Matt. ix. 13. Go ye and learn lohat that vieaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
ST. PETER, speaking of his brother Paul, says, that in his writings there are **^some things hard to be understood." The same may be said, in some degree, respecting all the inspired writers. There is, in many of their statements, a height which cannot be ex- plored, and a depth which cannot be fathomed. Even the precepts which they give us are by no means always plain. Some are so figurative, that we are, of necessity, constrained to divest them of their high colouring, in order to reduce them to the standard of practical utihty. Thus, when it was said, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other alsoV' we cannot take it altogether in a literal sense, but must understand it as inculcating only a very high degree of patient submission to the injuries inflicted on us. Some are obscure, on account of the unqualified manner in which they are expressed : "Give to him that asketh thee; and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away''." Were this precept followed in its full extent, the richest man would soon have nothing either to give or lend. Some passages, like my text, are difficult ; because, whilst they are expressed in the most positive termsy they are to be understood only in a comparative sense. Our Lord never intended to say that God did not require sacrifice : for the whole Mosaic law was written to shew what sacrifices God did require. His meaning was that mercy was in itself far supe- rior to sacrifice ; and that, where the two came into competition with each other, mercy was to be pre- ferred to sacrifice, and to be exercised to the neglect of sacrifice.
That we may enter fully into this subject, let us consider,
•^ Matt. V. 39. ^ Matt. v. 42.