The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 378

tho fulness of time is come; the marriage robe is ready; it is fine linen, clean a.od white, the righteousness of saints, which is the righteousness of Christ; it a~o.etl, r.ot with the old, (b) New wine must not be put into old wine-skins. It will ferment; it will buri,t the old skins, which have become hard and will not expand. The Pharisees with their effete ceremonialism cannot receive the gospel. He must be a new man who is to be filled with the Spirit. The new wine of the gospel lives a.nd works; it does not suit the stiff, hard, dry, formal life of the Pharisee. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; we have received not the spirit of oondage, but the Spirit of adoption, the free Spirit of sonship. But that free Spirit abidetb not in mere formalists. His chosen home is in renewed hearts; in those who have been trans- formed by the renewing of their mind; in whom old things are passed away, and all things are become new. LESSONS. 1. The meanest, the most despised, may walk very close with Christ; only follow him when he calls. 2. Pharisees could blame even Christ himself; we must not expect to escape censure. 3. Even good men are sometimes censorious ; the Christian must answer gently, like bis Lord. 4. Seek to be filled with the Spirit; desire the new wine of charity. Vers. 18-26.-The raising of the daughter of Jain11. L THE FATHER. 1. Hi11 position. He was a ruler of the synagogue, a dignitary of the Jewish Church. The Pharisees once asked in scorn, "Have any of the rulers believed on him?" Here was one who certainly believed. Possibly be may have been one of those elders of the Jews whom the centurion had sent to Christ. If so, he had seen both the power of Christ and his sympathy with sorrow and suffering. Now sorrow had come very near to him, and he sought for his own needs the Lord whom he had before entreated in behalf of another. 'l'bose who intercede for others are blessed in their own souls; mercy is twice blast. The Pharisees were beginning to hold aloof from Obrist, to question bis authority. A ruler might have felt some difficulty in preferring a request to him just then. Jairus thought nothing of such matters in the presence of his great sorrow. He camr, perhaps to the publican's house, and, ruler though be was, he fell down at Jesus' feet and worshipped him. Sorrow often softens the proud heart, and brings the humbled soul to Christ; sorrow is a blessed thing if it leads to the feet of Chri~t, if it teaches us to worship. 2. His prayer. His little daughter (she was but tw,-lve years old) was at the point of death-so near her end that he clescribed her (according to St. Mattbew's abridged narrative) as already dead. He thought the breath would go forth before he reached the Lord. He believed that Christ could help him even now. But the anguish of his soul was intense; he poured forth his prayer in the broken accents of grie-f (see Mark v. 23 in the Greek). "Come and lay thy hand upon her, and she- shall live." It was wonderful faith; be believed that Christ could recall the pnrted soul, and restore his dead child to her father's arms. 3. The LO'T'd:s readiness. Jesus arose, perhnps from the couch in the house of Matthew, and followed Jairus from the house of feasting to the house of mourning. There are strange contrasts in human life. Here gladness, and there sorrow; here light and feasting and song, there wailing and the anguish of the bereaved, the death-agony and the faintness of departing life. 'fhe Christian should be prepared for both-to weep with those that weep, and to rejoice with those that do rejoice. He may take his part, like the Lord, in the inno- cent enjoyments of life; he must sometimes, like the Lord, contend earnestly for the faith; but, like the Lord, he should be ready to leave the festive table, or the disputes of controversy, to comfort the afflicted end minister to the dying. 'l'berefore be should live always in the Spirit; therefore he shoulcl strive, whether be eats or drinks, or whatever he is doing, to do all to the glory of God. 'fbe disciples followed Christ from the house of Matthew to the house oI Jairus; we should be ready always to follow him whithersoever he goeth. II. THE AFFLICTED WOMAN, 1. Her trooble. She had long suffered from e. wasting disease. For twelve years, the whole life of the little daughter of Jairus, she hl\d been afflicted. She had tried every means of relief, she had applied to physician aller physician, she had submitted to many painful remedies, she had spent o.ll tho.t she b:d; but she found no help-she grew worse. It is e. sad history. There are many such now-long wasting sicknesses; vain efforts to recover health; hopelessness. Uut stili,  3i4 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [011. 1x. 1-38.