The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 325

criticism of the teachings of Christ, if they had been original and new. Hille!, the great Jewish teacher, is reported to have said, "Do not unto another what thou wouldest not have another do unto thee. This is the whole Law; the rest is mere commentary." If we expand this moral duty, it will at once appear how co=on, how human, and how universal it is. Every noble moral teacher will find expression for it in some more or lees appropriate form. I. 'fllAT WHICH 1B PLEASING TO SELF 1B LIKELY TO BE PLEASING TO OTHERS, Thie is recognized as a good assumption to go upon; but it does not always prove a correct assumption. Probably it would if the "pleasing" were not too often made the equivalent of self-indulgence. Clearly we should try to please others. The standard to begin with is what pleases us; but this will be altered as we get accurately to know them. II. THAT WHICH IS BIGHT FOB SELF 18 LIKELY TO BE RIGHT FOB OTHERS. But we err in two ways. 1. We claim rights which we are not prepared to give. 2. We give ourselves liberties which we deny others, And universal morality stamps both these as unfair. My rights my brother can equally claim; my liberties are my brother's due. Ill. THAT WillCH WE CLAIM FROM OTHERS WE MAY REASONABLY EXPECT OTHERS TO CLA.I.M FROM us. This may appear to fail in recognizing the various relations of classes in society. But it is based on what is the true equality of mankind. Equality of ability, place, opportunity, education, iufluence, even of character, there can never be. But equality in service, mutual service, there can be. The master serves the servant ; the servant serves the master. Then Christ's Law is seen to apply. "The service I seek is the service I should give."-R. T. Ver. 14.-The initial difficulty of all good enterprises. "Strait is the gate ... which leadeth unto life." Dean Plumptre gives the similar figure, taken from what is known as the "Tablet of Cebes, the Disciple of Socrates:" "Seest thou not a certain small door, and a pathway before the door, in no way crowded, but few, very few, go in thereat? 'l'his is the way that leadeth to true discipline" (comp. 2 Esdr, vii. 1-13, "The entrance to the city was ma.de by only one path, even between fire and water, so small that there could but one man go there at once"). Buckingham, the traveller among the Arabs, has a striking illustration: "Close by the sarcophagus is a curious old mosque, with a large open centre, and colonnades, or wings of three arches ea.eh, on ea.eh side. Some of the arches rest on square pillars of masonry, and others on small circular columns of be.salt. One of these pillars is formed wholly of one piece of stone, including pedestal, shaft, and capita.I; and near it is a curious double column, the pedestals of which are in one piece, the shafts each coin posed of two pieces, and the two capitals with their plinths all formed out of one block. These pillars are not large, and a.re only distant from each other, as they stand, about a human span. 'l'hey are right opposite the door of entrance into the mosque, and we were assured that it was a genera.I belief among the Moha.mmeda.ns that whoever could pass through these pillars unhurt was destined for heaven, and whoever could not might prepare either to reduce his bulk, or expect a worse fate in hell." I. Tw: BEGINNING OF COMMON HANDICRAFT IB DIFFICULT. So the apprentice ever finds it. A lesson in self-discipline is the first lesson every one must learn who means to do anything worth doing. This is readily illustrated in specific instances. II. THE BEGINNING OF ALL MENTAL ACQUIREMENT IS DIFFICULT. A strait gate is at the entrance of all science. He who will not wrestle with the perplexities of the alpha.bet shall learn nothing . . III. THE BEGINNING OF ALL MORAL CULTURE 18 DIFFICULT. As difficult as these other things. More difficult, because the moral nature has taken e. bias to self- indulgence and evil. So there is the dead weight of self-resistance to overcome. The pillars at the entrance of the temple of all true good aro only e. span a.pa.rt. No man who will not squeeze himself, deny himself, can hope to enter in.-R. T. Ver. 20.-TM test of the fruitage. Wha.tely says, "If you saw in any country the fields carefully ploucrhed and cleared and sown with wheat, and yet continue.Uy send- ing up a growth of grass and thistles, which choked the wheat whenever.they were not 320 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [m1. vu. 1-29.