has led to many strange dealings with Scripture. " Harmonies/' however well meant, have done little good to the Church of Christ.
[Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees.'] This is a warning which is given in another place, on a totally distinct occasion. It is a great sttoding caution to the Church against formality and hypocrisy. Few warnings have heen so much needed and so much overlooked. *' Leaven " is the word used to express false doctrine, hecause it works secretly and silently, — hecause its quantity is small compared to the whole mass of dough, — and hecause, once mingled, it alters the whole character of the bread. This is precisely the case with false doctrine. It seems " a little one." It works stealthily and noiselessly. Insensibly it poisons the whole Gospel. If men will add to or taike away from the great prescription for the cure of souls, the divine medicine is spoiled.
2. — [Nothing covered,,. revealed.'] This verse seems to admit of two interpretations. It is a general statement of the uselessness of hypocrisy. Everything shall appear in its true colours at last. It is an injunction to the disciples to reserve and keep back nothing in their teaching. They are to " declare all the counsel of God." The distinction between interior and exterior doctrines, inward truths for the learned and outward truths for the un- learned, however approved by some philosophers, finds no coun- tenance in the Gospel.
8. — [parkness.,.Ught„,closets.,,housetop8!] These expressions all seem to be jjroverbial. They all teach the duty of keeping no- thing back in teaching the Gospel. To understand the^ " house- tops," we should remember that Eastern houses generally had flat roofs, which were much used by the inhabitants.
4. — [Them that kill the hody^ dc] The distinction between body and soul, and the separate existence of the soul after the body IB dead, are clearly brought out in this passage. The use which martyrs have often made of this verse at the moment of death, is a striking and remarkable fact in Church history.
5. — [Fear him., .hath power.,. hell.] Some commentators think with Stier, that this means the devil. This however seems very unlikely. The power of life and death is not in the hands of the devil. Most think that it means God, who alone kills and makes alive, casts down and raises up. This view is fully and clearly set forth by Chemnitius.
The reality and fearfulness of hell stand out awfully on the face of this verse. There is a hell after death. The state of the wicked man after this life is not annihUation. There is a hell which ought to be feared. There is a just God who will finally cast into hell the obstinately impenitent and unbelieving.
64 EXPOSITORY THOrOHTB.
Let us not fail to notice that "fear" is an argument that oiight sornetimes to be pressed on professing Christians. Christ Himself used it. Burkitt says, " It is good to raise a friend's fear, when that fear is for his good." To say, as some ignorantly do, that love, and not fear, is the only argument which should he addressed to believers, is a modem and unscriptural notion.
6. — [Not one of them is forgotten.] The providential care of God over all His creatures is strikngly taught in this and the follow- ing verse. Nothing was too little for God to create. Nothing is too little for God to preserve. Nothing that concerns God's people is too little for Him to manage, or for them to bring be- fore Him in prayer. Our least matters are in God's hands. Major remarks, that this providence of God over the least things was a truth of which the heathen philosophers had no concep- tion. The Epicureans, the Academics, the followers of Aristode and others, maintained that the gods regarded the imiverse in general, but not particular persons and things.
LUKE Xn. 8—12.
8 Also I say unto yon, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess be- fore the angels of God :
9 Bnt he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.
10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him : but unto him that
blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.
11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or wnat thing ye shall answer, or what ve shall say :
12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
Wb are taught, firstly, in these verses, that tee must con- fess Christ upon earthy if we expect Him to oum us as His saved people at the last day. We must not be ashamed to let all men see that we believe in Christ, and serve Christ, and love Christ, and care more for the praise of Christ than for the praise of man.
The duty of confessing Christ is incumbent on all Christians in every age of the Church. Let us never forget that. It is not for martyrs only, but for all believ- ers, in every rank of life. It is not for great occasions only, but for our daily walk through an evil world. The
hVKR, CHAP. XII. VBR. 8 — 12. 66
rich maa among the rich, the labourer among labourers, the young among the young, the servant among servants, — each and all must be prepared, if they are true Chris- tians, to confess their Master. It needs no blowing a trumpet. It requires no noisy boasting. It needs nothing more than using the daily opportunity. But one thing is certain ; — ^if a man loves Jesus, he ought not to be ashamed to let people know it.
The difficulty of confessing Christ is undoubtedly very great. It never was easy at any period. It never will be easy as long as the world stands. It is sure to entail on us laughter, ridicule, contempt, mockery, enmity, and perse- cution. The wicked dislike to see any one better than themselves. The world which hated Christ will always hate true Christians. But whether we Uke it or not, whether it be hard or easy, our course is perfectly dear. In one way or another Christ must be confessed.
The grand motive to stir us up to bold confession is forcibly brought before us in the words which we are now considering. Our Lord declares, that if we do not confess Him before men, He will ''not confess us before the angels of God" at the last day. He will refuse to acknowledge UB as His people. He will disown us as cowards, faithless, and deserters. He will not plead for us. He will not be our Advocate. He will not deliver us from the wrath to oome. He will leave us to reap the consequences of our cowardice, and to stand before the bar of God helpless, defenceless, and unforgiven. What an awful prospect is tliis ! How much turns on this one hinge of '' confessing Ghrist before men ! " Surely we ought not to hesitate &r a moment. To doubt between two such alternatives is