hatred into the temple of the Lord; we ce.nnot worship aright while we cheriah wrath in our bee.rt. For he ls love, and the nnloving cannot serve him acceptably. He will not e.ccept the offerings of those who live in strife. Malice e.nd envy rob the gift of all He value. Forgiveness of injuries, sorrow for our own offences, tbe humble petition for pardon from any whom we may have offended, is a sacrifice well pleasing unto God. Without this the costliest gift is but a mockery, worthless and unprofitable. Then "first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift.~ St. Chrysostom well remarks, "Let even my service be interrupted (the Lord says in his condescension) that love may abide, since reconciliation to thy brother is an acceptable sacrifice." (b) We are all on our way to the judgment; we must appear before the Judge. There- fore we must seek forgiveness from those whom we have offended, and we must forgive those who have offended us while we are on our way during the journey of life. We pray," Forgive, as we forgive." Lea: orandi lez credendi. He doth not forgive the unforgiving, the unloving. For such there rernaineth the prison. And can the utter- most farthing of the great debt be ever paid? Alas I we cannot pay the smallest fraction of it. By grace we are saved, and God's grace rests not upon the unloving; to such tbere is no promise of forgiveness. 3. The second instance. "Thou sbalt not commit adultery." The traditional interpretation confined the commandment to the evil deed; the Lord extends it to the sinful thought. The unlawful desire, consented to and kept before the mind, is equally guilty with the unclean act. Our bodies are the members of Christ; to defile them is an ontrage on the most holy Saviour. We are the temples of God the Holy Ghost; to bring unclean thoughts into that most sacred presence is a fearful sin, an awful sacrilege. Then strike at the beginnings of sin, the thought, the look; strike, e.nd spare not. Such watchfulness may imply very strict and painful self-denial. Better to deny ourselves now than to be cast out at the last; better to pluck out the right eye, to cut off the right hand, than to be condemned at the last. "Blessed are the pure in heart." 4. The third instance. Divorce. The popular school, that of Hille!, allowed divorce "for every cause" (eh. xix. 3); the Lord allows it only "for the cause of fornication." What God bath joined together let not man put asunder, 6. The fourth instance, The law of oaths. The Jews, it seems, thought lightly of oaths which did not contain the sacred Name of God; they used such oaths constantly and heedlessly. Our Lord classes all oaths together, for all ultimately imply an appeal to God, and, like St. James (v. 12), forbids them all. But we must not" so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another," and passages like Heb. vi. 13--17 and vii. 21, where God is represented as swearing by himself; or eh. xxvi. 63, 64, where our Lord answers the adjuration of Caiaphas; or Rev. x. 6, where a mighty angel swears by him that liveth for ever and ever; or Rom. i. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 31; 2 Cor. i. 23 ; Gal. i. 20; and Phil. L 8, in which St. Paul uses forms of solemn asseveration, prove that our Lord's prohibition applies only to rash, idle oaths, such as were common among the Jews(" Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay"), not to those solemn occasions when an oath is required by the magistrate or by the law. 6. The fifth instance. The law of retaliation. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The words of the Law of Moses relate to punishments inflicted by a court of justice; the Jews probably understood them as permitting private revenge. Holy Scripture does not forbid the infliction of judicial punishment (comp. Rom. xiii. 4). It forbids the revengeful temper, and it forbids private revenge altogether. Our Lord says, "Resist not evil." To insist upon the literal meaning of these words would be to apply the method of the Pharisees to the interpretation of the New Testament; a literal obedience under all circumstances would destroy the very framework of society, and let loose all that is evil in human nature. But the Lord is laying down general principles. Cases will often arise in which the application of those principles must be modified by other rules of Holy Scripture. A literal obedience is possible much more frequently and to a much wider extent than our selfish hearts are willing to admit. But a literal obedience is not always possible; it would not be always right; it would 11ometimes do harm rather than good. The Lord himself, the gentlest and the meekest, expostulated with those who struck him wrongfully (John xviii. 23). Neither when he bide us, " Give to him that asketh thee," are his words to be taken literally, as com• mantling indiscriminate almegiving. He himself gave not to the people who sought him at Cape111aum, because they liad eaten of the loaves and were filled (John vL 26, , UATTBlliW, 1'I 178 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oa. v. 1-48.
2i); St. Paul would not have us give to the idle (2 Thess, iiL 10), We must under- stand our Lord's words as interpreted by his own example and by other parts of Hoiy Scripture. We must forgive injuries, we must resist not evil, we must glve freely; but in all these things we must be guided by the wisdom which is from above. ":messed are the merciful." 7. The si:cth instance. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- self," was the commandment of the Law. The Pharisees had added a false and wicked gloss, "Thou shalt hate thine enemy:' (comp. Exod. xxiii. 4, 5; Prov, xxiv. 17; xxv. 21). The Lord bids us, "Love your enemies." It is easy to love those who love us ; such love is mere natural affection. Grace 'teaches a deeper, a more difficult lesson. The nearer we draw to God, the more we shall learn to imitate his all-embracing love. The Lord is loving unto every man. Rain and sunshine preach charity and love to all. 'iVe must learn of him. If any curse, we must bless ; we must pray for those who use us despitefully. So shall we be the children of our heaveuly Father, like him in our poor measure, complete in the range of our love, dear to him, loving and beloved. The commandment is difficult, but the blessing is very great. He who gave the command- ment, who pronounced the blessing, can teach us to obey. LESSONS. 1. Search the Seri ptures, all of them; not only the New Testament, but also the Old. 2. Be not content with the external knowledge of the Bible; seek that inner knowledge which only the Holy Ghost can teach. 3. Be gentle and loving, be reverent in word, hallow God's holy Name, hate all ungodly modes of speech, 4,. For- give as you hope for forgiveness; revenge belongeth unto God.