may find the practice useful and helpful to their souls at the present day are right in fa^sting, if they do it without ostenta- tion, is also plain. But the utter ahsene^ of any direct injunc- tion, or command to keep fasts in the Church of Christ, either in the Acts or Epistles, and specially in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, makes it clear that the matter is one which should he handled with caution, and on which every one must he *' per- suaded in bis own mind/'
The words before us appear to bave a deeper meaning than any mere abstinence from rood. They seem to foretell that the period of time between- our Lord's first and second advent must be a time of mourning and humiliation to all true believers. They describe the state of mind in which all true Christians should live until their Lord returns. It is a time for daily and hourly self-denial, and mortification. The time of fulness and satisfaction cannot be till we see the Bridegroom amongst us again.
36. — [He spake also a parable.] The parables of the new piece on the old garment, and the new wine into old bottles, are not without difficulty. It is curious to observe how variously they are interpreted and applied to the subject matter in dispute between our Lord and the Pharisees, by commentators on this passage.
It appears to me that, as in many of our Lord's parables, so in the t\EO before us, we must be careful not to press particiilar expressions too far, or to seek a spiritual meaning for each inaividual portion of the whole.
The general truth our Lord desires to enforce on His hearers is the acknowledged incongruity between things old and new, and the unreasonableness of expecting persons accustomed to one system immediately to adopt another as soon as it appears. If we insist on going beyond this point, and must assign a meaning to "the patch," "the rent" and the like, I tbinkwe shall only darken counsel, and take nothing by our toil. At any rate all who have attempted it, appear to me to have failed,
89. — [The old is better.] It seems very likely that in this conclud- ing verse our Lord speciallv refers to the disciples of John the Baptist. They had drunk of the " old wine " of John's teaching, and could bardly be expected to become straightway attached to the "new wine" of our Lord's kingdom.
Wordsworth remarks, that the beginning of this sentence is a pure Iambic verse, and may perhaps oe a poetical proverb adopted by our Lord, of which St. Luke here gives the Greek form. He reminds us that even when our Lord appeared to Saul, on the way to Damascus, He condescended to use a Gentile proverb. (Acts ix. 5.)