welcome trumpet of morning, are these words spoken by the voice of heaven upon earth, "Knock, and it shall be opened." Consider- I. THE NECKBBITY TO 0BRIS'l'UN LIJ'E, TO THB REGINNINO OF IT AND CON• TINUOUBLY TO THE VERY CLOSE OF IT, OJ' BOLDING A DIRECT, Ulll>IVIDED CONVICTION THAT TBEBE 18 AN ACCESSIBLE AND AN Al'PROACHABLB PLAOE OF MERCY AND OJ' VARIOUS HELP. II. THE NECEBBITY OJ' AN UNDETEBBED FOBOE OF RESOLUTION IN .II.A.KING DEFINITE APPLICATION AT THAT PLAOE, III. THE SUGGESTION WBIOB THE FIGURE BEBE EMPLOYED CONTAINS, AB TO THREE LEADING PETITIONS FOB MERCY AND VARIOUS HELP, APPBOPBIATELY MADE AT THAT PLACE CALLED A DOOB OB GATE, VIZ. (1) INFOBMATION AND DIBEOTION ON THE BOAD; (2) BBEAD TO EAT, WINE TO DBINK j (3) SBELTEB FBOM STOBM PRESENT OB THREATEN• ING, AND FOB TllE CERTAINLY COMING NIGHT. IV. THE UNLDIITED, UNCONDITIONED PBOMIBE. "It shall be opened." That you are challenged to "knock" points to the supposition that you have arrived at a door, and that a closed door. It also means that the door need not certainly remain closed, for that there is 11, power on the other side, from within, that may open it, to your wish, to your need, and to your confession and expression of the same. But in this case it means all this and yet much more; the challenge is accompanied with a promise to the full as unconditioned and unlimited. "It sha),l be opened." On the other side there is compassion and there is good will, there is mercy and there is love ; and these all decide to "open;" and their pr(}'ITl,i,e is engaged thereto.-B. Vers. 11, 12.-The improvement upon the e,arthly pattern.. Although the "asking" in ver. 7 was pressed on to the further developments of "seeking" and "knocking," our Lord returns here to the most generic form of application on the part of one person to another in his use of the word "ask," when he speaks of "them that ask him." But, perhaps, not only because this ie the most generic description of application from one to another is the word used in this connection, but because further it embodies least of the participation of the applicant, and when the answer comes to him, and, it may be, the rich gift falls into his lap, then least can he claim it as the result of his own work, merit, co-operation. He must acknowledge it the sovereign gift of sovereign grace. Notice in this passage- !. THE CONDESCENDING UBE OF THE EABTBLY PATTERN FOB THE THINGS OF THE HEAVENLY PATTERN, II. THE INOOBBUPT FIDELITY OBSERVED IN THAT UIIE. 'l'he pattern ie quoted, is used; but its imperfect adequacy is openly averred. 'l'be pattern is not only in a lower sphere, not only on a lower scale, but it is admittedly marred; it is a fallen pattern, a pattern obtaining indeed, subsisting indeed, actual; yet among the fallen, erring, faulty, and sinful, all in turn. III. THE UNBTINTED ENCOURAGEMENT (TO OFFER wmca 18 THE MANIFEST CENTRAL Alli OF THE PATTERN QUOTED, 1TB FIDELITY AND ALL INCLUDED) TO THE APPLICANTS AND CANDIDATES OF Goo's KINGDOM, The perfection alike of willingness and of wisdom combined is now the sovereign Dispenser, the universal impartial Distributor. IV. THE GRAND UBE MADE OF AN OCCASION OF A PARTIAL BUMMABIZING (ver. 12) TO PROCLAIM THE NEW COVENANT FORM OF THE SECOND TABLE OF THE OLD AND VENERABLE AND UNIVERSAL TEN COMMANDMENTS, With our Ver, 12 COmJ?, cb. V, 17. From the kind of giving and the manner of giving (i.e. in reply to asking) of fathers in imperfect and "evil" human society, and from the supreme example of the per• fection in both kind and manner of the "Father which is in heaven," the grand dictum of most sacred heavenly lips utters itself forth for the regulating of men's mutual relations, wide as the world stretches, and long as the world lasts.-B.
Vars. 13, 14:.-The noblest provocation to sanctified imagination. Supposing that it was certain that we were intended to have, in the recorded sayings of the discourse of the mount, a closely connected discourse, we might feel it difficult to pronounce with any confidence on the connection of th~ thrilling passag~, and ~eel anxious an~ grieved proportionately that we could not discharge mor~ s~t1sfactorily the respo1;1-s1. bility herein which lay on us, Both for extent and for s1gmlicance and commandlllg 804 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oH, vn. 1-29.