their righteousness would still have been the observing of the letter of commandments of t~e ?Id covencmt. The greatness of the moral step i_n advance n_ow promulgated by Christ 1s mee.sured by the fact that he sets as a necessity before his freshest recruits, the.t they should see better e.nd do better than the masters e.nd veterans of that old covenant. This is, as St. Cbrysostom says, the fit illustration of the "superior power of grace." Observe, then, bow- l. CHRIST TRACES TO 1TB REAL GERM AND ORIGIN THE FOUL, OVERT CRIME OP llUDDER, Tbe.t is to say, it is: 1. Personal anger, i.e. anger with a person, that person necessarily e. creature of God, and therefore one's own brother. Anger with sin, anger with a man's offence, and the mischief be and it may have done, and anger in the sense of self-defensive and instinctive momentary resentment, are not herein condemned. 2. Anger permitted to express itself in the shape of utter contempt for the person. Illus- trate by comparison of contempt, disdain, mockery, and all this family, with sorrow, grief, pity, compassion. 3. Anger assuming energetic activity, neither suppressed and dying in its own ashes,nor (however mournful this) kept within the limits of a parched. arid atmosphere, where for less worthy reasons it nevertheless will extinguish itself; but finding fresh fuel 1;1nd disastrous incentive in the shape of passion and passion's vocabulary. 11. CHRIST DIGNIFIES INFINITELY THE CONCORD OF BROTHERS ON EA..BTH BY LETrIN<l tJB KNOW THAT HEAVEN TAKES SPECIAL NOTE RESPECTING IT, AND lllAXEB IT ITS OWN OAUBE. The gift to God cannot be laid on the altar, so that it shall be accepted, while upon that other altar, the altar of the offerer's heart, false fire burns. It cannot escape notice that the loved and beloved disciple's heart received this saying and treasured it to old age, and gave a most exemplary version of it-, in its spirit, in his Epistle (1 John ii. 9-11; ill. 11, 14, 15 ; iv. 20, 21; v. 1, 2). How far, far away even the Christian elements and tributaries of human society and brotherhood are still from apprehending and practising what is here taught I Ill. CHBIBT GIVES UB THE SUREST GUIDE TO HORAL REFORM, ONCE SEEN AND ,\CKNOWLEDGED; IT 18 FOUND IN PROMPTNESS. The most merciless adversary a ma'n ever bad, whether only most exacting as regards debts due to him, or revengeful as well as exacting, is not to compare for mercilessness and exactingness with that adversary which each and any man bas within himself, and which consists of bis own worse self! 'l'hat worse and lower self is our worst adversary. He equivocates, he extenuates, he procrastinates; he is grievously self-indulgent, slow to awake from sleep or sloth, self- partial to a proverb, and blind to all bis own higher selfs higher interest. Once let 11 just thought, a glimmering ray of light, a genuine conviction of duty, or an admonition from without, really heard, be bis, and this is bis hope, bis safety, the earnest of his regeneration, that he "agree quickly.•-B.
Vere. 27-32.-0hrist's second and third illustration of the Christian tyJJ6 of II true fulfilling of the Law. After the illustration based on the letter of the sixth command- ment, Christ takes the letter of the seventh as the basis of further illustration. Both of these commandments lend themselves so well for the instruction of the individual in the matter of the wide difference between the outer commandment n.nd the spirit of it, that whoever will may learn that difference, and, learning it, become a true learner -a learner in the school of Chrlst. In this illustration individual feeling, impulse, character, are so sensitively~ 10 subtilly touched, that perhaps none could penetrate more effectually or have better opportunity of far-reaching and lasting lessons. Notice that Christ teaches how, to the true conception of God's Law, it is necessary to remember that- I. NoT ONLY BEFORE ALL AND EVEBY ACTION OF SIN Hl!l JUKES COUNT OF Tlll!l THOUGHT-SEED THAT GREW TO IT, AND NO'l' ONLY BEll!ND ALL AND EVERY ACTION OP BIN HE MAKES COUNT OF MOTIVE, AND THE THOUGilT TIIA'l' WORKS AS MOTIVE THERETO, BUT ALSO THAT WITHOUT ANY ACTION WHATSOEVER, IlE TAKES MOST BURE ACCOUNT OP THOUGHT, AS ITSELF HATTER AND SUDJECT OF SIN, WIT!I ITS QUALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES, Il. THE BODILY Bl!INBE THAT HAY BE THE INLET, TliE AWAKENER, AND FEEDER TO THOUGHT AND HEART, OF BIN OR OCCASION OF BIN, HUST BE DENIED, CLOSED, AND DESTROYED, RATHER TUAN LEFT TO Bl!l AN "OFFENCE " TO THE KEEPING OF TRB LAW. THIS 18 TO HONOUR Goo's LAW. 200 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [CH. v. 1- -48
--------------------------------- III. THE llODILY POWER WHIC'B KAY HAVE TDK Sil.ILL A1'D otTRNINO, AND AL• 'l'HAT KAY BE THE BEST TALENT OF TRB PERSON 0ATUBRBD IllTO IT, 1108T IN LIKB JtlAl-~"EB BE DENIED, SUPPBE8SEll1 DESTROYED, IF ANY PBBVERBB BUB POBBRl!IID!!O l'P lllAll:E IT PROVE AN "OFYENCE." TUB BOVBBBION VOICB OF THB OOIOLU!D.IIENT 11 'l'Hl!:N AGAINST IT. IV. THB COURSE WHICH FAILB OP HOll'OURIN0 TBB LAW OP 0oD TO lT8 TBU■ 11'"TE1'"TION, 18 ONLY TOO SURE TO BETRAY lT8 OWN FAULTINESS, IN INVOLVING HANI- FOLD OTHER VIOLATION OF IT, AND THI81 TOO, 011 TB.B PART 01' OTIIBBII AB OF TO WBONO-DOEB BDISELF.-B..