally, where the spiritual eye is disturbed and blinded by unholy motives and worldly self-interest, the soul is filled with darkness. But the Jews were often inclined to struggle against this heathen worldworship; and so a rivalry and a compromise arose in their hearts between the world-god and the true God. Our Lord now meets this case. 2. The world must not stand in competition with God, 24-34. 24. Two masters-If the masters indeed agree perfectly, it is essentially one master. But here two signifies opposing. They are two, (as two masters over will be,) not only in number, but in interest; and the poor slave or worVOL. I.-7 shipper is under a conflicting jurisdiction, where one authority commands and another prohibits. Mammon-There is no proof that Mammon was the name of a Syrian false god, or really an idol deity at all. Augustine says it is a Punic word signifying gain. The word was used in later and corrupt Hebrew for wealth. It is here personified by our Lord as the rival to the true God-an antigod of this world. He is the supreme Dollar of the day. Hate...love-In the heart. Hold to .despise-In the external conduct. Either in heart, or in action, or both, one of the masters will be sole master. Serve-As a slave or a worshipper. You cannot serve both; but you may make God your Lord, and Mammon your servant. But if God alone must be worshipped, and Mammon despised, what will become of our support for life? Our Lord now meets the question. Be not anxious about the matter; tho duty is your part, the care is God's. He who has adjusted his providential care to the bird, (which, indeed, hunts his food, yet lives by faith,) and to the lily, (that, indeed, struggles to gather moisture, and yet depends on God to paint her texture,) will also adjust his care for you, his chosen servants. Perform, indeed, every duty in the world; then leave all the care to God, and rise to the true dignity of the true man of faith, who brings the world beneath his feet and sets God above all. This is the true place of human excellence and of divine repose. what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? 26 a Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither a Job 38. 41; Psa. 147. 9; Luke 12. 24, &c. 25. Therefore-Since it is God's part, like a true master, to care for us. Take no thought-This rendering of the Greek, (μepuuva, merimna, distraction, distrust,) is in itself too strong. The Greek word is derived from the verb μɛpiw, merizo, to divide, and implies the distraction of mind between different feelings; or rather, between the true God and the world-god of Gentilism. Let there be no half-and-half distraction of your mind between the two masters, by which anxiety for worldly good shall prevent your complete trust in God. Your anxiety is just so much belief that wealth is safer than God, and Mammon a better master than Christ. What ye shall eat-The questions here condemned should be carefully understood. They are not the questions asked by a housewife who has a dinner to provide to-day; nor the questions of an industrious householder who has a family to feed. These provident queries are a rightful duty, and to furnish the solid answer is its proper performance. The prohibited questions ask not properly how shall I be supplied, but shall I be supplied at all. The questions thus prohibited are questions of infidel distrust asked by a Mammon worshipper, who is called upon to become a man of faith, but is afraid he will thereby lose his earthly living. For all these distrusts our Lord is about to furnish the true, magnanimous, consoling answer. Venture the holy investment; trust in God, and do duty. Life...meat ..body...raiment-Will not he who gave the better, furnish also the inferior? If God gave life and body, will he not give food and raiment? 26. Fowls of the air-They do their part, and God takes care of the rest. Hence we have not an unintelligent fate, do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not :nuch better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? b Eccl. 3. 14; 1 Cor. 12. 18. or a blind chance to deal with; but a heavenly Father, who knows his children, and how to provide for them The birds of heaven shall teach you to live by faith. 27. Add one cubit to his stature-To provide food and to eat food is man's duty; to regulate the digestive process, the growth, the size, comes within the prerogative of God. We can do our part, and God takes care of the rest. The word cubit (Latin, cubitus) signifies primarily the human arm, from the elbow to the end of the longest finger. This part of the human frame (like the foot) became, very anciently, a measure of external objects. The ancient Egyptian cubit was six handbreadths, or two spans, a span being the measure from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger of the extended hand. These are somewhat variable measures, but the cubit was about eighteen inches. This Some have rendered the word stature here by the word life, and would improve the meaning by making our Lord ask whether we can add a cubit to life-a very odd phrase indeed. Dr. Stier, in his learned work, The Words of Jesus, supposes himself to have settled the question in favour of this meaning by showing that in verses 26, 27 our Lord illustrates the life alone, and in verses 28-30 the body alone. is true; but it proves just the reverse of Dr. Stier's conclusions. The body, as the subject of clothing only, is spoken of in 28-30. In 27 the life is, indeed, the subject, but the life as developing the growth and stature attained. The Greek word for stature does not properly signify life, except as measured by the growth. It is derived from a word signifying how great, and the rof 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to c1 Kings 10. 5, 7; 2 Chron. 9. 4, 6.--d Mark 4. 40: Heb. 3. 12. erence to size and growth is never lost from the word. Cubit is a very uncommon measurement of time, though the ordinary one of stature. The obvious meaning is, man may provide food, but God regulates the growth. Upon the phraseology of this verse Mr. Roberts remarks: "This form of speech is sometimes used to humble those of high pretensions. Thus a man of low caste who has become rich, and who assumes authority over his better born though poor neighbours, will be asked: 'What, has your money made you a cubit higher?' that is. in the scale of being. Is a man ambitious of rising in society? a person who wishes to annoy him will put his finger to his elbow, and showing him that part to the tip of the middle finger, ask: 'Friend, will you ever rise thus much [a cubit] after all your cares?' 'Yes, yes; the low caste thinks himself a cubit taller, because he has got the favour of the king." 28. Lilies-The Amaryllis lutea has been supposed to be the flower here specified. which is described as affording "one of the most brilliant and gorgeous objects in nature." But Dr. Royle (Kitto's Cyc.) decides it to be the Lilium Chalcedonicum, a flower marked for its showy splendour. Observe, the birds illustrate the precept in regard to food, the lilies in regard to raiment. 30. Cast into the oven-As a fuel, after it has become withered and dry. In the word grass, here, the lilies mentio ed in a previous verse are in ded. These, and all other grown |