The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 384

duct of Jesus was new to the world, and it has been but rarely followed. Here is the wonder of his brotherly nature. He will take the lowest to the priceless privilege of his friendship. II. THE COMPLAINT. This conduct of our Lord was regarded as scandalous by the religious people of his day, as similar conduct on the part of any good man who was daring enough to attempt it would be regarded by the religious people of our own times. It was not really suspected that he enjoyed the bad atmosphere of low society, but he was charged with courting that society in order to win popularity. Ungenerous people cannot conceive of generous motives. To them the grandest act of self-sacrifice must have some sinister aim. III. THE EXPLANATION. Jesus associated with persons of bad character in the hope of raising them. He compared himself to a physician who does not pay his visits to healthy people. The doctor on his rounds goes to some strange houses. If he were but a casual caller, his choice of associ:l.tes might raise a scandal. But his work determines his action. Though he has to handle and study what is very repulsive, science and humane ends elevate his treatment of it, and keep this pure. Christ goes first where he is most needed. Not desert, not pleasure, but need, draws him. When he comes it is to heal. His purpose sanctifies his association with persona of loose character. His one aim is to do them good. IV. THE JUSTIFICATION. The religious people who accused our Lord had formed a totally false conception of the service which was acceptable to God. Jesus answered them out of their own Bible. There they might have read that what God required was not ceremonial offerings, but kindness to our fellow-men-" mercy and not sacrifice." Thus he turns the tables. These very religious people, his accusers, are not pleasing God. They are very particular about formal observances, but they neglect the weightier matters of the Law. Christ is truly doing God's will by showing mercy. God is love, and Divine love is never so gratified as by the exercise of human charity. Therefore it is quite in accordance with his Father's will that Christ shall call the sinners. His mission is to them. Those people who think themselves righteous cannot have any blessing from Christ. The self-righteous hypocrite is really further from the kingdom of heaven than the publican and the sinner.-W. F. A. Vers. 16, 17.-The new and the old. This pair of homely parables illustrates the incompatibility of the old with the new from two points of view-first from that of the old, which is spoilt in the effort to patch it with the new; second from that of the new, which is lost through the attempt to confine it in the lirnitations of the old. I. T.HE OLD IS SPOILT WHEN I'l' IS PATCHED WITH THE NEW. The shrinking of the patch of undressed cloth tears the old garment, and so makes the rent worse than it was before. There was a skictly Jewish Christianity in the early Church, really harder and narrower than old Judo.ism. It was not truly Christian, yet the grand old Jewish ideas were spoilt. At Alexandria, Greek thought degenerated in its association with biblical ideas. It would not accept those ideas in their fulness, and yet it tried to patch its old fabric with them. The consequence was its dissolution. When Protestantbm is not a complete severance from Ilomanism, but a mixture with it, the result is that the advo.ntages of both the authority of the old and the freedom of the new system are •ost. All this is melancholy if we are attached to the old. But there is another way of looking at it. The new is revolutionary. When the old is worn threadbare, it is best to cast it aside. Although we cling to it affectionately, it may be well that it should be violently torn from our backs. The gospel will not be a mere patch laid on an ugly defect in our worldly character. It will tear that character to shreds. It is a mistake to hope to patch it. The Christian method is to cast it off entirely and put on a cam• pletely new garment-the new character, the new life in Christ. II. THE NEW IS LOST WHEN IT IS CONFINED BY THE OLD. The new wine ferments and must expand. But the old wine-skins are bard and dry and inelastic, and they are not strong enough to restrain the powerful ferment. The result is a twofold disaster--they are burst, which may not be a very great evil if they are worn out; and the wine is spilt, which is a serious loss. The old is al ways trying to cramp and restrain the new. Judaism endeavoured to confine Christianity within its own hard limitations. People are con.stnntly tryi:ig to force new ideas into old expressions. In practical  380 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [ou. a. 1-38.