Matt. v. 25, 26. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him ; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou he cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shall hy no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
IT is thought by many, that prudential considera- tions are unworthy the attention of a Christian. That he ought to be influenced by higher principles.
we readily admit. The love of Christ should be to him in the place of all other incentives, so far at least that he should not ?ieed any other motive for doing the will of God. But Christians are men, and feel the force of every principle which can operate upon the human mind : and therefore subordinate motives may fitly be proposed to them in aid of those which are more worthy of their regard. Our blessed Lord, having explained the sixth command- ment, inculcates the duties contained in it, particularly that of seeking reconciliation with an offended brother : and this he does, first from the consideration of the offence which a want of a conciliatory spirit gives to God, and next from a consideration of t/ie danger to which it exposes ourselves. In the former view we have treated of it in the foregoing verses ; in the latter view we are to speak of it at this time. But the peculiarly emphatic manner in which our Lord speaks in the words before us, will naturally, and almost necessarily, lead our thoughts beyond the mere con- cerns of time, to another tribunal before which we must all appear. We shall therefore consider our text,
L In its primary and literal sense —
When we have by any means offended a brother, we should not defer the period of making proper concessions, but should make them " quickly :" the danger of delay is great : for,
1. The breach may become irreparable —
[When we have excited a painful feeling in the breast of another, or even injured him in a considerable degree, we may by instantaneous concessions abate at least, if not entirely re- move, his anger. But the longer he is suffered to pore over the injuries he has sustained, the more his wound festers, and indignation rankles in his bosom. Continued pondering over the misconduct of the offending person brings to his recollection a multitude of incidents, which mider other circumstances would have been overlooked, but, viewed through the medium of anger, are magnified into importance, and regarded as aggrava- tions of the offence committed. Thus an aversion to make ac- knowledgments on the one side begets inflexibility on the other; and that which might have passed away as a slight and trans- ient dispute, becomes a ground of bitter alienation and rooted