The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 263

ness of the Jews was condemned to stationariness at the very point of Di vine revelation where John had failed to reform them. And so all men's lack of faith and their unworthy conceptions of Christ have a moral root also. It is only as Christ himself, by his Spirit and teaching, enables us that we can truly say," Our Lord, and our God."-M. Vers.17-29,-Asoul'stragedy. I. FALSE STEPS. (Ver.17.) 1. Un7,a,u,jul,rela,tiom. 2. Resisting the musenger of God. II. CoNFLIOTING INFLUENCES. (Vere. 19, 20.) The fearless court-preacher and the woman he denounced. The messenger of Truth and the associate in pleasure and vice. Representative of the way in which evil and good incarnate themselves, and work upon the heart of every man. The temptation to which Herod was subject was great ; but he was not left without moral witness and aid. III. SATAN'S INSTRUMENT AND OPPORTUNITY. (Vera. 21-25.) 1. The instrument is in a sense self-prepared, coming as it does out of ?he very heart of moral complication and 1ove of unhallowed pleasure. 2. Yet is it also chosen and armed by the evil one. 3. It is an instrument calculated to work insidiously, unsuspectedly, and yet surely and irrevocably. Who would imagine that a damsel would wield such tremendous destinies? The weakness of every man is thoroughly understood by the enemy of souls, and unscrupulously appealed to. The works of Satan are rather hidden. than manifest. 4. The attack is made when the moral sense is drowned in sensual plea,sure and excitement. Company, wine, the fascination of the dance, and the flattering of pride by the presence of the Galilean nobles. What importunity cannot secure, a skilful manreuvre may attain by surprise. The end is gained, provisionally, in the royal offer to the maid; a concealed, implicit pledge of what is not at the moment realized. Indefinite promises like this are full of danger ; they cover so many unthought-of possibilities, and carry with them the illegitimate show of obligation even with respect to things not contemplated when the promise is given. The moral sense which is insensible to real duties avenges its perversion by manufacturing fictitious obligations, and attributing chief importance to them. "Honolll'" is the counterfeit of morality in many minds. A promise made as Herod made his is foolish and wrong, yet it cannot bind its maker to the performance of a further wrong. If men were only a tithe as attentive to their vows to God as to their vain and boastful promises and challenges to one another, they need fear no consequences. We bind ourselves with our own ropes. It was a birthday on which Herod committed spiritual suicide. Many a parallel to this may be found in the lives of men. IV. THE CATASTROPHE. The career of sin has been likened to playing the devil with his own loaded dice. The thoughtless word of Herod committed him according to his perverted sense of honour, and the sequel was already predetermined and inevi- table. 1. In sanctioning John's death, Herod violated the deepest instincts of his nature, and reJected the voice of God. 2. Crowned a life of sin by a heinous and irrevocable crime. 3. (Humanly speaking) Destroyed his own hopes of salvation. His history henceforth is one of steady degeneration and ever darker crime. In many lives there are determining circumstances like this of Herod; they put mountains and abysses between the sinner and the God he has dishonoured. "John the Baptist is risen from the dead;" "Whom I beheaded-John: he is risen," are discoveries which lighten not one whit the burden of his guilt, and bring no hope to his despair. They are the wails of a remorse from which has departed the grace and power of repentance. Yet is Christ greater than John, and able to eave from even greater crimes than the murder of John, if he be but recognized and believed.-M. Vere. 80, 81.-Telli-ng Jesus. (Of. Matt. xiv. 12, 13.) Christ the central Fignre all through the evangelic narrative. Hie personal importance is never obscured. It is from him apostles go forth; it is to him they return. Kings note his presence and works, and the people crowu to his ministry. I. WHAT THE APOSTLES TOLD JEsus. "All things whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever they had taught." 1. They narrated their experience. Most of them had to speak of their work and its results. It had exceeded their most sanguine expecta- tions. The people had received them everywhere with joy, and they had nothing bui 260 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [en. v1. 1-56.