may be but an expression of revenge ; and revenge ls altogether unworthy of the Christian. The mildness of Mosaism is shown in its making reven,,.e 0 to become official action. II. OBSERVE THE nGUBATIVE CHABAOTEB OJ' THIS BULB. There is no satisfaction for a noble person in making an enemy suffer exactly as be made him suffer. The terms are figures for the reasonable demand of restoration of the mischief done.-R. T. Ver. 48.-Our standard of perfection. "Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Though fittingly employed at the close of this chapter, the word "perfect" is more immediately connected with the last few verses. Dealing with that strange inference cof the Pharisees, that because we are commanded to love our neighbours, we are therefore required to bate our enemies, Christ presents the true idea of love, the perfect conception of love. He demands such a love as can make what is opposite to it, as well as what is akin to it, its object. 'l'be apostles teach that perfection is the idea, the aim, to be kept in the soul of the Christian, there to work as a perpetual inspiration to the seeking of perfection in the life and conduct. St. Paul presents the distinction between full-grown men and little children. The full-grown men are the perfect; they have reached the fulness, the standard, of Christian manhood. A man "perfect" is one who has attained his moral end, the standard according to which he was made; one in whom every Christian grace has reached its ripeness and maturity. !. CHBISTIA.NITY PRESENTS A PERFECT STANDARD OJ' HUMANITY. Christ is the realized thought of God, when he designed the being man. The Christ ia to be so set before men, that they may get from his story the idea of a perfect human being. We may be able to form an idea of perfect virtue, perfect duty, perfect purity. What we wholly fail to conceive is a perfect man. That must be shown Ill!, revealed to us. And when we see him, behold he is "God manifest in the flesh." For, after all, God himself is the standard perfection; and it is only because we see him in Christ that we are satis6ed with Christ. II. 'J.'HE CHRISTIAN STANDARD OJ' THE PERFECT IS THE NOBLEST INBPIBATION TO MAN. To be like God is the sublimest human- possibility. We know what being like God means when we look on Christ. He has at once revealed our distance from the "perfect;" for we are not like him. He inspires us to seek after the perfect ; for we may be "made like unto him in all things."-R. T.
EXPOSITION. Jewish leaders. These our Lord does no& CHAPTER VI. reject, but only corrects. Vere. 1-18.-The relation of our Lord and Ver. 1.-l'tlatthew only. Take heed; ,rp,,_ Us disciples lo the religion of the day (con- alx•n [6'] (Westcott n.ud Hort). If" bat" tinued); vide eh. v. 17, note. (b) Our Lord is genuine, as is on the whole more probable, turns from cases which coulcl be directly our Lord places this wo.rning iu close rela- deduced from the Le.w to those which be- tion to the preceding charge. Aim at " perfection," but beware of mere show. longed only to recognized religious duty. Rather you must consider the estimate thnt Of these he instances three: alms (vers. 2- will be formed of you by your Fatuer which 4), proyer (vers. 5-8, 9-15), fasting (vers. is in heaven. The.t ye do not your al.ms; 16-18). It is, indeed, true that the per- Revised Version, your righieouBneaa (so the manuscripts). Although one of the Hebrew formimce of these duties on specio.l occasions words for "righteousness " (;ip,~) was UBed we.a implied in the Penta.tench (Dent. :1:.1:vL especially for the righteousness of al magi ving 12-15); but there are no regulations con- ( cf. Deut. vi. 25, LXX. : and • Psalms of Solo- cerning their observe.nee in ordinary an<i mon,' lx. 6, where see Professor Ryle's and daily life. These were matters of custom Mr. James'& note), yet it is improbable that and tradition; to this the Law, in its original .-¾,v 611,a.1oa6v1w should here be rendered "alms," beoause(l) it has this meaning no- aim e.nd method, did not ex:tend. There where else in the New Testament: (2) the was therefore the more need for the Law to word for "alms" (l;\.171µoa61171) comes in the be supplemented by the instruotions of the next ver~e: (8) the emphatic position of ..~. 228 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [err. v1, 1-34..