The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 312

affirms that is real for ns. "In morals and in religion the conscious mind is every- thing " (Godwin). 2. This true view maty require an ejf<Yrt to attain. Strange I the dis- ciples " could not quite see it I " "And he said to them, Are you also so inconsiderate? n And Christ must explain to them the lesson as to a class of tyros. Want of thought- fulness in the mind is like want of stirring and raking to the garden-ground. The weeds and mosses soon creep. The man's thought is soon overrun by the trash of opinion and empty practice, if he will not think for himself. 3. The human source of evil. It lies in the thought, the fancy, or imagination. Lust" conceives "a thought of pleasure, {:}ashing with the thought of right. The conception germinates, and brings forth a. deed. But a splash of mud that we receive on our garments in crossin~ the street has no effect on our conscience, And generally, what we do not adopt as pa.rt of ourselves, cannot be irr.puted to us as sin. "What does not affect the moral character, <iannot affect the relation of man to God" (Godwin).-J. Vere, 24--30.-The heathen mother. I. THE HEATHEN AND THE JEW. 1. In general, no relation could. be m<Yre bitter ; no estrangement more wide. No modem analogy can well enable us to realize this. They were "wide as the poles asunder." 2. Jesus the Reconciler. In bim there is neither Jew nor heathen. This sublime truth was first to be made clear by his own conduct. All truths must be represented in practice if the world is to receive them. Christ did not deal in the sentiment of unity. He did not propound a theory of humanity, nor of enthusiasm for humanity; he took the hand of the sufferer; he healed the sickness; he made reconciliation a/act. "Go thou and do likewise I " II. THE IRONY OF CHRIST. We have ell heard of the irony of Socrates. It was the jesting way the great master had of hinting the truth to the mind, which was con- ·cealed in words. Irony is often the disguise of sensitive and keenly truth-loving minds. Here he conceals tenderest compassion for the poor woman under the mask of sarcasm. It has the effect of eliciting her deep feeling-profound humility and trust. All methods of the teacher a.re good which love prompts, and which subserve the ends of love. "Faith always finds encouragement and obtains reward" with Christ. To take the remark of Jesus in ver. 27 as seriously meant, would be contrary to his spirit. It is the echo of the harsh feeling of the bigoted Jew, and really illustrates by implicit contrast the tenderness and benignity of Christ.-J. Vers. 31-37.-The deaf and dumb. I. THE GREAT PRIVATION OF BUCH A SUFFERER. Deafness cuts the person off from society more than blindness. He is not blessed by that music which expresses the soul of things. He cannot hear that sound -of the human voice, which is the most delicious of all music. One sense needs the sisterly help of another. Sight tantalizes without hearing. To be full of thought and feeling, yet not to be able to speak,-than this sense of restraint upon the noblest part of our nature, nothing may seem more hard. II. THE CURE IS SYJIUIOLI0 OF THE NATURE OF CHRIST'S lllISSION. 1. The mode of the cure. The symbolic action was appropriate. Ordinnry language could not be understood by the sufferer. Jesus employs gesture instead. There o.re special insti- ·tutions for teaching the deaf and dumb. Consider how holy a work it is, and how consecrated by his example. The up-looking denoted internal prayer. So let prayer •be the soul of all our action on others and for others (eh. vi. 41; John xi. 41; xvii. 1). 2. The cure itself as symbolic. Christ's love entering the heart enlarges the intelligence, opens the world of music and harmony. As love opens the gate into a sphere of unearthly beauty to the lover, so to the soul captivated by the love of God all things have become new. There is a "sacred silence, offspring of the deeper heart;" and dumbness has its sanctity, for here is "the finger of God.'' But sacred is the eloquence of the tongue, set free by the larger life of mind and heart, God made us for utterance, -as he made the streams to flow.-J. Vers. 1-23.-The tradition of men in competition with the commandments of God. Pharisees and scribes of Jerusalem had detected some of the disciples of Jesus eating 'bread "with defiled, that is, with unwashen, hands." "Holding the tradition of the elders" with great tenacity themse"Jves, they demand of the new Teacher a reason for 110 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK, [on. v11. l-37.