Christian practice, and the certain ruin to which such profession must lead if persisted in. That Christ is the true rock on which we must huiid our hopes, and that there is no other rock on which we can stand, is abundantly taught elsewhere. But it is not the lesson of the passage before us. The passage is a warning against AnUnomianism. Let not that be forgotten.
The habit of accommodating Scripture, and using it in a sense which it was not originally intended to bear, is a dangerous prac- tice. It has indirectly a miscliievous effect on our own minds, and is most confusing to the poor and unlearned. When a poor man hears a sense put on texts which does not appear on the face of them, and in reality can only be drawn from them by accommodation, it makes him think that the Bible is a book which none but learned people can understand.
[Digged deep!] The English language fails here to give the full force of the Greek words. They would be translated more literally, " digged and deepened."
[The flood arose, the stream beat.] To understand this, we must remember that the climate in hot countries is very different from our own. When rains fall in hot countries they often fall very violently, and cause the rivers and streams to swell into a flood very rapidly. Under such circumstances the events de- scribed by our Lord might easily take place, and had doubtiess often been seen by many of Uis hearers.
49. — [He that heareth and doeth not] The plain words of John Bunyan, when he describes Talkative in Pilgrim's Progress, are an admirable commentary on this verse. " The soul of religion is the practical part.* * Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.' (James i. 27.) This Talkative is not aware of. He thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian, and thus he deceive th his own soul. Hearing is but the sowing of the seed. Talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in. the heart and life. Let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not then be said. Did yoa believe ? but, Were you a doer, or talker only? And accordingly they shall be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest ; and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fiuit."