the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him alone is no weakness, no failure, no shadow of infirmity. Let us learn to lean more entirely on Him. Let us " call no man father on earth." (Matt, xxiii. 9.) So doing, we shall never be disappointed.
Let us observe, in the second place, how envy and unbe- lief make ?nen throiu discredit on the commission of those who work for God. These chief priests and elders could not deny the reality of our Lord's miracles of mercy. They could not say that His teaching was contrary to Holy Scripture, or that His life was sinful. What then did they do ? They attacked His claim to attention, and demanded His authority — " By what authority doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority ?"*
There can be no doubt whatever that, as a general principle, all who undertake to teach others, should be
* Brentius has some sensible remarks on the unreasonableness of the chief priests and Pharisees, who would neither keep the temple from the encroachment of the buyers and sellers, nor let others do it for them. They would neither exercise the lawful authority which was in their hands, nor allow of our Lord exercising it for them. He shows the similarity of their conduct to that of the Greek and Eo- man churches, and to that of a foolish head of a family, who neither corrects his children himself, nor likes any one to correct them for him. And he concludes by saying, " Let us learn that every one should do his own duty, or else yield up his place to another. Let us not be like the dog in the manger, who would neither eat the hay himself, nor yet allow the ox to eat it." The history of the church of Christ contains only too much of the dog in the manger ! Minis- ters and teachers have often neglected the souls of their people shame- fully, and yet found fault with any one who has tried to do good, and haughtily demanded his authority !
The reflections of the Roman Catholic writer, Quesnel, on this sub- ject, are remarkable : " Those who find themselves vanquished by truth, generally endeavor to reject authority. There are no persons more forward to demand of others a reason for their actions, than those who think they may do every thing themselves without control"