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doncy, of His religion. We must distinguish between the intentional aim of Christ's coming, and the accidental event of it. Christ's intentional aim was to plant, propagate, and pro- mote peace in the world. But tluiough the lust and corruption of man's nature, the issue and event of His coming is war and division ; not that these are the genuine and natiu*al fruits of the Gbspel, butt occasional and accidental only."
'b2.-^[Fii)e in one house dwided, dc] T^e expressions in this and the following verse must not he pressed too literally. In some houses there are not five persons. In others there are many more than five. — In some families, where the work of conversion be- gins, the father and son are entirely of one mind, and so also are Qie mother and daughter. — The expressions are manifestly pro- verbial. The plain lesson they are meant to convey is this, that the Gosp^will often produce divisions in families, and that even two persons who are most nearly related, may become estranged from one another, in consequence of one being converted and the other not. That this is constantly the case, is well known to all who know auything of true religion. Few believers can look round the circle of their relatives and acquaintances, and not see striking illustrations of the truth of our Lord's prophecy in this passage. Melancholy as it seems, it is a fact that nothing annoys some persons so much as the conversion of their relatives.