The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 312

prematurely, and presume to separate the tares from the wheat; but, says Ohrist, "by their fruits ye shall know them." Let intention be what it may, if the fruit is bad, the.t prophet is e. false prophet. Some of the less crew of ill quality, vanity, conceit of superior illumination-that worst ignore.nee that is so ignorant the.t it has not a suspicion of it-irresistible or certainly unresisted loquacity, presumptuousneee,-theee may have the dominion that effectually make the self-sent prophet, the false prophet. He wears the clothing of the sheep, and did not don it for the conscious purposes of deceiving; but he_ is dt:ceived himself, aud in nothing would be more individually surprised and mortified, 1f that could be brought home to him-than which nothina is more certain-that he is doing the odious work of the ravening wolf. Who can co~t the number of these deceived and deceivers, and the number of grievous wounds and rendings of limbs which these have made in the body of Christ in this one current half-century? We are entitled to say it, we are compelled to bewail it-" because of their fruits." And in the seething multitude of those who name the Name of Christ now, one warning, one merciful, gracious caution, needs to be uttered aloud and t-0 be listened to, " Beware of false prophets I"-B. Vers. 21-29.-TM saying and hearing contra'1ted with the doing. This passage bears internal and intrinsic evidence of standing in the original position at the end.. and as the end of the discourse. Its connection with what precedes is also apparent, "Fruits" have been spoken of as the test of the false or the true prophet. And the discourse finishes with a forcible setting forth of the fact that practice, not profession, is the passport, whether into the kingdom of heaven on earth or into the kingdom of "that day." There would seem in form to be allusion to both of these, though we should confess their reality to be but one in either case. Notic&-- 1. THE INTRINSIO AND Et>SENTIAL QUALIFlCATION FOB OITlZENSBIP IN THE KINGDOII OF HEAVEN. "But," says the Supreme Authority on the matter, "he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Dwell on: 1. The highness of this type. 2. The encoura,,aingness of it. It is not offered as a mocking of our feeble power of excellence, feeble grasp of high conceptions, or feeble, inconstant purposes. 3. The condescendingness, withal, of it. What life of reality should it pour into our pictures of the future and our attempts of the present I What happy natural agreement there is between this statement and the formal petitions of the prayer, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven" I ll. TilE DThTINCT PBOPHETIO DECLARATION OF MOST SAD, SOLEMN llll'OBT, TO WHIOB THE MIGHTY SEER collOIJTS HIMSELF. Notice how: 1. Chlist specifies the number of the deluded and the presumptuous: "Many." 2. Christ specifies the matters of their delusion and presumption. We have furnished to us hereby both constant warnings for all, and help, not ex.tended for uncharitable use, towards judging of the too transparently impeachable motives of some very busy outer works of men. IlL TH.E THBILLING DISCLOSURE IN PART OF THE JUDGE OF "THAT DAY," AND IN PART OF Hll! JUDGMENT. Notice: 1. The long forbearance that had been shown is here witnessed to: "7'Mn I will profess to them." How long had he waited, tried, given room for repentance and for reality I 2. 'l'he terrible indictment of the wasted, deluded lifetime: " I never knew you." Christ will not disown, in his glory, majesty, power, and in the startling day of their astounding manifestation, those whom he had once in the day of Lis hiddenness, or in the yet earlier days of bis mortal sorrows, acknowledged. But Christ will say what none had the sure right to say before, "I never knew you," if this be indeed the awful truth I IV. THE SJ:MILITUDE BY WHICH CHRIST NOW SETS FORTH THE DEOIBIVE AND DISA~TROUS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIM WHO HEARS ONLY 'rHE SAYINGS OF CHRISTIAN REVEALED Tl:!.UTH, AND Hill WHO ALSO DOEB THEM. 1. The man who hear3 and does the" sayings" of Christ makes knowledge, and the graces that abide, which are realities to abiue, to abide here, and to abide evermore. 2. The man who hears indeed, and who does ,wt, makes knowledge, perhaps very much knowledge ; it may tower aloft, it may make him tower aloft among men; but he grows no grace; which can come only of work, of diRcipline, of" much tribulation," and which is the only structure that abides. The exceeding directneBB, simplicity, and force of these simi!itudes, and of the com- parison instituted by them, have alway1 arrested attention, To "do the IIByings" of oe. VII, 1-29.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 307