dissolute and profligate habits among beggars, and enormoiulj increases the very eyil which it is meant to relieve.
Such instances of literal obedience to our Lord's command in this passage, as Cornelius a Lapide quotes in his Commentary, are melancholy instances of useless and mischievous kindness. He tells us how St. Louis of France used daily to feed a hundred and twenty poor people, and how St. Hedwig, Duchess of Poland, used daily to feed nine hundred poor people ! The slightest knowledge of human nature will tell us that such liberality would certainly be grosely abused, and could never have been meant by our Lord. The words of St. Paul are distinct and immistakeable, " If any man will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thess. ii. 10.)
We must beware however in England that we do not go into the other extreme. There is a disposition in some quarters to discoiirage all charity and almsgiving whatsoever. There are many who say that to give relief checks exertion, and makes the poor do nothing for themselves. Such arguments no doubt have a grain of truth in them, and certainly save men's pockets. But we must be careful that we do not carry them too far. In a densely peopled country like England, there always will be many cases of real poverty and distress, which rich people ought to consider and relieve. Relief should of course be given judiciously, and after due enquiry. But to say that nothing should ever be given to a poor person, under any cir- cumstances, excepting what the law allows, is evidently contrary to the mind of Christ, and flatly contradictory to the spirit of the passage before us.
14. — [Thou shalt be recompensed.] This expression is worthy of notice. It confirms the doctrine of a reward according to works, though not on account of works, in the judgment day.
The similarity between the Lord's language in this place, and that used in the description of the judgment day, in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew, ought to be observed. It seems to contradict the opinion which some hold, that in St. Matthew our Lord is speaking only of the judgment of the heathen who never heard the Gospel. Some arguments by which this view is maintained, would apply to the passage before us. Yet here it is plain, that our Lord is speaking of His own hearers and dis- ciples. It appeal's more probable that both here and in St. Matthew our Lord speaks of the general judgment, and that tlie importance of works as an evidence of faith, is the truth whicli He desires to impress on our minds.
[TTie resurrection of the just.] This expression is remark- able. I cannot think that our Lord used it in deference to an opinion common among the Jews, that resurrection was the special privilege of the righteous. It seems to me far more