Have the eyes of our understanding been opened P Hav^ we the wisdom that cometh from above ? — If we are truly wise, let us not be ashamed to confess our Master before men. Let us declare boldly that we approve the whole of His Gospel, all its doctrines and all its requirements. We may find few with us and many against us. The world may laugh at us, and count our wisdom no better tiian folly. But such laughter is but for a moment. The hour cometh when the few who have confessed Christy and justified His ways before men, shall be confessed and "justified" by Him before His Father and the angels.
Notes. Luxe VII. 31—35.
82. — [They are like unto children.] Let it be noted that the one point to be kept in mind, in the comparison of the generation among whom our Lord lived, to children, is the waywardness and determination not to be pleased, which is often observable in some children. In this respect they were exact types of the Jews when John Baptist and our Lord successively preached to them. Their two ministries were peculiarly unlike one another. But neither pleased the Jews.
To attach deep spiritual meanings to the " marketplace," the "piping," "dancing," "mourning," and "weeping," of the simili- tude, is, to say the least, unprofitable.
[Ye have not danced.] The dancing here mentioned must not be tortured into an excuse for modem dancing-parties and balls. The dancing spoken of in Scripture had no resemblance to the dancing of modem times.
S4. — [Eating and drinking.] The utmost that can be made of this expression amounts to this, that our Lord's habits in the matter of eating and drinking were di^rent from those of John the Baptist, that He was less ascetic, and more like other men.
Comparing this verse with the preceding one, and rememler- ing, also, our Lord's miracle at the marriage in Can a, and the Institution of the Lord's Supper, I certainly think there is a strong probability that our Lord did not altogether abstain ft'om the use of wine. I say this with the utmost respect for the friends of temperance. But I do not like to see a good cause injured by its advocates taking up untenable ground.
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