The six til and seventh " woes" in the list possess too much in common to be divided. They are directed against a general characteristic of the religion of the Scribes. They set outward purity and decency above in- ward sanctification and purity of heart. They made it a religious duty to cleanse the " outside'' of their cups and platters, but neglected their own inward man. They were like whitened sepulchres, clean and beautiful ex- ternally, but within full of all corruption. ^' Even so they outwardly appeared righteous, but within were full of hypocrisy and iniquity.'' This also was a great sin.
The last "woe" in the list is directed against the affepted veneration of the Scribes and Pharisees for the memory of dead saints. They built the " tombs of the prophets," and garnished " the sepulchres of the right- eous." And yet their own lives proved that they were of one mind with those who " killed the prophets." Their own conduct was a daily evidence that they liked dead saints better than living ones. The very men that pretended to honor dead prophets, could see no beauty in a living Christ. This also was a great sin.*
Such is the melancholy picture which our Lord gives
* A passage from the Berlenberger Bible on this subject is suffi- ciently striking to deserve insertion.
" Ask in Moses's times, who were the good people, they will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but not Moses — ^he should be stoned. Ask in Samuel's times, who were the good people, they wiU be Moses and Joshua, but not Samuel. Ask in the times of Christ, who were such, they will be all the former prophets with Samuel, but not Christ and His apostles."
The Latin proverbs " mortui non mordent," and " sit divus, dum- modo non vivus ," are both illustrative of the same truth.
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of Jewish teachers. Let us turn from the contemplation of it with sorrow and humihation. It is a fearful exhi- bition of the morbid anatomy of human nature. It is a picture which unhappily has been reproduced over and over again in the history of the Church of Christ. There is not a point in the character of the Scribes and Phari- sees in which it might not be easily shown, that persons calling themselves Christians have often walked in their steps.*
Let us learn from the whole ' passage how deplorable was the condition of the Jewish nation when our Lord was upon earth. When such were the teachers, what must have been the miserable darkness of the taught ! Truly the iniquity of Israel had come to the full. It was high time indeed for the Sun of Eighteousness to arise and the Grospel to be preached.
Let us learn from the whole passage how abominable is hypocrisy in the sight of God. These Scribes and Pharisees are not charged with being thieves or murder- ers, but with being hypocrites to the very core. What- ever we are in our religion, let us resolve never to wear a cloak. Let us by all means be honest and real.
Let us learn from the w^hole passage how awfully dangerous is the position of an unfaithful minister. It is bad enough to be blind ourselves. It is a thousand times
* I cannot avoid the opportunity of here expressing my firm con- viction, that our Lord's sayings in this chapter are meant to bear a prophetical signification, and to apply to corruptions -which He fore- saw would spring up in His professing Church. Beyond doubt there is a most unhappy similarity between the doctrines and practices of the Scribes and Pharisees, and many of the leading corruptions of the Church of Rome.
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