The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 445

,d life in the light in which Christ loolred at te. It is not for self, it is not for any earth-ends. It is for God, and for God as the Father-God. The true imitation ol Christ is the sway in our Jives of those principles that ruled his. Wherever we may be, the Christly spirit may be in us, and may be glorifying all our relations. 2. Uttering the Gliristly spirit by lip and life as he did. Loving words and loving deeds expressed Christ's loving thought and purpose. While motive is the most important thing, it can never be separated from fitting action. 3. Bearing the earthly disaln7ities of a Ohristly life as he did. The same, or similar, disabilities come to Christians in every age as came to Christ. The variations we notice are on the surface, and belong only to forms and features. "The light shines in darkness," and is similarly affected by the bnd atmospheres. Misunderstandings, reproaches, persecutions, abound still. "If reproached in the name of Christ, happy are ye." Take St. Paul's life, and show how his troubles repeat Christ's, with characteristic variations. II. Tms IDEA OF LIFE TRUE HEARTS WILL FIND EVEB-BATISFYING. The feeling of the Divine worth and beauty of that blessed life of Jesus will ever grow on us as we come into spiritual communion with it. And to reproduce it, to work it out in our own lives, will engage all our thought, and use up all our faculty, in a delightful way What is the fact? Do men learn of Christ from our Christ-likeness ?-R. T. Ver. 29.-The Lord of the sparrows. The connection of this illustration should be noticed. Our Lord bids the first missionaries stand even on the house-tops, and freely speak out his message; but he, in effect, adds, "In doing this you will meet with dangers not a few. You will meet with enemies, some of whom will not stop short -if only their power will reach so far-of bloody issues. Bat fear not. You are watched and protected at every step, and come life, come death, you are safe." Van Lennep tells us that the edge of the house-top is the favourite station for the sparrows. "There they sit, or hop about and chirp, sharpen their little bills, or carry on their little quarrels ; and when the coast is clear in the yard below, down they fly in a body to pick up any crumbs or scraps of food they may chance to find." Sparrows are sold at the smallest price fetched by any game. It was also the Rmallest living creature offered in sacrifice under the Mosaic dispensation. It was the gift for the poor leper. I. Goo's TENDER ll4EBOY IS OVER ALL BIB WORKS. "His way is to look at the lowliest creatures and things as carefully, as paternally, as to the noblest and highest. To him there is nothing great, nothing little. He has a record of all the birds that fly. Sparrows on the earth are as numerous as stars in heaven, 'and not one of them is forgotten before God.' They build their nests in his sight; they hatch their young, and send forth their families every year; and God knows each one-whither it flies and where it rests; and not one of them falleth to the ground by shot of fowler, or spring of cat, or cold of winter, nay, one of them shall not hop down oa the ground (so some understand the meaning of the term) without your Father" (Dr. A. Raleigh). II. Goo's TENDER ll4EROY 18 OVER ALL HIS CHILDREN. It is an argument from the less to the greater which is suggested. We see it and feel its force at once when we apply the argument in our common home relations. If the house-mother tends so carefully the canary bird in the cage, how much more will she tend carefully and lovingly the child in the cradle I If we are of more value than many sparrows, we may have the fullest confidence that God's dealings with us fit to our value.-R. T. Ver. 32.-He that knows Christ will confess him. In these days there are many among us who are, at heart, disciples of the Lord Jesus, but who shrink from confessing him before men. Their character and conduct have been long watched by those about them, and the signs of Divine change and renewal have been recognized. And yet they remain but "secret disciples.n Like one who is introduced to us by St. John, who chose the quiet night hour, when the city hum was stilled, and only a stray traveller passed along the street, and he could hope to be unrecognized. There are many who have to be classed with Nicodemus. Quiet, timid souls, half afraid of their own thoughts, they seek Jesus, as it were, by night. To such this text appeals. To confess Obrist would be the very thing to help them realize their condition. Confessing ought not to be e. difficult thing. No man need hesitate to acknowledge that he love11 the loveliest and serves the holiest.· •  442 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, [ou. xr. 1-30,